On Wednesday, the Budget Committee of Halifax Regional Council will consider whether to make background checks for students and volunteers free, as they are everywhere else across the province. In Halifax, approximately 11,700 volunteers a year pay $30 to police or an online provider to determine if the individual has any prior convictions or pardons […]
What Black kids think about cops
It’s been an eventful week in police accountability in Canada. On Monday, the Ontario Human Rights Commission released a report on race and policing showing Black people are “overrepresented in several types of violent police interactions, including use-of-force cases, shootings, deadly encounters and fatal shootings.” The Broken Trust report from the Office of the Independent […]
The Halifax police department makes over half a million dollars each year from running criminal background checks for citizens
The price of police background checks How much is too much to pay for a background check to apply for a job or to volunteer for a non-profit group such as Big Brothers/Big Sisters or a school breakfast program? It’s a question worth asking in Halifax, where the fees to check if a person has...