Since the widely publicized death of George Floyd at the hands of MPD officer Derek Chauvin (what some commentators have called a “televised lynching”), calls for police accountability and even abolition have been growing, with protestors taking to the street in cities across North America, including Halifax. These calls are beginning to be heard and […]
Halifax cops and Black people: the Rodney Small case
Morning File, Thursday, June 4, 2020
News 1. Police and Black people in Halifax The police murder of George Floyd is highlighting what Black people have known forever: there is too much policing. On Tuesday, Sarah Dobson drew our attention to the Halifax case of Rodney Small, then a 15-year-old living in Uniacke Square. An appellant court ruling explained the (alleged) […]
One day in the streets doesn’t stop injustice, but it does show how Black lives matter
I’m standing in front of the Black Lives Matter banner at the protest for Regis on Saturday when my phone starts ringing insistently. It’s the jail. I walk away from the crowd and answer. A young Black man is calling from segregation at Burnside. Along with other prisoners, he filed a habeas application challenging their […]
We face a public health emergency, and criminalizing the marginalized can worsen the crisis
The Halifax Examiner is providing all COVID-19 coverage for free. Nova Scotia has just declared a State of Emergency. Measures taken include a ban on gatherings over five people, the ability of the police to fine individuals and businesses breaking social isolation, the ability of the police to enter property, and the seizure of vehicles […]
Passing the Torch or Torching the Past?
On the eve of African Heritage Month, Alexandre Bissonnette shot six people in a mosque. Two of the victims were Black, from Guinea, and all the men originated from Africa. Yet in the public discourse around the shootings, Blackness and anti-Black histories in Quebec were erased from the narrative. Public vigils invoked rhetoric of a […]