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Prisoners, acting mostly on their own, are changing the legal landscape of Nova Scotia’s jails

August 7, 2020 By Tim Bousquet 1 Comment

Today, Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Kevin Coady published a decision, saying that the way two prisoners at the Burnside Jail are being held in solitary confinement is unfair, and he wants the jail administrators to address the situation, and if they don’t within 14 days, he wants to see the prisoners in court, potentially […]

Filed Under: Featured, News Tagged With: Andre Gray, Burnside jail, Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility, Claire McNeil, Dylan Gogan, Dylan Roach, East Coast Prison Justice Society (ECPJS), El Jones, habeas corpus applications, Hanna Garson, Justice Elizabeth Van den Eynden, Justice Gerald Moir, Justice Kevin Coady, Justice Peter P. Rosinski, lockdown, Maurice Pratt, Rae’heem Downey, Richard Verge, segregation in prisons, Solitary confinement

Hanna Garson: a young lawyer dedicated to the long, slow fight for prison justice

April 15, 2019 By El Jones 1 Comment

It’s a Tuesday morning, and I’m sitting in courtroom 302 of the Halifax Supreme Court watching two prisoners, Geevan Nagendran and Tyquan Downey, face the lawyer for the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility (Burnside). I text Hanna Garson, “I’m watching the most upsetting habeas in court right now.” She texts back, “what courtroom?” Two minutes […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Featured Tagged With: Adam Norton, Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility (Burnside), Claire McNeil, Dylan Gogan, East Coast Prison Justice Society, Eileen Collett, Elizabeth Fry Society, Emma Halpern, Geevan Nagendran, habeas corpus, Hanna Garson, Jessica Rose, Justice Chipman, Legal Aid, lockdown, Maurice Pratt, Planetta Hughes, Sarah White, Schulich School of law, Sheila Wildeman, Tyquan Downey

El Jones gets at the human core of the issues and people she writes about

Morning File, Tuesday, November 6, 2018

November 6, 2018 By Tim Bousquet 5 Comments

News 1. El Jones I first met El Jones when I worked at The Coast. Our meeting was not in person, but virtually — I remember that I asked her to write a guest commentary, and a couple of days later she came back with a poem, which she sent me via a Facebook message. […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Burnside explosion, Chad Harvey Leopold, Duane Eddy, El Jones, Friends of the Northumberland Strait, Grace MacCormick, habeas corpus applications, Hanna Garson, Justice Peter Rosinski, Matthew Coaker, Matthew Grimm, Matthew Lambert, Maurice Pratt, Michael Gorman, Northern Pulp Mill effluent pipe, Randolph Riley, Robert Sanford, Sarah White, Stephen Archibald and Kent Monkman, Supreme Court mootness hearing

There is nothing self-deprecating or ironic or even remotely funny about this boring headline

Morning File, Thursday, September 20, 2018

September 20, 2018 By Tim Bousquet 7 Comments

News 1. Maurice Pratt Yesterday, Justice James Chipman dismissed Maurice Pratt’s habeas corpus application. Pratt was the first of at least eight prisoners at the Burnside jail to have their habeas applications heard by Chipman. (The others are scheduled for Monday, but I’m hearing there may be a delay.) The prisoners filed their applications in […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Adam Hallett, Angie Hebb, Bill Kowalski, Brad Ross, Brendan Elliott, Burnside jail, Burnside jail death, Burnside Jail lockdown, Chronicle Herald advertorial, great white shark lobby, habeas corpus applications, Headlines, Jeff Weatherhead, Joshua Evans, Justice James Chipman, Lake Banook, Lunenburg Electric Utility, Lunenburg power outages, Mairin Prentiss, Maurice Pratt, Nancy Selig, Nova Scotia Power (NSP), Parker Donham, Sarah Gillis, Shelah Allen, Smoking ban, Stephen Archibald and Hal Forbes

Habeas corpus hearing illuminates jail conditions

September 18, 2018 By Tim Bousquet Leave a Comment

Highlights from this story: • a prison official agreed with the statement that “several” prisoners at the Burnside jail have died in the past week * (see note below) • the three-week lockdown at the jail started when an inmate allegedly said that “someone is going to die” after the peaceful protest was ended • […]

Filed Under: Featured, News, Province House Tagged With: Brad Ross, Burnside Jail lockdown, Burnside jail protest, Chris Deal, Duane Eddy, Grace MacCormick, habeas corpus applications, Hanna Garson, Justice James Chipman, Kaz Cox, Leonard Greenough, Matthew Grimm, Matthew Lambert, Maurice Pratt, Nelson Callish, Randy Riley, Robert Sanford, Sarah White

Five prisoners at the Burnside jail ask the court to order them released from solitary confinement

September 6, 2018 By Tim Bousquet Leave a Comment

Five prisoners at the Burnside jail have filed habeas corpus applications with the Supreme Court. The applications arrived at the courthouse yesterday, September 5. Kaz Cox, Matthew Grimm, Maurice Pratt, Steven Skinner, and Leonard Greenough each say they are wrongfully being held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day. It’s unclear if any of […]

Filed Under: Featured, News, Province House Tagged With: Burnside jail, Duane Eddy, habeas corpus applications, Kaz Cox, Leonard Greenough, Matthew Grimm, Maurice Pratt, Solitary confinement, Stacey Adams, Steven Skinner, Supreme Court Justice James Chipman, Tracy Dominix, William Brian Farrow, Zeb Brown

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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