News 1. Bank of Canada acknowledges that climate change will impact the economy “For the first time ever, the Bank of Canada has released a report examining the threat climate change poses to the country’s financial system,” reports Karina Roman for the CBC. The report in question is the Bank’s annual Fiscal System Review, which […]
“Do right by me”: by not addressing the systematic racism of street checks, the white power structure is doubling down on Nova Scotia’s well-earned reputation for ignorance, stigma, and stench
“Until you do right by me, everything you think about is gonna crumble.” Voiced by Whoopi Goldberg in her role as Celie in the film adaptation of The Color Purple, the line has recently wafted, repeatedly, through my mind. To be sure, the thought has been prompted by the magnificent production of The Color Purple […]
The authoritarian state starts with oppression of minorities today
Morning File, Thursday, May 16, 2019
News 1. Racism costs City Hall $600,000 The Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission issued this press release yesterday: The chair of an independent human rights board of inquiry into the matter of Y.Z. v. Halifax Regional Municipality issued her decision on remedy today, May 15. Lynn Connors found discrimination had occurred and issued her decision […]
“This is North Preston”: a story that “needs to be heard”
"This is North Preston" is a film about the stereotype of North Preston that allows the young men who’ve been stereotyped for so long to speak for themselves.
Jaren Hayman is from Toronto. He’s 32 years old, a white man. He began his professional career as a drummer, touring North America, but eventually morphed into a self-taught filmmaker. His first feature documentary, 2016’s Bodyguards: Secret Lives from the Watchtower, hit number one on the iTunes charts and earned a worldwide audience on Netflix. […]
Street checks: Who’s sorry now? Not the premier, not the justice minister, not the police
No one in authority seems willing to apologize for the decades of "disproportionate and negative" impact street checks have had on Nova Scotia's black community. Worse, no one seems to be committed to finally ending them once and for all.
Our question for today: why is it so hard for the people in charge of policing in Nova Scotia to say, I’m sorry? Last week… nearly three weeks after a damning 180-page report by an independent outside consultant confirmed that black males are nine times more likely than whites to be stopped in “random” police...
Journalmalism 101: This week, Halifax lost four very good Canadian Press reporters; in return we got… Christie Blatchford
Morning File, Friday, March 29, 2019
News 1. Street checks Yesterday, I wrote: This is how it goes. Every now and then something happens — a Black man with the resources and gumption to do something about it stands up to the harassment, the results of a CBC Freedom of Information request are published — that make it temporarily impossible for […]
We are eagerly awaiting the ridiculous architectural renderings that are certain to accompany the stadium sales pitch
Morning File, Monday, March 25, 2019
1. Leading With Transit “Listen, I wouldn’t blame you if you were done with discussing the future of transit in Halifax,” writes Examiner transportation columnist Erica Butler: We had the Moving Forward Together (MFT) plan, for which thousands of folks chimed in with their hopes and dreams for buses in the region. Then we had […]
Councillor Lindell Smith: Proud of? Not is. Will be proud…
As he begins the second half of his first term as a city councilor, Lindell Smith reflects on what's been accomplished. And what's still to do before he moves on. He is not, he says again/still, a career politician.
What are you most proud of, I asked District 8 Coun. Lindell Smith? He didn’t answer right away. We are seated at a quiet table in Alteregos, the Gottingen Street café he jokingly refers to as his “satellite office.” In fact, Halifax councillors don’t have offices of their own, so this is as close to...
Students say new Dalhousie Interim President Peter MacKinnon should resign
Morning File, Tuesday, January 22, 2019
This is a somewhat abbreviated Morning File as I’m tied up with another project; I hope to finish that project soon, maybe even today. News 1. Peter MacKinnon Yesterday, there was a welcoming reception for new interim Dalhousie President Peter MacKinnon at the Dal Arts Centre. A group of students dressed in black and carrying signs […]
Hard conversations: Why was “fantastic principal” Lamar Eason suspended from his job?
“People don’t like to talk about race, culture, bias,” Bayview Community School principal Lamar Eason explains, adding elliptically: “Doing your job can lead to questioning the people employing you. Understandably, people get defensive. But [race relations officers] are not there just to support schools; we’re also there to support students and their families. There can be some hard conversations.”
Just as the school day was winding down on Monday, Nov. 5, 2018, the human resources director of the South Shore Regional Centre for Education (SSRCE) showed up, unannounced, at Mahone Bay’s Bayview Community School. Brian Bonia proceeded directly to the office of the school’s principal, Lamar Eason, where he delivered a copy of an […]