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Small dam, big controversy

How the contentious aboiteau at the Windsor Causeway could generate a national conversation about fish passage.

December 8, 2020 By Joan Baxter 8 Comments

The Mi’kmaq call the Avon River “Tooetunook,” which means “flowing square into the sea,” or more specifically, into the Minas Basin in the upper Bay of Fundy. Since 1970, when the Windsor causeway was constructed across the Avon, the river hasn’t exactly been able to “flow square” at all. That’s because the aboiteau — the […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News Tagged With: aboiteau, Acadian settlers, Annapolis Valley First Nation, Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs, Atlantic salmon, Avon River Causeway, Avon River Heritage Society, Bay of Fundy, Bernadette Jordan, Chief Gerald Toney, Dan Davis, Darren Porter, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, dyke, Ecology Action Centre, fish kills, Fisheries Act, Fisheries and Oceans Minister Bernadette Jordan, Friends of the Avon River, Gaspereau, herring, Innder Bay of Fundy salmon, Kwilmu’kw Maw-klusuaqn Negotiation Office (KMKNO), Lake Pisiquid, Lake Pisiquid Canoe Club, Mi'kmaq, Mi'kmaw Conservation Group, Minas Basin, ministerial order, moderate livelihood fishery, Nikki-Marie Lloyd, Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture, Nova Scotia Environment, Nova Scotia Power, Oceans North, Petitcodiac River, Pisiquid, Sheldon Hope, Sipekne'katik First Nation, Ski Martock, Sonja Elizabeth Wood, Species at Risk Act, St. Croix River, St. Mary's Bay, Susanna Fuller, Treaty Truckhouse, Victor Oulton, water keepers, Windsor, Windsor causeway

Accountability ain’t what it used to be

Perhaps it never was. But in these days of cascading crises, it's hard not to notice just who's missing in action, or acting without accountability, or playing games with their obligation to accountability.

October 25, 2020 By Stephen Kimber

ac·​count·​abil·​i·​ty | \ ə-ˌkau̇n-tə-ˈbi-lə-tē  \ Definition of accountability: the quality or state of being accountable, especially : an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one’s actions // public officials lacking accountability Merriam-Webster online dictionary Accountability. At 10:19pm Atlantic time last Friday night — after much of the business of the political media world had wrapped for the day,...

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Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: accountability, Bernadette Jordan, Nova Scotia legislature, Premier Stephen McNeil, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

Troubled waters

There is no excuse — period, full stop — for the violence and vandalism currently taking place in southwest Nova Scotia. That said, the crisis there — and the tangled, troubled history behind it — is far more complex, nuanced and slippery that any simple hashtag-RACISM tweet can ever capture.

October 18, 2020 By Stephen Kimber 6 Comments

There is no excuse — period, full stop — for the violence and vandalism currently taking place in southwest Nova Scotia. That said, the crisis there — and the tangled, troubled history behind it — is far more complex, nuanced and slippery than any simple hashtag-RACISM tweet can ever capture. Yes, ingrained, historic racism plays […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, News Tagged With: Bernadette Jordan, DFO, Indigenous fishers, moderate livelihood fishermen, Racism

The fishery of frustration

The real reason for the recent confrontations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous fishers is that Ottawa has failed abysmally for more than two decades to negotiate with First Nations to define what constitutes a moderate living.

September 27, 2020 By Stephen Kimber

Mi’kmaw fishermen were frustrated. On Sept. 17, 1999, the Supreme Court of Canada had reaffirmed rights established in peace and freedom treaties with the British more than 200 years before. Those treaties had guaranteed them the right to fish and hunt and pursue what the court called, without explaining, a “moderate livelihood.” Two months later,...

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Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, Subscribers only Tagged With: Bernadette Jordan, Indigenous fishers, lobster fishery, treaty rights

Feeling the sting of first-past-the-post

Morning File, Tuesday, October 22, 2019

October 22, 2019 By Erica Butler 3 Comments

News 1. Liberals win enough seats to form minority government With national voter turnout clocking in around 65.8% (it will adjust as those who registered on election day are counted) and Nova Scotia’s turnout slightly higher at 68.8%, Canadians re-elected 157 Liberal MPs, enough to form a minority government. In Nova Scotia, Liberals held on […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Alfred Aucoin, Bernadette Jordan, Brent Kelloway, electoral reform, flu shot, Halifax Transit quarterly report, housing in Cape Breton, influenza, International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Jaimie Battiste, Jodi Wilson Raybould, Kody Blois, Lenore Zann, Liberal minority government, MacDonald Bridge, Maxime Bernier, Mike Kelloway, Robert Strang, Wendy Martin

The Tideline, with Tara Thorne

Mo Kenney. Photo: Matt Williams

Episode #18 of The Tideline, with Tara Thorne is published.

Mo Kenney’s new record Covers is a perfect winter companion — songs from across the rock spectrum that she’s pared down to piano or guitar and turned them into sad ballads. She joins Tara to talk about choosing and arranging them, and opens up for a frank discussion of the alcohol dependency it took a pandemic for her to confront. Plus: Movies are back (again).

This episode is available today only for premium subscribers; to become a premium subscriber, click here, and join the select group of arts and entertainment supporters for just $5/month. Everyone else will have to wait until tomorrow to listen to it.

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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.

About the Halifax Examiner

Examiner folk The Halifax Examiner was founded by investigative reporter Tim Bousquet, and now includes a growing collection of writers, contributors, and staff. Left to right: Joan Baxter, Stephen Kimber, Linda Pannozzo, Erica Butler, Jennifer Henderson, Iris the Amazing, Tim Bousquet, Evelyn C. White, El Jones, Philip Moscovitch More about the Examiner.

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Recent posts

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  • The Halifax Examiner’s mass murder coverage February 28, 2021

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