Since September 2017, when her best friend, 58-year-old Susan (Susie) Butlin, was shot and killed in her home at Bayhead, near Tatamagouche, Suzanne Davis has been in pain. Davis still thinks about her friend — whom she’d known since kindergarten — all the time. She says if they didn’t speak on the phone three times […]
“A political act of opportunism”: Conservatives go hard right on gun laws
CPC leadership candidates cozy up to firearm rights advocates, who compare Bill C-71 to the internment of Japanese Canadians in World War 2.
The venue is a virtual “town hall” meeting with leadership Conservative candidate Peter MacKay. It’s hosted by the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights (CCFR), which calls itself “Canada’s most effective and recognizable firearm rights organization,” and the “public relations experts in the firearms community.” MacKay, dressed for the occasion in a plaid shirt and dark […]
Nova Scotia massacre: Did the RCMP “risk it out” one time too many?
Catharine Mansley was a Mountie for 24 years. In time her mind began to go from all the stress of being a RCMP patrol officer in Halifax County. She began drinking. When she complained about her problem to her supervisors, that just added to them. She was caught driving drunk twice. Convicted once, she went […]
Dear Mr. Premier: I know you’re busy but…
You need to appoint a public inquiry into the recent mass murders in Nova Scotia. Now. Yesterday. It needs to be open and transparent and broad-based. I have a few suggestions. You're welcome.
Dear Premier McNeil, I know you’ve been busy, telling Nova Scotians to stay the blazes home and telling our legislators to stay the blazes out of affairs that are none of their business. Such as government spending. I mean, what gives elected MLAs the right to hold online committee hearings to ask awkward questions about […]
Court document provides new info on mass murder
A court document obtained by the Halifax Examiner provides new information about the mass murder spree across Nova Scotia on April 18 and 19. The document is an “Information to Obtain” (ITO), which was delivered to a justice of the peace as an application for a search warrant related to the police investigation into the […]
“He was a psychopath”
A former resident of Portapique says she called the RCMP to tell them the future gunman assaulted his domestic partner and that he had illegal weapons. The police took no action.
This article contains graphic descriptions of assault. “That son of a bitch is dead.” That was the first thing Boe thought when she heard on April 19 that the RCMP had killed a man who on gone on a murderous rampage across Nova Scotia, leaving 22 dead. The murder spree started in the village of […]
Trigger Warning
The ban on assault style weapons comes in the wake of the Nova Scotia shootings, but it is just one cautious step in a decades-long debate over gun control.
Ross Faulkner, owner of The Gun Dealer, “Atlantic Canada’s largest firearms dealer,” gets more and more strident the longer the phone interview goes on. He makes his points over and over again, as if not convinced I can understand, and sometimes he speaks as if there were a full stop after each word, which gives […]
Random thoughts from a random week in the middle of a random time…
On Westray and Portapique, naming names, suing Trump, making media great... someday, pressing legislature business, comparing Cuba's COVID-19 numbers to Nova Scotia's, and, oh yes, Franco is still dead...
Random thoughts from a random week in the middle of a random time… Just before dawn on the morning of May 9, 1992, a methane gas explosion rocketed through the underground tunnels of the Westray mine in Plymouth, NS, killing all 26 miners working underground. That’s just four more than were killed last month in...
“There’s some fiddle for ya”: A Portapique love story
One of the many poignant stories coming from the Portapique murders involves the Tuck family: mother Jolene Oliver, father Aaron (Friar) Tuck, and their 17-year-old daughter Emily Tuck, all senselessly and horrifically murdered in their house that Saturday night. As we try to wrap our heads around the tragedy, male violence — “a pandemic in its […]
The killer was on Hunter Road for nearly three hours
The Halifax Examiner continues to learn more details about last weekend’s murder spree. We now know that the killer was on Hunter Road hours earlier than previously reported. There is evidence that the killer’s mock police cruiser was seen driving along Hunter Road at 6:29am. A resident on the road heard gunshots at about 7am. Those […]