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An independent, adversarial news site in Halifax, NS

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Nova Scotia education minister downplays significance of lead in most schools’ water

October 1, 2020 By Zane Woodford 6 Comments

Nova Scotia’s education minister is downplaying the importance of thousands of failed tests for lead in water in hundreds of schools across the province, without putting forward any kind of action plan or clear timeline to fix the problem. Education and Early Childhood Education Minister Zach Churchill spoke to reporters following a cabinet meeting on […]

Filed Under: Education, Featured, News, Province House Tagged With: Brad Johns, Education Minister Zach Churchill, Health Minister Randy Delorey, lead in drinking water, NDP leader Gary Burrill, Paul Wozney, Premier Stephen McNeil

Nearly 84% of Nova Scotia public schools had elevated levels of lead in water

October 1, 2020 By Zane Woodford 4 Comments

Nearly 84% of Nova Scotia public schools had elevated levels of lead in water flowing from at least one tap in the past year, according to a Halifax Examiner analysis of testing data released by the provincial government on Wednesday. The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development posted the results of tests of drinking […]

Filed Under: Education, Featured, News, Province House Tagged With: Education Minister Zach Churchill, lead in drinking water, school drinking water dataset

Breaking down street barriers for people who are blind and partially sighted

Morning File, Monday, September 14, 2020

September 14, 2020 By Suzanne Rent 4 Comments

News 1. QAnon knows no borders Joan Baxter reports on QAnon, a global movement that promotes conspiracy theories, which has followers here in Nova Scotia. QAnon only started a few years ago with one post on the 4chan internet channel. Baxter took a look around to check out some of the post QAnon and its […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: automated pedestrian signals (APS), Brandi Shaw, COVID-19, Education Minister Zach Churchill, gender reveal parties, Graham Driscoll, Jean Laroche, Jenna Karvunidis, Laurie Graham, Michael Gorman, Milena Khazanavicius, Minister Chuck Porter, Nova Scotia Liberal Party, Nova Scotia Power (NSP), partially sighted, pedestrian push buttons, pedestrian safety, people who are blind, QAnon, Rene Ross, Suzanne Humphries, Unmask Our Children, Walk and Roll, Yarmouth

Back to School: what are the risks?

Morning File, Tuesday, September 8, 2020

September 8, 2020 By Tim Bousquet 2 Comments

News 1. Back to School School starts in Nova Scotia today, and everyone is understandably anxious. Over the weekend, the Department of Health announced that a new case of COVID-19 was discovered in Nova Scotia Health’s Central Zone, which is mostly HRM. That new case is still under investigation by Public Health, so we don’t […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Back to school, Barbara Darby and Airbnb, COVID-19, development Tower Road, Dr. Robert Strang, Education Minister Zach Churchill, heritage property, living wage, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), Premier Stephen McNeil, Public Health, school nurses, Stephen Archibald and Queen's Marque

The ABCs and Maybes of school reopening

August 10, 2020 By Jennifer Henderson 3 Comments

The Halifax Examiner is providing all COVID-19 coverage for free. Some sense of normalcy.  That’s what most children, parents, and teachers yearn for — a better learning environment than what was cobbled together when COVID-19 erupted this winter.  Top paediatricians and child psychologists at the Toronto Sick Kids Hospital and IWK agree that kids need […]

Filed Under: Featured, News, Province House Tagged With: Back to School plan, Brendan Elliott, contact tracing, coronavirus, COVID-19, Dr. Theresa Tam, Education Minister Zach Churchill, Heather Fairbairn, masks, Nova Scotia Teachers Union (NSTU), pandemic, Paul Wozny, Public Health, school reopening

Nova Scotia cabinet round-up: Mandatory masks, open borders and more

July 31, 2020 By Jennifer Henderson 2 Comments

Premier Stephen McNeil’s cabinet met Thursday and took questions from reporters afterward. Here’s what they talked about: Masks mandatory as of today Health Minister Randy Delorey was asked how his department intends to enforce a new policy requiring most adults and children over age 2 to wear a non-medical mask when they are inside public […]

Filed Under: Featured, News, Province House Tagged With: Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (AGNS), Brian Flinn, Business Minister Geoff MacLellan, coronavirus, COVID-19, COVID-19 and public schools, COVID-19 waiver, Dr. Robert Strang, Education Minister Zach Churchill, Health Minister Randy Delorey, Justice Minister Mark Furey, masks, mass shooting inquiry, Minister Bill Blair, Minister Labi Kousoulis, Minister Leo Glavine, pandemic, Premier Stephen McNeil, school reopening, St. Francis Xavier University (StFX), Tourism, Transportation Minister Lloyd Hines, Yarmouth ferry cancellation, Yarmouth ferry costs

Churchill: our schools will open 100 per cent… unless they don’t

It's easy to understand why the government's school-opening plan is still more hope than certainty. What's less easy to understand — or forgive — is its business-as-usual secrecy, which has created unnecessary anxiety among students, parents, teachers and business.

July 19, 2020 By Stephen Kimber 6 Comments

The Halifax Examiner is providing all COVID-19 coverage for free. It’s hard not to sympathize with those charged with deciding whether and how to re-start the province’s public schools. There are the many known unknowns, of course, but there are also too many unknown unknowns, not to mention — or forget — all the unthinkable […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Education, Featured, Province House Tagged With: COVID-19 and public schools, Education Minister Zach Churchill, Government secrecy

Parents press for back-to-school plan

July 14, 2020 By Yvette d'Entremont Leave a Comment

The Halifax Examiner is providing all COVID-19 coverage for free. More than 100 parents from across the province have penned an open letter to Premier Stephen McNeil highlighting what they call a “failure to put children and their right to education” at the centre of Nova Scotia’s pandemic response.  The group, Parents for a Pandemic […]

Filed Under: Education, Featured, News, Province House Tagged With: ADHD, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), coronavirus, COVID-19, Derek Simon, education, Education Minister Zach Churchill, Erica Baker, online learning, pandemic, Parents for a Pandemic Education Plan, Premier Stephen McNeil, remote learning, school reopening

Cabinet roundup: Northwood review, mass shooting inquiry, schools, Liscombe Lodge, and Northern Pulp

July 3, 2020 By Jennifer Henderson Leave a Comment

Jennifer Henderson attended the virtual post-cabinet meeting scrum Thursday, when government ministers take questions from reporters. Northwood Review: The premier and Health minister faced questions around the government’s choice to release only the recommendations and not the findings from a two-person review panel appointed to look into practices at Northwood’s Halifax facility, where 53 people […]

Filed Under: Featured, News, Province House Tagged With: Business Minister Geoff MacLellan, coronavirus, COVID-19, Dr. Chris Lata, Education Minister Zach Churchill, Health Minister Randy Delorey, Hearthstone Hospitality, inquiry, Justice Minister Mark Furey, Liscombe Lodge, Lynn Stevenson, mass shooting murder Portapique, Northern pulp creditor protection, Northwood class action lawsuit, Northwood review, pandemic, Paper Excellence Canada, Premier Stephen McNeil, school reopening

Caregivers stressed about return to work with no childcare

June 4, 2020 By Yvette d'Entremont Leave a Comment

The Halifax Examiner is providing all COVID-19 coverage for free. Parents and caregivers struggling with a lack of childcare options as the economy reopens tomorrow have started sharing their stories via an online form set up by the Nova Scotia NDP. While services like salons, barber shops, spas, gyms and dine-in restaurants shut down since […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: child care, coronavirus, COVID-19, easing restrictions, Education Minister Zach Churchill, Laura Fisher, Licensed Child Care, NDP leader Gary Burrill, pandemic

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The Tideline, with Tara Thorne

Brian Borcherdt. Photo: Anna Edwards-Borcherdt

Brian Borcherdt came of age in Yarmouth in the 1990s. When he arrived in Halifax, the city’s famous music scene was already waning, and worse, the music he made was rejected by the cool kids anyway. After decades away from Nova Scotia, he and his young family have settled in the Annapolis Valley, where he’ll zoom in to chat with Tara about his band Holy Fuck’s endlessly delayed tour, creating the Dependent Music collective, and the freedom and excitement of the improvised music he’s making now. Plus: Bringing events back in 2021.

The Tideline is advertising-free and subscriber-supported. It’s also a very good deal at just $5 a month. Click here to support 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

  • 1 new case of COVID-19 announced in Nova Scotia on Tuesday, Jan. 26 January 26, 2021
  • Looking for Eliza in Nova Scotia’s poor house cemeteries January 26, 2021
  • Two and a half years later, Nova Scotia Power still hasn’t revealed the “root cause” of the Tufts Cove oil spill January 26, 2021
  • Tragedy in the Valley: woman dies while sleeping in car, man is brain-damaged January 25, 2021
  • A man gets a roof as Halifax quibbles with group’s band-aid solution to homelessness January 25, 2021

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