Abdoul Abdi’s sister Fatuma once told me that the reason she and Abdoul do not speak Somali is because when they would speak to each other in their language, the workers would put them on time out and isolate them in their rooms, accusing them of plotting together to escape. It was like being in […]
Daddy’s in jail: men in prison talk about the struggles of maintaining a relationship with their children
I feel like a failure. Because I haven’t been able to break the cycle for my kids, which I intended to. C.’s second child was born when he was already behind bars. He struggled to find legal representation, and his case faced setbacks and delays. In the years he has waited for his case to […]
“Losing our fucking minds”
Sean Kelly, the head of the province's jails, says the jails are getting better at following the rules about solitary confinement. But we talked to prisoners, and they say nothing has changed.
This week, the auditor general’s office released a review of “close confinement” practices in Nova Scotia jails. The report found that the rules about segregating prisoners are frequently not being followed and that documentation is not being kept. The findings show that prisoners in segregation are not being given showers or getting the required exercise […]
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 […]
Which crazy religion is Halifax Mayor Mike Savage promoting this week?
Morning File, Monday, May 7, 2018
News 1. The offshore will make everyone rich Writes Stephen Kimber: “Many international companies believe we have resources off our coast that we have not tapped into,” says Premier Stephen McNeil, “and we want the ability to do so.” Forget the reality. And damn the consequences. Click here to read “Politicians’ snake oil hopes and dreams […]
Canada’s prisons: despair, hopelessness, and institutional racism
On May 2, four members of the Senate Committee on Human Rights released a statement about the human rights of prisoners in the Atlantic region. The senators visited all the federal penitentiaries in the region. They also visited the East Coast Forensic Centre: Tona, a patient there, described the differences between her 10 years in […]
Evidently, it’s elementary, they want us all gone eventually
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. People keep telling me I look exhausted, and I thought, after the trial, I’ll take some time off. Nas’ song “If I Ruled the World” was repeating in my head. “We’ll walk right up to the sun, hand in hand.” Things seemed to be going well, for once. […]
The politics of resentment at Province House
Morning File, Thursday, April 19, 2018
News 1. Audits “The municipality has failed to completely implement more than half of the recommendations made by its auditor general between 2014 and 2016, and it’s unclear what percentage of the recommendations made before that were implemented,” reports Zane Woodford for StarMetro Halifax: Auditor general Evangeline Colman-Sadd presented a report to regional council’s Audit […]
The Randy Riley trial: how news media are falling down on the job
Dropping coverage of a court trial mid-trial is a disservice both for readers and for justice.
Last Tuesday, there was dramatic moment in Supreme Court, worthy of its own Law & Order episode. In the course of its prosecution of Randy Riley for the 2010 murder of Chad Smith, the crown called its witness Nathan Johnson. Johnson took the stand and — bam! — said that he, and he alone, killed […]
White-washing the Boer War
In 1901, Lord Alfred Milner was "lamenting" the "fact that the death rate among young children in the [Boer War concentration] camps was still not dropping. 'The theory that, all the weakly children being dead, the rate would fall off is not so far borne out by the facts,' Milner wrote. 'The strong ones must be dying now and they will all be dead by the spring of 1903.'" On October 14, 1901 the cornerstone for the Boer War monument was laid at Province House.
Yesterday, Tim wrote an item about the monument to the Boer War on the grounds of Province House: I don’t care about the parking one way or the other, but can we discuss that damn Boer War monument? [Jean] Laroche goes on to interview Joe Ballard, president of the Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia, who says […]
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