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Time for a serious rethink of the Serious Incident Response Team?

A mentally disturbed man holding a pellet gun is shot and killed by police who mistook it for a handgun. The officer who killed him fired when the man pointed his fake gun at police after another officer had fired a rubber bullet at him and missed... There must be better ways to handle these cases. Just don't ask SIRT to suggest those ways.

March 14, 2021 By Stephen Kimber 6 Comments

On July 9, 2020, the RCMP responded to a “call of an armed man who was uttering threats” at a home where he lived with his mother in Eastern Passage. “When police arrived,” the Mounties said in a news release after the incident, “they located the man, a 60-year-old from Eastern Passage, armed with a […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Featured Tagged With: Felix Cacchione, justice, mass killing Nova Scotia, Santina Rao, SIRT

How the Justice Department is attempting to whitewash the wrongful conviction of Glen Assoun

Morning File, Friday, October 30, 2020

October 30, 2020 By Tim Bousquet 5 Comments

News 1. New council “The new regional council was sworn in at a socially distanced ceremony at the Halifax Convention Centre Thursday night, ushering in a more diverse era of municipal politics in the city,” reports Zane Woodford: There were fewer than 100 people at the event in the big ballroom at the convention centre […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: affordable housing, Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC), Felix Cacchione, Glen Assoun wrongful conviction, IIC Director Ron MacDonald, Independent Investigations Office (IIC), Justice Minister Mark Furey, Ken Bradley, Michael McGray, Minister Chuck Porter, Premier Stephen McNeil, RAPID database, REIT, renoviction, rent subsidies, Robin Hartrick, Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT), Violent Crime Linkage Analysis System (ViCLAS)

Nova Scotia premier asks for criminal investigation of police in wrongful conviction case

September 17, 2020 By Tim Bousquet 4 Comments

Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil wants police acts in the Glen Assoun wrongful conviction case referred to the Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT) for a possible criminal investigation. SIRT is the province’s independent police oversight body; its mandate is “to investigate all matters that involve death, serious injury, sexual assault and domestic violence or other […]

Filed Under: Featured, Investigation, News, Policing, Province House Tagged With: Felix Cacchione, Glen Assoun wrongful conviction, Halifax Regional Police (HRP), Innocence Canada, Jerome Kennedy, Justice James Chipman, Justice Minister David Lametti, Premier Stephen McNeil, RCMP, Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT), Violent Crime Linkage Analysis System (ViCLAS)

Family of Eastern Passage man shot dead by police says he was holding a pellet gun

July 13, 2020 By Zane Woodford 1 Comment

The family of Richard Kenneth Wheeler, the 60-year-old man shot to death by the RCMP in Eastern Passage last week, is pushing back against the police narrative of the killing — saying he was holding a pellet gun and it wasn’t pointed at officers. Wheeler’s obituary, posted Sunday, said he “loved being with his friends […]

Filed Under: Featured, News Tagged With: Felix Cacchione, RCMP Cpl. Jennifer Clarke, RCMP shooting Eastern Passage, Richard Kenneth Wheeler, Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT)

Raped twice by the same cop

The Serious Incident Response Team is tasked with investigating police, but it has no written policies for preserving rape kit evidence and its investigators have no specialized training in dealing with victims of sexual assault.

June 13, 2019 By Maggie Rahr 3 Comments

Elizabeth had no expectations when she opened her email on a Monday morning in early February. But the words she read in the message received at 9:05am struck fear through her. As she stared at the screen, disbelief escalated into panic. “To date I have not heard back from you. After discussions with our Director, […]

Filed Under: Featured, Investigation Tagged With: Avalon Sexual Assault Centre, Benjamin Perryman, Felix Cacchione, Halifax Regional Police (HRP), Jackie Stevens, Justice Minister Mark Furey, Keith Stothart, Philadelphia Model, rape, rape kits, Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT), Sexual Assault Investigative Team, Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE), sexual violence, Sunny Marriner

Liberals refuse to allow opposition parties to question bureaucrats responsible for the privacy breach

Morning File, Thursday, April 26, 2018

April 26, 2018 By Tim Bousquet 10 Comments

1. Dirty Dealing, Part 4 Reports Linda Pannozzo: Nova Scotia Lands, a provincial crown corporation charged with cleaning up Boat Harbour, played a role in silencing two Dalhousie University researchers whose work studied air pollution coming from the Northern Pulp mill, the Halifax Examiner has learned. The two researchers, Emma Hoffman and Tony Walker, were the […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Barrington Street bridge ramp, Dirty Dealing Part 4, Emma Hoffman, Erica Butler, Felix Cacchione, Government prevents questioning about the "privacy breach", Jean Laroche, Linda Pannozzo, Michael Gorman, Michael Tutton, MLA Ben Jessome, MLA Brendan Maguire, MLA Gordon Wilson, MLA Hugh MacKay, MLA Suzanne Lohnes-Croft, MLA Tim Houston, Tony Walker

PRICED OUT

A collage of various housing options in HRM, including co-ops, apartment buildings, shelters, and tents
PRICED OUT is the Examiner’s investigative reporting project focused on the housing crisis.

You can learn about the project, including how we’re asking readers to direct our reporting, our published articles, and what we’re working on, on the PRICED OUT homepage.

2020 mass murders

Nine images illustrating the locations, maps, and memorials of the mass shootings

All of the Halifax Examiner’s reporting on the mass murders of April 18/19, 2020, and recent articles on the Mass Casualty Commission and newly-released documents.

Updated regularly.

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.

The Tideline, with Tara Thorne

A young white woman with dark hair and a purple shirt lies on a large rock at dusk, looking up at the sky and playing her banjolele.

Episode 85 of The Tideline, with Tara Thorne, is published.

Logan Robins (writer/director/composer) and Katherine Norris (star/composer) of the Unnatural Disaster Theatre Company are on the show this week ahead of their provincial tour of HIPPOPOSTUMOUS, Robins’ musical exploration of invasive species, colonization, environmentalism, and history. Hear how Pablo Escobar’s personal hippos have invaded and are ruining a section of Colombia, why Robins was intrigued to make a show about it, and all the places you can catch it this July. Plus Norris cracks out the banjolele to perform one of the show’s songs. And the new jam from Beauts!

Listen to the episode here.

Check out some of the past episodes here.

Subscribe to the podcast to get episodes automatically downloaded to your device — there’s a great instructional article here. Email Suzanne for help.

You can reach Tara here.

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Recent posts

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  • Group wants heritage designation for house of Nova Scotia’s first Black doctor June 28, 2022
  • Letter to RCMP Commissioner Lucki rebuked her for trying to influence messaging after mass murders June 28, 2022

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