News 1. Bumbling response to Portapique Yesterday, retired RCMP Staff Sergeant Al Carroll testified via Zoom at the Mass Casualty Commission (MCC), the public inquiry into the mass murders of April 18/19, 2020. Through his questioning of Carroll, MCC lawyer Roger Burrill aptly laid out how a series of cascading policing errors built upon each […]
The RCMP didn’t tell the public about the mass murderer’s fake police car because they didn’t want to create a ‘frantic panic’
Ever since the mass murders of April 18/19, 2020, one unanswered question has been: Why did the RCMP wait so long to notify the public about the killer’s fake police car? An answer comes via RCMP Staff Sergeant Steve Halliday, who was interviewed by the Mass Casualty Commission (MCC) on November 3, 2021. According to […]
Here’s all the Halifax Examiner’s reporting on the mass murders of April 18/19, 2020
April 2020 was a difficult time in Nova Scotia. A strange new virus was loose in the world, and no one knew what would happen. Nova Scotia was under lockdown — restaurants and bars were closed, schools were online, health orders prohibited people from gathering socially, and the disease had entered the Northwood retirement home. […]
Renovictions spike, but let’s not forget the plight of landlords
Morning File, Tuesday, April 12, 2022
News 1. Renovictions spike, but let’s not forget the plight of landlords Organizations that support tenants fighting eviction say they have seen an increase in requests for help since the province lifted its renoviction ban, Leslie Amminson reports. Renoviction refers to landlords kicking out tenants, making some upgrades to their units, then putting the units […]
Nick Beaton has every right to be angry, but…
Despite many early missteps, the Nova Scotia Mass Casualty Commission is now doing what it needs to do — methodically assembling facts and evidence about what happened during Canada's worst modern mass shooting and exploring the many larger issues the tragedy requires us as a society to confront. The rest of us need to let it do its job.
It is impossible not to sympathize with the frustrations of Nick Beaton. His pregnant wife, Kristen, was among the 22 victims of the senseless April 2020 shooting rampage during which a killer — dressed as a Mountie and driving a down-to-the-decals perfect replica police car — wandered, seemingly at will, along Nova Scotia’s highways and […]
“Writing is stupid”
Morning File, Friday, April 1, 2022
Before we start, let me assure that I have not embedded any weirdo fake April Fool’s stories in today’s Morning File. News 1. 10 new COVID-19 deaths in Nova Scotia This item is written by Tim Bousquet and Philip Moscovitch. Tim: Ten people died from COVID in the week ending March 29. Additionally, 51 people […]
Cafés as centres for “queer memory, identity, and place” in Halifax
Morning File, Tuesday, March 29, 2022
News 1. First officers on the scene at Portapique testify The Mass Casualty Commission began hearings again yesterday. Tim Bousquet was there for the Halifax Examiner, covering the testimony of the first three officers to arrive on the scene in Portapique on the night of April 18, 2020. The testimony of the three officers — […]