A blackface effigy on a property outside Parrsboro has been removed after concerns were raised by African Nova Scotians and Cumberland-Colchester MP Lenore Zann. The figure referenced traditional minstrel show symbols including the white glove and painted features exaggerating the lips and staring eyes. These elements of blackface costuming were intended to exaggerate African features […]
The ‘quiet’ turmoil inside the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society
The society claims it wants to "eliminate or mitigate systemic discrimination" in its organization. But will it really come to terms with its Lyle Howe legacy?
“There’s something happening here,” Stephen Stills once wrote. “What it is ain’t exactly clear.” Here in this case is inside the traditionally somnambulant corridors of the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society, the august and privileged self-governing body, which “regulates Nova Scotia’s legal profession… [and exists] to uphold and protect public interest in the practice of...
Reckoning with racism
Following the death of George Floyd, the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society joined much of the rest of the world in declaring itself against anti-Black racism. But the society now must grapple with its own recent history and what lawyer Laura McCarthy calls the "discrimination dirt still under their rug."
On June 3, 2020, the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society released an unremarkably remarkable statement. It happened 10 days after cellphone cameras captured white police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota gruesomely killing an unarmed Black man named George Floyd by kneeling on his neck. His death had triggered protests in cities across North America and prompted a...
Can we have a fuller conversation about racism?
Morning File, Monday, October 19, 2020
News 1. Arrests in violent attacks The RCMP announced two arrests over the weekend related to the violence in Southwest Nova Scotia. The first arrest was related to the attack on Chief Michael Sack: RCMP charge man with assault of Chief Sack October 17, 2020, New Edinburgh, Nova Scotia…Meteghan RCMP have laid charges in relation […]
Troubled waters
There is no excuse — period, full stop — for the violence and vandalism currently taking place in southwest Nova Scotia. That said, the crisis there — and the tangled, troubled history behind it — is far more complex, nuanced and slippery that any simple hashtag-RACISM tweet can ever capture.
There is no excuse — period, full stop — for the violence and vandalism currently taking place in southwest Nova Scotia. That said, the crisis there — and the tangled, troubled history behind it — is far more complex, nuanced and slippery than any simple hashtag-RACISM tweet can ever capture. Yes, ingrained, historic racism plays […]
Shopping while strolling
A report by Nova Scotia's Serious Incident Response Team clears Halifax police officers in the violent arrest of Santina Rao. But it doesn't even try to explain how what happened at the Walmart that day was allowed to become the confrontation that led to her arrest.
The purpose of a SiRT investigation is to determine whether the facts of a case, where the actions of police may have led to serious injury, justify the laying of criminal charges against a police officer… The totality of evidence clearly shows that the [Affected Person] was causing a disturbance in a public place by […]
Good intentions, abysmal execution, lost opportunity
Premier Stephen McNeil was right to apologize for our justice system's long history of racism, but he was wrong in his father-knows-best response to fixing it. It has been ever thus.
It was one of those moments when seemingly good intentions smacked up against abysmal execution and resulted in a lost opportunity. Last week on his way out the power door, Premier Stephen McNeil not only offered a fulsome wea culpa apology to the province’s Black and Indigenous communities for our long and ongoing history of […]
Not only the lonely are lonely during COVID-19
Morning File, Wednesday, June 17, 2020
News 1. Dead Wrong on Uncover Tim Bousquet’s podcast Dead Wrong, on CBC’s Uncover, is now live and you can listen to the first couple of episodes here. Everyone at the Examiner knows how hard he’s worked on this podcast for the past several months, but, of course, his work on the Dead Wrong series […]
We need to keep talking about racism
Morning File, Tuesday, June 16, 2020
News 1. Board of police commissioners’ meeting cancelled and other tales of non-transparency and lack of accountability El Jones writes about the cancellation of today’s Board of Police Commissioners meeting, ostensibly because — three months into the pandemic — they can’t figure out how to use Microsoft Teams. Jones writes: As the movement to defund […]
Pro-gun doctors’ group disbands amid accusations of racism
Doctors for Firearms Safety & Responsibility is no more.
On June 8, the Halifax Examiner reported on the role of doctors in the debate over gun control in Canada. Quoted extensively in that article was Dr. Michael Ackermann, a family and emergency physician in Sherbrooke, Nova Scotia, who is national vice president of the Canadian Shooting Sports Association (CSSA), and co-founder of Doctors for […]
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