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Prisoners, acting mostly on their own, are changing the legal landscape of Nova Scotia’s jails

August 7, 2020 By Tim Bousquet 1 Comment

Today, Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Kevin Coady published a decision, saying that the way two prisoners at the Burnside Jail are being held in solitary confinement is unfair, and he wants the jail administrators to address the situation, and if they don’t within 14 days, he wants to see the prisoners in court, potentially […]

Filed Under: Featured, News Tagged With: Andre Gray, Burnside jail, Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility, Claire McNeil, Dylan Gogan, Dylan Roach, East Coast Prison Justice Society (ECPJS), El Jones, habeas corpus applications, Hanna Garson, Justice Elizabeth Van den Eynden, Justice Gerald Moir, Justice Kevin Coady, Justice Peter P. Rosinski, lockdown, Maurice Pratt, Rae’heem Downey, Richard Verge, segregation in prisons, Solitary confinement

A case of gangrene raises health concerns at the East Coast Forensic Hospital

December 16, 2019 By El Jones 4 Comments

People in the mental health community who are close to family members of a 45-year-old man are speaking out after the man was admitted to hospital with gangrene in his stomach. The patient, who lives with schizophrenia, has been in and out of the East Coast Forensic Hospital for the past 20 years. Family members […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, News, Province House Tagged With: Burnside jail, East Coast Forensic Hospital (ECFH), East Coast Prison Justice Society, gangrene, Greg Hiles, Martha Paynter, Sheila Hiles, Women's Wellness Within

Ramadan in jail: prisoners in Burnside are being denied the right to practice their religion

May 13, 2019 By El Jones Leave a Comment

Malik is calling from the jail asking for the numbers of any Muslims he can contact just to talk to, maybe hear some Quran from. The last time he prayed with community was during Ramadan last year, and since then, his requests for spiritual services have been denied. Last year, Muslim prisoners at Burnside (Central […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Featured Tagged With: Asaf Rashid, Aya Al-Hakim, Burnside jail, Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility, Hanna Garson, Idil Abdillahi, Ramadan, Rana Zaman

Fixing freedom of information in NS (and jails), pulp mill politics, and plastics – all that, and more.

Morning File, Wednesday, January 16, 2019

January 16, 2019 By Joan Baxter 7 Comments

I’m Joan Baxter, filling in for Tim today. News 1. Freedom of Information in Nova Scotia – the failure and the fix As Tim wrote, yesterday Nova Scotia privacy commissioner Catherine Tully and auditor general Michael Pickup released their reports on the FOIPOP website security failure. Both painted damning pictures of how the government handled […]

Filed Under: City Hall, Commentary, Environment, Featured, News, Province House Tagged With: Auditor General Michael Pickup, Boat Harbour, Boat Harbour Act, Burnside jail, corporate welfare, forestry, Freedom of Information (FOI) website security failure, Information and Privacy Commissioner Catherine Tully, Lahey report, Minister Derek Mombourquette, Northern Pulp, NS Department of Energy and Mines, Pictou Landing First Nation, plastic bags, Premier Stephen McNeil, Public Accounts

Nova Scotia needs a JAIL hotline

January 15, 2019 By Martha Paynter Leave a Comment

Martha Paynter is a nurse, nursing PhD student, and director of Women’s Wellness Within. For one month, prisoners at the Ottawa Carleton Detention Centre (OCDC) have had access to a phone hotline a few hours a day to report concerns and receive support from volunteers. This is the jail where Julie Bilotta was forced to […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, Province House Tagged With: Burnside jail, Jail Accountability and Information Line (JAIL), Josh Evans, Julie Bilotta, Minister of Justice Mark Furey, Office of the Correctional Investigator, Office of the Ombudsperson, Ottawa Carleton Detention Centre (OCDC)

Prisoners in Burnside respond to the clemency decision for Cyntoia Brown

January 13, 2019 By El Jones 3 Comments

The following is a statement issued by prisoners in the Burnside jail. We, the prisoners of Burnside, stand with all oppressed people over the world. These tyrannical times are hard on those who fight for freedom. We realize that some of these battles against criminal systems of injustice have been going on since the beginning of […]

Filed Under: Featured, Province House Tagged With: Burnside jail, Cyntoia Brown

Medjuck v. Medjuck: Harold says his brother Ralph, one of Nova Scotia’s most powerful property developers, ripped him off for decades

Morning File, Friday, December 21, 2018

December 21, 2018 By Tim Bousquet 3 Comments

News 1. Bike projects Erica Butler has Part 2 of her update on bike projects. In Part 2, she discusses the Brunswick Street/Spring Garden Road, Forest Hills Parkway, Macdonald Bridge, Bedford Highway, Vernon Street, and Oak/Allen bike projects. Click here to read “Update on ongoing bike projects, Part 2.” This article is for subscribers. Click here […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Barbara Darby and Santa, Blair Rhodes, Burnside jail, habeas corpus applications, harassing smokers, Harold L. Medjuck, Hedda Medjuck, hospital smoking areas, Justice Peter Rosinski, Medjuck v Medjuck, Nova Scotia Health Authority, Ralph M. Medjuck, Smoking ban, Stephen Archibald and candlesticks, vendor disclosure statements, wrongful convictions

Three months after jail protest, conditions are “worse than ever,” say Burnside prisoners

"Nobody will help us...In some ways the silence is worse than the violence."

December 20, 2018 By El Jones Leave a Comment

Prisoners in the Burnside jail say that conditions are “worse than ever” since the peaceful protest that ended September 9. They are calling for independent oversight of the provincial prisons and an external review of conditions, legal aid funding for adequate representation for habeas applications, and intervention by the Human Rights Commission. They describe a […]

Filed Under: Featured, News, Province House Tagged With: Burnside jail, Burnside jail conditions, Burnside Jail lockdown, David Tanner, El Jones, Human Rights Commission

There are a lot of ugly buildings in Halifax

Morning File, Wednesday, December 12, 2018

December 12, 2018 By Tim Bousquet 17 Comments

News 1. Habeas Corpus Five prisoners at the Burnside jail filed more habeas corpus applications last week, claiming that they were inappropriately kept in lockdown for up to four days. As has become typical, by the time the habeas applications could make their way to a court hearing before a judge, four of the prisoners […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Auditor General Michael Pickup, Azmi Arnaout, Burnside jail, Burnside Jail lockdown, Canada Post injunction, councillor Steve Adams, David Tanner, Dunbrack Street development, Freedom of Information, George Armoyan, habeas corpus applications, Hospice Society, IWK Health Centre, James Hardiman, Joan Baxter, Justice John Bodurtha, Justice Joshua Arnold, Link Performing Arts Centre, Matt Fitzgerald, Michael Gorman, Michael Paglia, NS Department of Energy and Mines, Patrick Sisson, property taxes, Shannon Kerr, Stephen Archibald and Petit Paris, YMCA funding

Six public policy failures in one morning news recap

Morning File, Wednesday, November 14, 2018

November 14, 2018 By Tim Bousquet 14 Comments

November subscription drive Sorry to pester you again, but just a short note to say we’re in the middle of our annual subscription drive. The Halifax Examiner needs your money to make this work possible. Please subscribe. Subscription party details: Reserve Sunday, November 25 on your calendars. We have Bearly’s Tavern, 1269 Barrington Street, 4-7pm. The […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Aaron Beswick, Angela MacIvor, Brian Mersereau, Burnside jail, Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility, Clayton Cromwell, Costas Halavrezos, Councillor Tim Outhit, David Pugliese, Elmvale Strategies, Hill + Knowlton, Jean-Francois Guillot, Linden MacIntyre, lobbying, Mary Campbell, Naresh Raghubeer, Northern Pulp, old library, OpenHydro, Paul Withers, Scotian Basin Exploration Drilling Project, shipbuilding contract, subscription party 2018, Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, Zane Woodford

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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.

Please subscribe to The Tideline.

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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