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 […]
Nearly 84% of Nova Scotia public schools had elevated levels of lead in water
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 […]
Breaking down street barriers for people who are blind and partially sighted
Morning File, Monday, September 14, 2020
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 […]
Back to School: what are the risks?
Morning File, Tuesday, September 8, 2020
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 […]
The ABCs and Maybes of school reopening
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 […]
Nova Scotia cabinet round-up: Mandatory masks, open borders and more
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 […]
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.
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 […]
Parents press for back-to-school plan
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 […]
Cabinet roundup: Northwood review, mass shooting inquiry, schools, Liscombe Lodge, and Northern Pulp
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 […]
Caregivers stressed about return to work with no childcare
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 […]