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 […]
Portrait of slavery in Canada
Morning File, Thursday, June 11, 2020
News 1. McNutt pleads guilty to sexual assault offences This item is written by Tim Bousquet. Yesterday, Michael McNutt pleaded guilty to offences related to the sexual abuse (and one assault) of 34 boys over the course of 20 years. McNutt was facing 90 charges; the remainder of the charges will be dismissed at sentencing […]
Coming to terms with the complicated legacy of Gerald Regan
How do you reconcile the contradictory facts of our 19th premier's life? You probably can’t. No matter what you write, you’re either rinsing Regan’s black heart in the cleansing stream of his passing or dancing gleefully on his grave. Most news reports I saw got it about as right as those complicated realities — and our changing times — allowed. Premier Stephen McNeil didn't.
“I think you know every Canadian knows you’re guilty. And you can take that to your grave!” Court spectator Mark Iich Shouted at Gerald Regan following his acquittal December 1998 As the author of “that book about”… I spent much of last week being interviewed by journalists, all of whom — like me — were […]
Child care workers go round and round with bus complaints
Morning File, Friday, September 20, 2019
News 1. Blackface Writes El Jones: When the furor over Trudeau’s Blackface photos dies down, to be referred to as an “embarrassing incident” or “controversial,” Black people like Abdilahi Elmi will still be facing deportation. Muslim Canadians will still be on the no-fly list. White nationalist editorials will still be commissioned by major newspapers under […]
In praise of First Girls
Labelled sluts, throwaways, trouble makers, and trash, First Girls paved the way for sheltered girls; First Girls needed to be heard, but no one knew how to listen.
Cassie joined our French class in Grade 9. She sat in front of me. I was drawn to her because of how proudly rude she was to the teacher. “What is that in French?” the teacher asked her, and she shot back, “Shouldn’t you know? You’re the teacher.” I was a child from a strict […]
Verdict without end
More than 20 years after former Nova Scotia premier Gerald Regan was acquitted of sexually assaulting multiple women, other women are still coming forward with still more stories of what he did to them, still needing finally "to be heard." Including "Catherine."
I shouldn’t be surprised. Not after Me-too. But I am. Still. It happens more often than you might suppose. I’ll be attending a public event, and someone will come up to me. “Aren’t you the guy who wrote that book, the one about…?” Yes, I am, but it was published 20 years ago. “My sister…...
Here’s the stadium lie: it will pay for itself
Morning File, Wednesday, February 6, 2019
News 1. Here’s the stadium lie: it will pay for itself There’s a big long Canadian Press article written by reporter Dan Ralph that quotes Anthony Leblanc at length about all things Atlantic Schooners, but mostly about his plans to play in Moncton while he strong-arms Halifax into building him a stadium. Then Ralph gets […]
Gerald Regan and the legacy of our #MeToo moment
It isn't the jury's verdict from 1998 we should be remembering today, but the fact the RCMP and prosecutors finally chose to believe women over one of the country's most powerful political men. And, more important, that women — lots of them — stood up for other women, and said #MeToo.
“Members of the jury, have you agreed upon your verdicts?” The court clerk asked her rote question with a wavering, tell-me-don’t-tell-me tone that seemed to capture perfectly the nervous, nerve-wracked mood among the more than three dozen men and women sitting in the Halifax Law Court’s Courtroom 3-1 on the blustery afternoon of December 18,...
Former Halifax cop Chris Mosher has received a cash payout and a new job from the city
After he was charged with sexual assault and then for repeatedly violating the conditions of his release, Halifax cop Chris Mosher was fired last year by the Halifax police department. But Mosher has successfully appealed his firing, and has received a cash payout from the city and a new job working with either the city’s […]
The judge and the complaints: finding the balance between judicial independence and public confidence
As the review committee’s decision demonstrates, we need to know more than can be communicated in a 140-character tweet before leaping off the ledge to firing-offence conclusions. The problem, too often, is that’s all reasonably informed people have to go on.
“In the Matter of Complaints Against Judge Gregory Lenehan, made pursuant to the Provincial Court Act, R.S.N.S. 1989, c. 238 …” If nothing else, last week’s decision by the review committee looking into allegations of “misogynistic reasoning” and “gender bias” by Nova Scotia Provincial Court Justice Gregory Lenehan inadvertently made a compelling argument for cameras...