News 1. Daily COVID-19 update (sans briefing) There hasn’t been a provincial COVID-19 briefing since Friday, but the province has continued to release numbers daily. The Cape Breton Spectator’s Mary Campbell has generously given the Examiner permission to republish info from her daily COVID-19 update. Here are yesterday’s numbers, from Campbell: Numbers Total new cases: 27 […]
What to do if you think you’re being stopped by a fake cop
Morning File, Monday, April 27, 2020
News 1. Northwood “The COVID-19-related deaths of seven more residents of the Northwood nursing home were announced over the weekend, bringing the total number of deaths from the disease at the facility to 18,” I reported yesterday: That’s three-quarters of all 24 COVID-19-related deaths in Nova Scotia. The disease may take a few days to […]
The “Did you survive” post-earthquake edition
Morning File, Monday, March 2, 2020
News 1. Kimber: Hugh MacKay and our I-know-nothing, see-nothing, do-nothing premier Last week I wondered why Hugh MacKay, already convicted of drunk driving in 2019, was only now being charged for allegedly driving drunk back in 2018. All I can say about what we’ve learned since then is: holy shit. In his new column, Stephen […]
Halifax keeping $200,000 police services review secret, citing ‘sensitive information’
Halifax is not publicly releasing a consultants’ report into police services in the municipality, citing “sensitive information” around the use of police resources, privacy, and security. Regional council voted in favour of a staff recommendation to accept the report and 26 of its 29 recommendations at its meeting on Tuesday. Most of the recommendations were...
New police chief Dan Kinsella holds a degree from WalMart U.
Morning File, Tuesday, May 14, 2019
News 1. Ramadan in jail “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,” writes El Jones: The last time he prayed with community was during Ramadan last year, and since then, his requests for spiritual services have been […]
We spent millions of dollars on the Argyle Street reconstruction project and forgot to put in washrooms and water fountains
Morning File, Friday, July 6, 2018
News 1. Cabinet shuffle This item is written by Joan Baxter. Nova Scotia’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is no more. Yesterday, Premier Stephen McNeil’s Liberal government renamed it the Department of Lands and Forestry (not, however, Lands and Forests, something lamented by the insightful Facebook page devoted to Nova Scotia’s “Woods and Water”). Timberlea-Prospect […]
I toured the Burnside jail, and then asked prisoners what they thought
On Tuesday morning, I attended the media tour of Burnside jail with Tim. Tim summarized the tour this way: This was a PR exercise on the part of Corrections, and as such things go, was well-run. Corrections staff were informative and answered even the most pointed questions. Reporters did not, however, get the chance to […]
I’ve been breached!
Morning File, Friday, April 27, 2018
1. Privacy “breach” I got the letter. I hadn’t checked my PO box for a few days, but yesterday I finally got the registered letter telling me my personal information was “breached” via the province’s Freedom of Information webpage screw-up. It was pouring down rain, like cats and dogs and goats and other small animals, […]
Nova Scotia is destroying its forests by chasing the biomass delusion: Morning File, Friday, February 23, 2018
News 1. Biomass “Guysborough County harvester Danny George is accusing the Department of Natural Resources of allowing old-growth hardwood to be cut and burned in Nova Scotia Power’s biomass boiler at Point Tupper,” reports Aaron Beswick for the Chronicle Herald. Beswick gets into the details of that charge, and it’s worth reading the whole article. […]
Adding Fuel to the Blais: The Meeting on Police Checks
When I went to the community meeting at the North Branch Library about police street checks, I wasn’t expecting much. I assumed Chief Jean-Michel Blais would say he was listening to the community, he understood our concerns, that they were implementing a number of recommendations — the usual PR type responses. Instead, speaking in the heart […]