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George Elliott Clarke, the murderer, and the murdered woman

At one level, “‘Truth and Reconciliation’ versus ‘the Murdered and Missing’" was intended to be a serious academic lecture by one of Canada's most esteemed poets and social justice truth speakers. Somehow it all went wrong.

January 12, 2020 By Stephen Kimber

I don’t know George Elliott Clarke well, but I have known him for a long time. Back in the mid-1980s, before he became what the Globe and Mail recently called “a celebrated Canadian poet,” he was a young wannabe writer earning his actual living as a field worker for the Black United Front, a black...

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Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, Subscribers only Tagged With: Bonnie Allen, George Elliott Clarke, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW), Pamela George, Steve Kummerfield, Woodrow Lloyd Lecture

Australian magpies have learned to sound like sirens

Morning File, Friday, January 3, 2020

January 3, 2020 By Erica Butler 5 Comments

News 1. George Elliott Clarke apologizes, but will go ahead with lecture Renowned poet George Elliott Clarke is at the centre of a controversy based out of the University of Regina in Saskatchewan, where he was slated to give the Woodrow Lloyd annual lecture, which he had titled, “‘Truth and Reconciliation’ versus ‘the Murdered and […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Australia bush fires, Australian magpies, Canadian traffic laws, councillor Richard Zurawski, diesel buses, electric buses, Francis Campbell, George Elliott Clarke, Halifax Transit, Humboldt truck driver, Jaskirat Sidhu, Kathryn Moore, Kelsey Lane, Pamela George, Parker Donham, pedestrian struck Cogswell Street, pedestrian struck North Park Street, Radheyan Simonpillai, Steven Kummerfield, Vision Zero

All-white Donner Prize jury shortlists book by white man defending blackface

April 7, 2019 By El Jones 3 Comments

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 […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Featured Tagged With: Black Liberation Collective, blackface, Cheryl Thompson, Dalhousie University, David A. Dodge, Desmond Cole, Donner Canadian Foundation, Donner Prize, Eric Lott, George Elliott Clarke, Helen McClean, Henry Parada, Jean-Marie Dufour, Ken Whyte, Lawrence Stordy, Peter MacKinnon, Peter Nicholson, Rinaldo Walcott, Sherry Naylor, white supremacist improv

“Racist, Full Stop.”

In his book, Interim Dalhousie President Peter MacKinnon downplays and excuses the wearing of blackface while mischaracterizing and sidelining those who object to it. But MacKinnon ignores the vast scholarship on blackface, so let's hear from the scholars.

January 26, 2019 By El Jones 2 Comments

INTRODUCTION On Monday afternoon, Dalhousie students protested the welcoming reception for incoming president Peter MacKinnon. As Tim noted on Tuesday, “The students are particularly riled over MacKinnon’s book, University Commons Divided: Exploring Debate & Dissent on Campus.” One of the serious issues students identified in their press release is MacKinnon’s declaration in the book that blackface […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Education, Featured Tagged With: Anthony Morgan, anti-Black racism, blackface, Brock University, Cheryl Thompson, Dalhousie University racism, Denise Balkissoon, Eric Lott, George Elliott Clarke, Jack Lightstone, Larry Stordy, McGill University, Peter MacKinnon, Philip S.S. Howard, Queen's University, Rachel Decoste, racist costumes, Rinaldo Walcott, Stephen Johnson, University of Toronto

Prisons, Refugees, Cats

August 5, 2018 By El Jones 3 Comments

1. Dorchester Penitentiary Martha Paynter was driving through New Brunswick this weekend and texted me that she saw a billboard for the Airbnb in the old Dorchester Jail.  Among the attractions listed on the website are that it was the site of the last double hanging in New Brunswick (more on that in a moment), […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Angus Reid poll, asylum seekers, bad and good cat names, Dorchester Jail Airbnb, El Jones, George Elliott Clarke, historical punishments in Canadian prisons, Martha Paynter, prison brutality, Robyn Maynard, Roger Caron, white opinions

Where The Emails Have No Names: Morning File, Saturday, December 16, 2017

December 16, 2017 By El Jones 13 Comments

News 1. Lucasville On Wednesday, Tim reported on the re-establishment of the boundaries of Lucasville, a historic community settled by Black Refugees. As noted in this CBC story: According to the report, the proposed boundary would mean about 500 homes would need to change their address from the community of Hammonds Plains to Lucasville. Those […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Catherine Campbell, councillor Lisa Blackburn, documented historical responses to Black settlement, El Jones, George Elliott Clarke, Harvey Amani Whitfield, Jacob Boon, Lucasville boundaries, racist emails, report on sexual violence on university campuses, Vicky Mochama, Waterstone Subdivision, white residents' backlash

Stand and Deliver: Morning File, Saturday, December 3, 2016

December 3, 2016 By El Jones 5 Comments

Before we get into local news coverage, Parliamentary Poet Laureate George Elliott Clarke has kindly made his poems available to the Halifax Examiner, which is the first media outlet to publish them. (See Clarke’s eulogy to Leonard Cohen here.) Translation into French has been graciously provided by Robert Paquin. An Elegy—Non-Partisan—for Fidel Castro Fidel, we […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Abby Norman, Fidel Castro, gender-based violence, George Elliott Clarke, Halifax Regional Police, Jacob Boon, John McCracken, live streamed, police domestic violence, racial violence in school, standoff, Waye Mason, We Day

Eternity Expires as Eyes Close: Morning File, Saturday, November 12, 2016

November 12, 2016 By El Jones 2 Comments

News 1. Deaths in Custody, Again. This week brought another death in custody in Nova Scotia. …Paul Dauphinee Jr. was found in unresponsive in his cell at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Dartmouth on Nov. 2. Dauphinee Sr. and family members made the heartbreaking decision to remove life support on Nov. 5, and […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility, Clayton Cromwell, Construction Battalion, Dannie Hanson, death in custody, Devin Maxwell, Erika Kulnys, Erin Wunker, Geordie Miller, George Elliott Clarke, Howard Sapers, Julia Wright, Kenny MacKay, Lenore Zann, Leonard Cohen, Matthew Hines, Michael McGuire, Paul Dauphinee Jr., Rhonda Britton, Rich Aucoin, Shannon Webb-Campbell, Sherene Razack, Vanessa Lent

Comma Who Is White Comma: Morning File, Saturday, October 1, 2016

October 1, 2016 By El Jones 3 Comments

1. Tim Bousquet discovers new day in the year According to the Morning File template, opened by contributor El Jones on Friday, September 30th, Tim Bousquet has discovered a new day of the year, September 31st. The Examiner wants to congratulate Mr. Bousquet on this exciting new contribution to horology. The new “leap September” will […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Amherst, Bousquet Yay! Kittay Day, commercialization, Daniel P. Sampson, Derek Bok, George Baker, George Elliott Clarke, George Tsimiklis Institute of Architecture, Graham Reynolds, Greg Marquis, hangings, Harvey Amani Whitfield, KKK, Klan, knuckle calendar, lynchings, New England Planters, Richard Florizone, Robert Devet, slavery, The Birth of a Nation, Timothy Jacques

Gorilla Warfare: Morning File, Saturday, August 27, 2016

August 27, 2016 By El Jones 3 Comments

1. Tylor McInnes and Doing Justice After the death of Tyler Richards, Tim wrote about some of the difficulties in reporting on death. I have been sitting beside people this week as their phones blew up with texts from reporters asking them if they wanted to comment on the death of Tylor McInnis, if they knew […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: ACLC, African Canadian Legal Clinic, Blair Rhodes, Duane Rhyno, Gail Dines, George Elliott Clarke, Gorilla Pimps, InvestNB, Jasper Wyman, Jean Maurice Landry, Jennifer James, John Bragg, Justice Michael Wood, Kyah Sparks, Lisa Prevost, Morning File, North Preston’s Finest, Northeast Wild Blueberry Growers Association, Oxford Frozen Foods, Phonse Jessome, systemic racism, Tyler Richards, Tylor McInnis

The Tideline, with Tara Thorne

Mo Kenney. Photo: Matt Williams

Episode #18 of The Tideline, with Tara Thorne is published.

Mo Kenney’s new record Covers is a perfect winter companion — songs from across the rock spectrum that she’s pared down to piano or guitar and turned them into sad ballads. She joins Tara to talk about choosing and arranging them, and opens up for a frank discussion of the alcohol dependency it took a pandemic for her to confront. Plus: Movies are back (again).

This episode is available today only for premium subscribers; to become a premium subscriber, click here, and join the select group of arts and entertainment supporters for just $5/month. Everyone else will have to wait until tomorrow to listen to it.

Please subscribe to 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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