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Stephen McNeil is behaving as an autocrat

Morning File, Friday, June 19, 2020

June 19, 2020 By Tim Bousquet 21 Comments

News 1. “Insufficient grounds” Susie Butlin was murdered by her neighbour Junior Duggan in September 2017. Joan Baxter details how Butlin filed a sexual assault charge against Duggan with the Bible Hill RCMP detachment, but investigating officers said there wasn’t a strong enough case against Duggan so she should instead file an application for a peace […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: coronavirus, COVID-19, Department of Health and Wellness (DHW), Examiner 6th birthday, health care, Michael Gorman, pandemic, Premier Stephen McNeil

Double Exposure

The pandemic has pushed back the curtain on how decades of austerity have left Canadians and the health care system more vulnerable.

May 7, 2020 By Linda Pannozzo 7 Comments

The Halifax Examiner is providing all COVID-19 coverage for free. By April 13, Nova Scotia’s State of Emergency had been in effect for 23 days, schools were closed, most businesses shuttered, and people were feeling the effects of the “lock down.” At the daily COVID-19 briefing, Premier Stephen McNeil and Dr. Robert Strang, the province’s […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Featured Tagged With: Auditor General Michael Pickup, Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), Carole Shively, CD Howe Institute, coronavirus, COVID-19, Dennis Raphael, Dr. Robert Strang, economic insecurity, El Jones, ER Closures, essential workers, Fraser Institute, health care, Inez Rudderham, living wage, long term care (LTC), Michael Tutton, neoliberalism, Northwood, NS state of emergency, nursing homes, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), pandemic, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), personal support worker (PSW), poverty, Premier Stephen McNeil, public health care spending, Sheldon Cohen, social determinants of health, Stephen Harper, stress, wait times, World Health Organization (WHO)

“COVID cluster” info misleads health care providers — and the public

April 29, 2020 By Tim Bousquet 9 Comments

The Halifax Examiner is providing all COVID-19 coverage for free. The Nova Scotia Health Authority has mapped out “COVID clusters” by postal code, and that information is being mistakenly used such that people within those postal codes are being denied medical attention. I’ve obtained the list of 10 postal codes, which are described by the […]

Filed Under: Featured, News, Province House Tagged With: COVID-19 clusters, Dr. Robert Strang, Francoise Baylis, health care, Northwood, Nova Scotia Health Authority (NSHA), triage protocol

What went wrong with MyHealthNS?

We thought you'd never ask. We can't tell you. But thanks for asking. Your health care matters to your government...

August 11, 2019 By Stephen Kimber

The provincial government’s news release last Wednesday was succinct, if not desert-dry. “MyHealthNS,” it began, “the province’s secure online service that allows patients to access their health information and securely communicate with their doctor, is moving to a new software vendor.” Which new software vendor? When? The release didn’t say. Why? What happened? Well, the...

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Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: Health and Wellness Minister Randy Delorey, health care, McKesson Canada, Online medicine

Janet Knox: helping people develop a healthy lifestyle would be a better investment of health care dollars

July 11, 2019 By Jennifer Henderson

About 150 people turned up for the annual general meeting of the Nova Scotia Health Authority in Truro yesterday. The NSHA oversees a yearly budget of $2.1 billion used to operate the province’s hospitals and ambulances, deliver diagnostic tests and mental health treatment, recruit family doctors and nurse practitioners, as well as provide wellness programs...

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Filed Under: Featured, News, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: Denise Perrot, Frank van Schaayk, health care, Janet Knox, Nova Scotia Health Authority (NSHA), Tom Marrie, Valley Regional Health Authority (VRHA)

Nova Scotia health care by the numbers

June 17, 2019 By Jennifer Henderson 4 Comments

A rally organized by a citizen who started a Facebook group called “Nova Scotia Health Care Crisis” attracted about 75 people in front of the former library on Spring Garden Road Saturday afternoon. They included three frustrated emergency room doctors from Valley Regional Hospital who began a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for new long-term […]

Filed Under: Featured, Province House Tagged With: emergency room closures, health care, Nova Scotia Health Authority (NSHA), Nova Scotia Health Care Crisis, One Patient One Record (OPOR), Paula Minnikin

Health care crisis? What health care crisis?

Listen to Premier McNeil and Health Minister Delorey and you might imagine Inez Rudderham’s problems are specific and anomalous. Fix them and we fix the problem. The problem is McNeil and Delorey are the problem.

April 28, 2019 By Stephen Kimber

“To the premier of Nova Scotia, I dare you to take a meeting with me, and explain to me, and look into my eyes, and tell me that there is no health-care crisis in my province of Nova Scotia.”  Inez Rudderham It was probably too much to expect Premier Stephen McNeil to respond in any...

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Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: health care, Health Minister Randy Delorey, Inez Rudderham, Jason McLean, Premier Stephen McNeil

Health care crisis? Check. Leadership to solve it? Another question…

“I want to assure you that I’ve heard you, and I’ve listened,” McNeil said of the health care crisis on election night. “We have a plan, and the opposition parties have a plan, and we can work together to make it better." So much for working together. With the opposition. Or, more importantly, with Nova Scotians.

August 13, 2018 By Stephen Kimber 3 Comments

Did you know that, as of Friday morning, the Nova Scotia Health Authority’s News website was reporting a full computer page — 10 different items — flagging current, ongoing, never-ending emergency room closures in Nova Scotia? From the Lillian Fraser Memorial in Tatamagouche, to the Eastern Shore Memorial in Sheet Harbour, to Guysborough Memorial, to […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, Province House Tagged With: doctor shortage, ER Closures, health care, Stephen McNeil

The Horne case: mumble-mouthed nothings from mealy-mouthed nobodies

Neither Capital Health nor the Nova Scotia Health Authority has ever publicly apologized to Horne for years of bullying and harassment, while successive provincial governments chose to look the other way, giving carte blanche to the health authority to hire hugely expensive, by-the-hour outside lawyers to bully Horne for more than a decade. And so it goes...

March 4, 2018 By Stephen Kimber

If you read only last week’s headlines — Appeal Court Slashes Damages Payout to Cardiologist Gabrielle Horne (Chronicle Herald); Halifax Cardiologist Sees Reduced Damages of $800K in Suit Against Health Authority: Nova Scotia Court of Appeal Rejects Appeal by Dr. Gabrielle Horne to also Sue for Breach of Contract (cbc.ca) — you might assume world...

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Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: Dr. Gabrielle Horne, health care, justice

Doctor, doctor, who needs a doctor? 42,198 Nova Scotians and counting…

The larger issue is the lack of political leadership to tackle the crisis. Where’s Stephen McNeil when we need him? Oh, right...

December 18, 2017 By Stephen Kimber

Nova Scotia has a doctor problem. Perhaps lack-of-doctor might be more accurate. And “crisis” is certainly a more apt description than the mundane problem. According to the province’s one-year-old “Need A Family Practice” list, 42,198 Nova Scotians — 4.6 per cent of the province’s population  — are currently officially listed as looking for a doctor....

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Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, Subscribers only Tagged With: doctor shortage, health care, Stephen McNeil

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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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Recent posts

  • Not in their backyard: Halifax councillors throw out neighbours’ appeal of five-storey development February 24, 2021
  • Halifax councillors vote for $175-million capital budget, may add another million for traffic calming February 24, 2021
  • Nova Scotia’s COVID numbers are creeping upward, as likely community spread appears in two communities February 24, 2021
  • It’s official: New Scotland has a new premier February 24, 2021
  • Council approves rezoning for 17-storey apartment buildings in Clayton Park February 24, 2021

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