CBC reports that the Truro police have started wearing body cameras. Truro Police Chief Dave MacNeil suggests the cameras are “partially a response to the global Black Lives Matter protests and partially to take advantage of improving technology.” The Truro police have been supplied with WatchGuard cameras. WatchGuard is owned by Motorola Solutions. In 2019, […]
Halifax woman racially profiled and arrested after Halifax Regional Police say they were chasing a “white man in a Toyota”
Local musician, music promoter, and community advocate Kayla Borden is traumatized and shaken after she was pulled over and handcuffed by police last night in what she calls yet another incident of racial profiling by the Halifax Regional Police. Borden says she was driving home at around 12:50am from her cousin’s place by Charles P. […]
Senator calls for action from Halifax councillors with presentation on anti-Black racism
Senator Dr. Wanda Thomas Bernard is calling on Halifax regional councillors to take action to combat anti-Black racism in the municipality. Bernard, an independent Canadian senator appointed in 2016, gave a roughly half-hour long presentation to council’s virtual meeting on Tuesday morning. The presentation, titled “Unpacking Anti‐Black Racism in the HRM: Creating Sustainable Change for […]
Santina Rao: The charges against me have been dropped, but the battle continues
Today is going to be a day I remember for the rest of my life. On July 6, 2020 the charges against me were dropped by the Crown Attorney. I no longer have to live another day being scared of what my future will look like, or worried if I’ll be able to spend precious time […]
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 […]
New street checks almost the same as the old
The province banned street checks. The police chief apologized. But nothing's really changed. Earlier this month, former police officer Maurice Carvery says police turned his routine traffic stop into an example of racial profiling. “They haven’t stopped; they’ve only changed.”
Red lights flashing in your rearview; a high-pitched siren’s we-we-we-waaaahhh from somewhere behind your head, slowly penetrating your music-listening, daydreaming, distracted driving consciousness; the faint hope this siren does not scream for you; the eventual realization it’s you the officer wants to pull over; the long wait by the side of the road while traffic...
Cops, cabbies, and doctors abusing their power
Morning File, Friday, January 24, 2020
News 1. Northern Pulp takes the province to court Jennifer Henderson and Joan Baxter report on the news that Northern Pulp is taking the province to court, and on the Pictou Landing First Nation’s reaction. Yesterday afternoon the company issued a news release stating it will ask the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia to undertake […]
Halifax police officers in Santina Rao case still working, chief waiting for investigation
The officers involved are still on the job and Halifax Regional Police Chief Dan Kinsella had little to say publicly on Monday about the violent arrest of a young Black mother at Walmart last week, citing an ongoing court case and a potential investigation. Kinsella addressed reporters after a meeting of the Halifax board of...
Puzzling developments with Cape Breton’s non-existent container terminal
Morning File, Monday, January 20, 2020
News 1. Walmart incident “When a young black woman accused the Halifax police of racially profiling and abusing her in connection with an alleged shoplifting incident at Walmart last week, officials did what officials do,” writes Stephen Kimber. “They obfuscated, they passed the buck, they pretended to take it seriously.” Click here to read “Can […]
Can we expect truth about the Walmart incident from police or the store? Nope
When a young black woman accused the Halifax police of racially profiling and abusing her in connection with an alleged shoplifting incident at Walmart last week, officials did what officials do. They obfuscated, they passed the buck, they pretended to take it seriously.
I still don’t know nearly enough about what actually happened inside the Mumford Road Walmart shortly after 3:30 pm last Wednesday afternoon, but I already know too much to have faith we will get full and complete answers from either a we-take-allegations-like-this-seriously Halifax Regional Police or a buck-passing Walmart. Let’s start with what we do […]