News 1. Community spread and vindictive behaviour Yesterday, at the daily briefing on COVID-19, we learned that there is a possible case of community spread of the disease, probably related to a St. Patrick’s Day event. An hour or so after the briefing, the Nova Scotia Health Authority issued a release with details: FOR IMMEDIATE […]
City councillors approve increased police budget despite ongoing racial profiling
You don’t have to be Negrodamus to have predicted that the Halifax City Council would approve the police budget increase of about a million dollars, but even for the cynical the budget committee meeting on Wednesday demonstrated some surprising depths of unaccountability. Calls to freeze the police budget in response to the Halifax Regional Police’s […]
Councillors cold to cooling-off proposal, and other Halifax City Hall updates
Halifax councillor Shawn Cleary’s proposal for a cooling-off period for councillors and senior officials was met with a cool reception at council. The request for a staff report looking into the policy, which would temporarily bar politicians and some staff from taking a job dealing with the city after their terms ended, came up during...
Enhancing the tourist experience by putting parking on protected land
Morning File, Tuesday, December 24, 2019
It’s Christmas Eve and I have no idea if anybody is reading or not. If you’re here, enjoy the Morning File. I usually work only minimally between Christmas and New Year’s, and I hope you get some time off too. News 1. Christmas in prison A prisoner we are calling JC offers a moving piece […]
City still ridin’ the stadium train
Morning File, Wednesday, October 23, 2019
News 1. Stadium This item is written by Tim Bousquet. Halifax council yesterday rejected Sam Austin’s bid to immediately end a staff review of the Schooners’ stadium proposal. Had Austin been successful, the stadium proposal would have effectively been rejected. In October 2018, council passed a motion outlining how it would deal with the stadium […]
Gold fever is coming to Halifax
Mineral exploration companies have staked claims next to the Halifax and Dartmouth lakes that are the source of our drinking water
Cover photo: Touquoy open pit gold mine at Moose River. Photo courtesy Raymond Plourde On October 17 and 18, mining industry representatives and between five and 10 government officials will gather at the Alt Hotel at the Halifax Airport for the province’s first-ever “gold show.” The gold show is being organized by the Mining Association […]
“Neoliberal bullshit” basic income
Morning File, Thursday, September 19, 2019
News 1. No charges in case of woman who died of horrific bed sore Chrissy Dunnington died from complications of a pressure sore (often called a bed sore) in March 2018. She was 40 years old. Dunnington had been living at the Parkstone Enhanced Care home, owned by Shannex, in Clayton Park for 18 months. […]
An astonishing display of cowardice: city councillors are ignoring police misconduct in the Assoun case
As we are learning that the Halifax police willfully acted to keep an innocent man in prison, the politicians responsible for civilian oversight of the police department are deafeningly silent. Meanwhile, unelected bureaucrats and lawyers at City Hall have attempted to keep the police misconduct hidden by a publication ban. According to his lawyers, police […]
A lot of people in Halifax will be hungover at work on Thursday
Morning File, Tuesday, May 21, 2019
News 1. Gold “Here’s the deal,” writes Joan Baxter: On Wednesday, May 14, an Australian gold mining company called St. Barbara Limited, with one gold mine in Australia and a second one in Papua New Guinea, agreed to pay $722 million for Atlantic Gold Corporation, which operates one open pit gold mine in Nova Scotia, […]
Taxing Issues
Morning File, Wednesday, March 20, 2019
News 1. John Risley’s South African Adventure Out from behind the paywall: Tim’s epic piece on how Nova Scotia billionaire John Risley wound up in bed with an arms dealer suing the South African government over an apartheid-era contract. The short version: After his racing career, Portuguese Formula 1 driver Jorge Pinhol became an arms […]