News 1. Walmart incident “When a young black woman accused the Halifax police of racially profiling and abusing her in connection with an alleged shoplifting incident at Walmart last week, officials did what officials do,” writes Stephen Kimber. “They obfuscated, they passed the buck, they pretended to take it seriously.” Click here to read “Can […]
Halifax woman says she was racially profiled by Wal-Mart employees who wrongfully accused her of theft, then beaten by police
Santina Rao was at the Walmart at the Halifax Shopping Centre on Wednesday when she was accused of stealing by store staff, assaulted by the police, and arrested. Rao was shopping with her two young children, age 3 and 15 months. She paid for $90 worth of items in the electronics department. The cashier told […]
The collapse of legacy newspapers: don’t blame the internet; blame deregulation of finance and the corporate raiders of the 1980s and 1990s
Morning File, Monday, June 10, 2019
News 1. A loss for energy efficiency “EfficiencyOne has lost a battle with Nova Scotia Power to spend more of ratepayers’ money on energy conservation programs,” reports Jennifer Henderson: Today was supposed to be the day E1 made its case before the Utility and Review Board seeking a budgetary increase from $105 million to $129 […]
All-white Donner Prize jury shortlists book by white man defending blackface
Peter MacKinnon’s book, University Commons Divided: Exploring Debate and Dissent on Campus, has been shortlisted for the Donner Prize. The selection criteria for the prize identifies three areas of scrutiny: The importance of the subject; The soundness and originality of the analysis in terms of identifying and defining the issues in question and presenting authoritative analysis […]
“That Rude Girl”: organizing as a Black woman
This week, Jody Wilson-Raybould’s testimony about SNC-Lavalin dominated Canadian politics. My timeline is filled with articles praising her integrity, her courage, her honesty. And yet, only weeks ago, these same newspapers ran articles quoting colleagues calling her “difficult,” “not a team player,” “hard to work with” — in short, a bitch. In her testimony, Wilson-Raybould […]
Desmond Cole Reads the Local News
Desmond Cole is in Halifax this weekend, keynoting at the Media and the Law conference. At around midnight on Saturday after a long day, I sat down with Desmond and recorded his take on some of our local news stories. Here are the first two stories we spoke about. Some cuts have been made for […]
We Will Win
A week of collective activism for Abdoul Abdi shows how the community is brought together through struggle, joy, and love.
Prologue: December 4 & 5 Desmond Cole says to me, “these people underestimate us.” We are organizing to help Abdoul Abdi, who was brought to Canada from Somalia as a young boy, was taken into the care of the province and bounced between 31 different home placements, including three years of abuse. Through it all, […]
Lying children and the moral panic of Halloween: Morning File, Monday, October 30, 2017
News 1. Parking enforcement “Halifax’s contractor for parking enforcement will not have its contract renewed when it expires on Nov. 14.,” reports Emma Davie for the CBC: Nick Ritcey, spokesperson with the city, said G4S Secure Solutions will not be contracted again for parking enforcement and instead the services will be done in-house. “Municipal staff has determined that […]
Examineradio, episode #135: Desmond Cole street checks the police
Broadcaster, writer and activist Desmond Cole is the special guest on this episode, and oh boy, does he have a story to tell. Many people know him from his 2015 article in Toronto Life magazine where he talked about being carded by police and harassed for no reason other than being black. Others know him […]
Desmond Cole: my night with the Halifax PD
He says Halifax cops brutalized a woman, left another woman in a police wagon in the department parking lot, and came after him because he was black.
Desmond Cole popped into national consciousness in April 2015, when he published an opinion piece in Toronto Life magazine with the headline “The Skin I’m In: I’ve been interrogated by police more than 50 times — all because I’m black.” The article detailed how Cole has been followed, stopped, carded, and otherwise harassed by police, despite […]