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Martin was abused when he was a child in provincial custody at the Youth Training Centre in Waterville; now he’s an adult in provincial jail and can’t get counselling

"People don't want to have to talk to the police about it, they don't want to go to court about it, they don't want to deal with that side of it. So a lot of people may not qualify for counselling because they don't want to tell their story. It stirs up stuff that they don't want to think about."

October 28, 2021 By El Jones 2 Comments

Names in this story have been changed for confidentiality. This article contains discussion of childhood sexual abuse. From the time I began working with incarcerated men in Nova Scotia, I heard stories about abuse at the “Youth Training Centre” for supposed young offenders in Waterville. In phone calls and letters, as we built trust together, […]

Filed Under: Black Nova Scotia, Featured, Health Tagged With: Ashley Smith, Black incarceration, El Jones, incarceration, Nova Scotia, Nova Scotia Youth Centre, prisons, sexual abuse, Stephen Kimber, trauma, Waterville

A prisoner on prisons: “Habeas Corpus in a Nutshell”

Dylan Gogan was incarcerated in terrible conditions, unable to access the most basic resources, but taught himself case law from scratch and changed how Nova Scotian prisons operate.

October 28, 2017 By El Jones 5 Comments

The Journal of Prisoners on Prisons released a special issue on October 19th. From the press release, This special issue, titled “Dialogue on Canada’s Federal Penitentiary System and the Need for Change,” features dozens of contributions written by criminalized women and men currently incarcerated in Correctional Service Canada (CSC) institutions. The writings document the counterproductive changes […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Ashley Smith, Breese Davies, Claire McNeil, Dylan Gogan, Dylan Roach, East Coast Prison Justice Society, El Jones, Habeas Corpus in a Nutshell, Hanna Garson, Journal of Prisoners on Prisons, Rachel Fayter, Sean Kelly, Sherry Payne, Solitary confinement

A Tale of Two Families: Morning File, Saturday, December 24, 2016

December 24, 2016 By El Jones 1 Comment

A Tale of Two Families 1. Punishment It’s been almost a decade since Ashley Smith’s death in prison. Every year, her sister tells me, she hangs a special ornament for Ashley in the centre of the Christmas tree “as we try to get through the holidays.” Many of us know Ashley’s story, and it may […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Ashley Smith, Ben Sichel, Christmas in prison, Corey Ward, Fritz Musser, Rebekah Friesen, transformative justice

PRICED OUT

A collage of various housing options in HRM, including co-ops, apartment buildings, shelters, and tents
PRICED OUT is the Examiner’s investigative reporting project focused on the housing crisis.

You can learn about the project, including how we’re asking readers to direct our reporting, our published articles, and what we’re working on, on the PRICED OUT homepage.

2020 mass murders

Nine images illustrating the locations, maps, and memorials of the mass shootings

All of the Halifax Examiner’s reporting on the mass murders of April 18/19, 2020, and recent articles on the Mass Casualty Commission and newly-released documents.

Updated regularly.

Uncover: Dead Wrong

In 1995, Brenda Way was brutally murdered behind a Dartmouth apartment building. In 1999, Glen Assoun was found guilty of the murder. He served 17 years in prison, but steadfastly maintained his innocence. In 2019, Glen Assoun was fully exonerated.

Halifax Examiner founder and investigative journalist Tim Bousquet has followed the story of Glen Assoun's wrongful conviction for over five years. Now, Bousquet tells that story as host of Season 7 of the CBC podcast series Uncover: Dead Wrong.

Click here to go to listen to the podcast, or search for CBC Uncover on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast aggregator.

The Tideline, with Tara Thorne

Two young white women, one with dark hair and one blonde, smile at the camera on a sunny spring day.

Episode 79 of The Tideline, with Tara Thorne, is published.

Grace McNutt and Linnea Swinimer are the Minute Women, two Haligonians who host a podcast of the same name about Canadian history as seen through a lens of Heritage Minutes (minutewomenpodcast.ca). In a lively celebration of the show’s second birthday, they stop by to reveal how curling brought them together in podcast — and now BFF — form, their favourite Minutes, that time they thought Jean Chretien was dead, and the impact their show has had. Plus music from brand-new ECMA winners Hillsburn and Zamani.

Listen to the episode here.

Check out some of the past episodes here.

Subscribe to the podcast to get episodes automatically downloaded to your device — there’s a great instructional article here. Email Suzanne for help.

You can reach Tara here.

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Recent posts

  • Halifax police board moving slowly on defunding report recommendations May 16, 2022
  • There’s no meaning in mass murder May 16, 2022
  • Tech issues bedevilled the RCMP response to the mass murders of 2020 May 16, 2022
  • Black Youth Development Mentorship Program gets word out to high school students May 16, 2022
  • The Bar Society’s governing council — ‘We’re supposed to be lawyers?’ May 16, 2022

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