News 1. Partners for Care closes up shops Jennifer Henderson reports for the Halifax Examiner: Partners for Care, the non-profit group which ran half a dozen gift shops at the QE2 Health Sciences Centre for 25 years, abruptly closed the doors at its remaining four locations Tuesday. A charity without charitable activities to operate raises […]
Enhancing the tourist experience by putting parking on protected land
Morning File, Tuesday, December 24, 2019
It’s Christmas Eve and I have no idea if anybody is reading or not. If you’re here, enjoy the Morning File. I usually work only minimally between Christmas and New Year’s, and I hope you get some time off too. News 1. Christmas in prison A prisoner we are calling JC offers a moving piece […]
Euphemism watch: Jails are now “prisoner care facilities”
Morning File, Tuesday, December 3, 2019
News 1. Health care funding Canadian premiers met Monday and issued a call for a 5.2% annual bump in the Canada Health Transfer, among other demands. Andrea Gunn reported on the meeting for the Chronicle Herald: Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil said he wasn’t sure whether a 5.2 per cent increase would be sufficient to […]
A bad day for people on bikes
Morning File, Thursday, July 25, 2019
News 1. Two collisions send two cyclists to hospital A pick-up truck driver who hit a cyclist on Waverley Road Wednesday morning has been charged with “Vehicle Passing a Bicycle while Travelling on Right When There is Less than 1 Metre between the Vehicle and Cyclist” according to the RCMP. The cyclist was taken to […]
Misconduct, prejudice, laments and lies
Morning File, Monday, July 15, 2019
News 1. Halifax police, RCMP, and Crown misconduct Tim dives into the court documents released Friday regarding the Glen Assoun wrongful conviction and finds two sets of police misconduct. The first set of misconduct was when Halifax police working on the investigation into the Way murder improperly threatened and cajoled witnesses to provide false testimony […]
Hopelessness and drug abuse go hand-in-hand in rural North America
Morning File, Monday, January 21, 2019
This is Tim again; I’m back in the Morning File saddle. I’d very much like to thank Joan Baxter, Philip Moscovitch, and Erica Butler for filling in for me last week. I enjoy the fresh voices and perspectives, and they bring attention to issues that I lack the skill to properly address or that have […]
The Burnside powder keg: Broken promises, dehumanizing body scans, unfair solitary confinement, non-working toilets, lockdowns, and more
"We have 40 guys living together in the same room, without any physical equipment, no physical outlets. It’s very hard, and it’s gonna lead to violence."
The Halifax Examiner is covering the prisoner protest at the Burnside jail: • The statement released by the prisoners can be read here. • An interview with Jason MacLean, NSGEU President and correctional officer is here. • A prisoner account about the staffing shortage, the lockdown, and the problems with the change to a direct supervision […]
Don’t Smile Be Happy
Morning File, Monday, May 14, 2018
News 1. From who me to #metoo Writes Stephen Kimber: In which Stephen McNeil continues to be Stephen McNeil, dismissing calls to apologize to a young man for the province’s own security failure. But there is also some small hint of change in the #metoo air. We take our good news where we find it. Click […]
Now there’s a reason to go to the community mailbox: Morning File, Wednesday, October 11, 2017
News 1. Women in prison “The number of women in federal prisons has jumped significantly in Canada in the last decade, and advocates say that’s evidence of what happens when community support programs are cut,” reports David Burke for the CBC: There are 37 per cent more women behind bars than there were 10 years ago, according […]
Lily the duck toller and Cooper the mutt: a love story. Morning File, Tuesday, August 1, 2017
News 1. Burnside Connector I’ve been opposed to the Burnside–Sackville Connector from the start. As I wrote in April: Yes, traffic in Burnside is horrible. The place was badly designed from the get-go, and none of the repeated expansions of the business park came with sensible improvements in transportation systems. But adding more highways into the […]