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“A political act of opportunism”: Conservatives go hard right on gun laws

CPC leadership candidates cozy up to firearm rights advocates, who compare Bill C-71 to the internment of Japanese Canadians in World War 2.

June 17, 2020 By Joan Baxter 1 Comment

The venue is a virtual “town hall” meeting with leadership Conservative candidate Peter MacKay. It’s hosted by the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights (CCFR), which calls itself “Canada’s most effective and recognizable firearm rights organization,” and the “public relations experts in the firearms community.” MacKay, dressed for the occasion in a plaid shirt and dark […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: A.J. Somerset, Bill Blair, Bill C-71, Blaine Calkins, Blake Brown, Bob Zimmer, Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights, Canadian Shooting Sports Association, Charles Zach, Coalition for Gun Control, Conervative Party of Canada, Derek Sloan, Dr. Michael Ackermann, Ecole Polytechnique, Erin O'Toole, gun control, gun laws, Jean Chrétien, Jordan Vandenhoof, Leslyn Lewis, mass shooting, Michelle Rempel, National Firearms Association, national Rifle Association of America, Order-In-Council, Paul Martin, Peter MacKay, Philip Berger, Portapique, Rod Giltaca, Sheldon Clare, Stephen Harper, Tony Bernardo, Tracey Wilson, Wendy Cukier

The racist (and dumb) iconography of the anti-gun control zealots

Morning File, Monday, June 15, 2020

June 15, 2020 By Tim Bousquet 5 Comments

News 1. Black Lives Matter “We have been watching the Black Lives Matters protests and the conversations about police violence,” write a group of people in a federal prison. “We have been taking part in our own conversations with prisoners of all races. We would like to share some of our conversations and conclusions with […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: anti-gun control meme, Black Lives Matter, Doctors for Firearm Safety & Responsibility (DFSR), Evelyn White, gangbanger, gangster, gun control, Jason Stitt, Joe Bass Jr., Joe Logon, mass murder shooting spree, Michael Ackermann, pit bull, police violence, Portapique cemetery, Robyn van Nus, Senator Wanda Thomas Bernard, tank armoured vehicle

Pro-gun doctors’ group disbands amid accusations of racism

Doctors for Firearms Safety & Responsibility is no more.

June 14, 2020 By Joan Baxter 3 Comments

On June 8, the Halifax Examiner reported on the role of doctors in the debate over gun control in Canada. Quoted extensively in that article was Dr. Michael Ackermann, a family and emergency physician in Sherbrooke, Nova Scotia, who is national vice president of the Canadian Shooting Sports Association (CSSA), and co-founder of Doctors for […]

Filed Under: Featured, News Tagged With: Canadian Doctors for Protection from Guns, Doctors for Firearm Safety & Responsibility, Dr. Ken Reid, Dr. Michael Ackermann, gun control, meme, Queen's University, Racism, Semir Bulle, Western University

Bad bosses and cranky customers

Morning File, Tuesday, June 9, 2020

June 9, 2020 By Suzanne Rent 1 Comment

News 1. Report: Canadians plan to avoid restaurants ‘for the foreseeable future’ A recent survey shows 52% of its respondents will be avoiding dining in at restaurants for “the foreseeable future.” Yvette d’Entremont spoke with Sylvain Charlebois, a Dalhousie University professor and the lead author on the survey from Dalhousie University and Angus Reid. Says […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: accessibility, bad bosses, bad customers, call the manager, childcare, customer service, daycares, domestic violence, Easter Seals Nova Scotia, Equity Watch, Fight for $15, gun control, labour, Lisa Cameron, living wage, Miia Suokonautio, minimum wage, Nova Scotia League for Equal Opportunities, shopping carts, toxic workplaces, transition houses, women's issues, YWCA

Gunning for change: doctors in the gun control debate in Canada 

June 8, 2020 By Joan Baxter 3 Comments

When Dr. Rod Wilson first heard about the mass shooting that started in Portapique the night of April 18, and ended the next morning when police finally caught and shot the gunman in Enfield at the end of a 13-hour rampage through three counties in Nova Scotia, painful memories flooded in. “It took me back […]

Filed Under: Featured, News, Province House Tagged With: A.J. Somerset, Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights (CCFR), Canadian Doctors for Protection from Guns (CDPG), Canadian Shooting Sports Association (CSS, Christopher Holcroft, Conservative Party of Canada, Doctors for Firearm Safety and Responsibility (DFSR), Dr. Rod Wilson, Ecole Polytechnique, gun control, gun lobby, gun violence, Kirstin Weerdenburg, Michael Ackermann, Najma Ahmed, National Council of Women in Canada, National Firearms Association (NFA), Portapique mass shooting murder spree, Rod Giltaca, Stockwell Day

Opposition critics on the Advisory Council on the Status of Women call for an inquiry into mass murder, but McNeil government demurs

May 27, 2020 By Joan Baxter and Jennifer Henderson 1 Comment

A provincial public inquiry into the April mass shooting that resulted in the deaths of 22 people in Nova Scotia is “absolutely a must,” says Karla MacFarlane, Progressive Conservative MLA for Pictou West and critic for the Advisory Council on the Status of Women. In recent weeks, as more questions arise over how the RCMP […]

Filed Under: Featured, Province House Tagged With: Advisory Council on the Status of Women, Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights (CCFR), Councillor Michael Gregory, Councillor Tom Taggart, firearms ban, gun control, inquiry, mass shooting murder Portapique, Minister Kelly Regan, MLA Claudia Chender, MLA Karla MacFarlane, Peter MacKay, Premier Stephen McNeil, RCMP

“He was a psychopath”

A former resident of Portapique says she called the RCMP to tell them the future gunman assaulted his domestic partner and that he had illegal weapons. The police took no action.

May 12, 2020 By Joan Baxter 16 Comments

This article contains graphic descriptions of assault. “That son of a bitch is dead.” That was the first thing Boe thought when she heard on April 19 that the RCMP had killed a man who on gone on a murderous rampage across Nova Scotia, leaving 22 dead. The murder spree started in the village of […]

Filed Under: Featured, News Tagged With: Brenda Forbes, gun control, Jeanne Sarson, Linda MacDonald, mass murder shooting spree, Minister Bill Blair, Nova Scotia, Portapique, RCMP Serious Incident Response Team, red flag laws, Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT)

Welcome back, Peter

I’ve spent a good chunk of my columnist’s career mocking Peter MacKay without ever having spent time in his company. And then I did. He seemed generous, thoughtful, far more complex than I'd given him credit for. But then he got back into politics. And became 'that' Peter MacKay again.

May 10, 2020 By Stephen Kimber

Is it the person or the persona? The person or the party? The campaign or the campaigner? Does it really even matter? I’ve spent a good chunk of my columnist’s career mocking Peter MacKay without ever actually having spent time in his company. MacKay was always just a dependable target, a talking contradiction, inevitably doing...

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Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, Subscribers only Tagged With: Alexa McDonough, Andrew Scheer, Conservative leadership campaign, Erin O'Toole, gun control, Justin Trudeau, Peter MacKay

Trigger Warning

The ban on assault style weapons comes in the wake of the Nova Scotia shootings, but it is just one cautious step in a decades-long debate over gun control.

May 8, 2020 By Joan Baxter 3 Comments

Ross Faulkner, owner of The Gun Dealer, “Atlantic Canada’s largest firearms dealer,” gets more and more strident the longer the phone interview goes on. He makes his points over and over again, as if not convinced I can understand, and sometimes he speaks as if there were a full stop after each word, which gives […]

Filed Under: Featured, News Tagged With: Angus Reid, AR-15, Bill Blair, Billl C-71, Blake Brown, Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights, Canadian Doctors for Protection from Guns, Canadian Shooting Sports Association, Canadian Sporting Arms and Ammunition Association, Cliff Seruntine, Conservative Party, Dr. Najma Ahmed, Erin O'Toole, Glen Motz, gun control, gun lobby, hunting, lobbyist, Michelle Rempel, military assault firearms, Mnister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, National Firearms Association, Nova Scotia mass shooting, Peter MacKay, Portapique, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, RCMP, Ross Faulkner, Saint Mary's University, semi-automatic weapons, sporting carbines, The Gun Dealer

The Tideline, with Tara Thorne

Keonté Beals. Photo: Keke Beatz

Episode #21 of The Tideline, with Tara Thorne is published.

The young R&B artist Keonté Beals — Tara’s former NSCC student, by the way — started out singing in church in North Preston and performing popular covers before digging into who he is an artist. On his debut album KING, he sings about love, loyalty, and authenticity. He zooms in for a chat about its creation, his children’s book, and how not even a pandemic can keep him down.

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.

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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Recent posts

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  • Group asks for more funding for grief counselling: “Canadians have been robbed of goodbyes” April 16, 2021

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