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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."

January 24, 2021 By Stephen Kimber

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...

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Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, Subscribers only Tagged With: Black Lives Matter, Laura McCarthy, Lyle Howe, Racism

Can we have a fuller conversation about racism?

Morning File, Monday, October 19, 2020

October 19, 2020 By Tim Bousquet 19 Comments

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 […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Adam LeRue, anti-Indigenous racism, archaeology, Chief Michael Sack, Chris Gerald Melanson, Const. Kenneth O’Brien, COVID-19, Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett, Elizabeth McSheffrey, exposure advisory, Fisheries and Oceans Minister Bernadette Jordan, Great Lakes, Indigenous fishers, Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller, Keith Matheny, lobster fishery, Meteghan, Mi'kmaq fishers, Michael Burton Nickerson, moderate livelihood fishermen, Patty Cuttell, Public Safety Minister Bill Blair, Racism, Saulnierville, Straits of Mackinac, women on Halifax council

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.

October 18, 2020 By Stephen Kimber 6 Comments

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 […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, News Tagged With: Bernadette Jordan, DFO, Indigenous fishers, moderate livelihood fishermen, Racism

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.

October 11, 2020 By Stephen Kimber

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...

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Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, News, Subscribers only Tagged With: police racism, Racism, Santina, Serious Incident Response Team

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.

October 4, 2020 By Stephen Kimber 2 Comments

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 […]

Filed Under: Featured, News, Province House Tagged With: justice system, Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil, Racism

Not only the lonely are lonely during COVID-19

Morning File, Wednesday, June 17, 2020

June 17, 2020 By Suzanne Rent 3 Comments

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 […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: and All That’s Between, Body Break, Brenda Way, By the Numbers 2020, Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights, CBC Podcasts, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, DEAD WRONG, Department of Health and Wellness, Derek Sloan, domestic violence, Dr. Ami Rokach, Dr. Rob Green, elderly, Erin O'Toole, Firearms community, Glen Assoun, gun lobby, gun violence, Hal Johnson, Heal-NS Trauma Research Program, IWK, Joanne McLeod, Leslyn Lewis, Loneliness, Love, mental illness, Mi'kmaw Native Friendship Centre, Nova Scotia Health Authority, Nova Scotia Healthcare Crisis, Pam Glode-Desrochers, ParticipAction, Paula Minnikin, Peter MacKay, Pictou County, Pitbull, podcast, Racism, Steele Hotels, TSN, Uncover, Waye Mason, York University

We need to keep talking about racism

Morning File, Tuesday, June 16, 2020

June 16, 2020 By Philip Moscovitch 10 Comments

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 […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Adrian Harewood, anti-racist, Ashley Thompson, body cameras, Capt. Jenn Casey, Catherine Wright, Chief Allan Adam, Christine Genier, coronavirus, COVID-19, David Pugliese, Desmond Cole, ejection seat, Gabbie Douglas, Halifax Board of Police Commissioners, Kentville Police, Kim Wheeler, long term care (LTC), Magnolia residential care home, Martin-Baker, Mike Harris, non-racist, Northwood, Nova Scotia Policing Policy Working Group, nursing homes, Pam Berman, pandemic, police violence, Racism, racism in journalism, RCMP violent arrest, Rhonda Britton, Shaina Luck, Sharisha Benedict, Sherri Borden Colley, Snowbirds crash, speed bump vs speed hump, Terence McKenna, Waubgeshig Rice

Pro-gun doctors’ group disbands amid accusations of racism

Doctors for Firearms Safety & Responsibility is no more.

June 14, 2020 By Joan Baxter 3 Comments

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 […]

Filed Under: Featured, News Tagged With: Canadian Doctors for Protection from Guns, Doctors for Firearm Safety & Responsibility, Dr. Ken Reid, Dr. Michael Ackermann, gun control, meme, Queen's University, Racism, Semir Bulle, Western University

Separating the science from the scams: Timothy Caulfield on COVID-19 misinformation

Morning File, Thursday, April 2, 2020

April 2, 2020 By Suzanne Rent Leave a Comment

News 1. Graphed: COVID-19 in Nova Scotia There are 20 new cases of COVID-19 in Nova Scotia. That’s a total of 173 cases in the province. Here’s a look at the graphs of the cases and testing. Read the full article here.  2. Hateful slurs disrupt online gatherings El Jones writes about the increase in […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Ann Futterman Collier, bank tellers, Banking practices, beaches, Blair Kamin, Christine Doucet, coronavirus, COVID-19, drive-thrus, Emily Dwyer, Graeme Benjamin, Hannah Thomsay, John Demont, Lori Smith, Nova Scotia Archives, Nova Scotia Museum, office spaces, pandemic, panic baking, pedestrian struck Portland Street, Racism, Robyn Maynard, social distancing, Timothy Caulfield, workspaces

Hateful slurs disrupt online gatherings

As racialized and marginalized communities move online in response to COVID-19, they are increasingly the targets of organized racist and sexist attacks.

April 1, 2020 By El Jones Leave a Comment

The Halifax Examiner is providing all COVID-19 coverage for free. The social isolation measures around COVID-19 have caused communities to adapt quickly to new forms of interacting. As in-person gatherings have shut down, online platforms have become popular places not only for business meetings and university lectures, but also for music performances, information forums, protests, […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Featured Tagged With: Alex Khasnabish, Alexander McClelland, alt-right, Black Canadian Studies Association, Charlie Kirk, coronavirus, COVID-19, Desmond Cole, online classes, online harassment, online racist attacks, Racism, Robyn Maynard, social distancing, Stacey Gomez, Val Marie Johnson, white supremacy, Zoom

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The Tideline, with Tara Thorne

Mo Kenney. Photo: Matt Williams

Episode #18 of The Tideline, with Tara Thorne is published.

Mo Kenney’s new record Covers is a perfect winter companion — songs from across the rock spectrum that she’s pared down to piano or guitar and turned them into sad ballads. She joins Tara to talk about choosing and arranging them, and opens up for a frank discussion of the alcohol dependency it took a pandemic for her to confront. Plus: Movies are back (again).

This episode is available today only for premium subscribers; to become a premium subscriber, click here, and join the select group of arts and entertainment supporters for just $5/month. Everyone else will have to wait until tomorrow to listen to it.

Please subscribe to The Tideline.

Uncover: Dead Wrong

In 1995, Brenda Way was brutally murdered behind a Dartmouth apartment building. In 1999, Glen Assoun was found guilty of the murder. He served 17 years in prison, but steadfastly maintained his innocence. In 2019, Glen Assoun was fully exonerated.

Halifax Examiner founder and investigative journalist Tim Bousquet has followed the story of Glen Assoun's wrongful conviction for over five years. Now, Bousquet tells that story as host of Season 7 of the CBC podcast series Uncover: Dead Wrong.

Click here to go to listen to the podcast, or search for CBC Uncover on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast aggregator.

About the Halifax Examiner

Examiner folk The Halifax Examiner was founded by investigative reporter Tim Bousquet, and now includes a growing collection of writers, contributors, and staff. Left to right: Joan Baxter, Stephen Kimber, Linda Pannozzo, Erica Butler, Jennifer Henderson, Iris the Amazing, Tim Bousquet, Evelyn C. White, El Jones, Philip Moscovitch More about the Examiner.

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Recent posts

  • ‘The rest is for the seagulls’ February 28, 2021
  • 4 new cases of COVID-19 announced in Nova Scotia on Saturday, Feb. 27 February 27, 2021
  • How safe is dentistry in the pandemic? Dalhousie researchers aim to find out February 27, 2021
  • Former city lawyer wins fight with Halifax Water over pipe under her property February 26, 2021
  • 10 new cases announced in Nova Scotia: new restrictions imposed in Halifax area February 26, 2021

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