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The Bar Society’s governing council — ‘We’re supposed to be lawyers?’

Three-hour meetings have turned into seven-hour screaming matches with official agendas abandoned... Confidential deliberations have been leaked to the media before the minutes can be distributed... It's like high school but not nearly as much fun. Can even Doug Ruck save the provincial bar society from itself?

May 16, 2022 By Stephen Kimber

It only feels like I’ve been writing about the turmoil inside the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society for forever. For me, it began in 2016 with my fascination with what would become the society’s “longest, most expensive” — and still seemingly never-ended — professional misconduct case involving polarizing now-former lawyer Lyle Howe, an African Nova Scotian....

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Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: Darrel Pink, Doug Ruck, Jacqueline Mullinger, Josie McKinney, lawyers, Lyle Howe, Nova Scotia, Nova Scotia Barristers' Society, Racism, Stephen Kimber, Tilly Pillay, Tuma Young

Non-resident property tax increase: gone before the ink was dry

On the one hand, I’m not sure what to make of Tim Houston’s full-frontal face plant last week. On the other hand, I know exactly what to make of it. Same old, same old. Still. Again. Always.

May 9, 2022 By Stephen Kimber 7 Comments

On the one hand, I’m not sure what to make of Tim Houston’s full-frontal face plant last week. “So, today I will put my personal pride aside,” our premier declared Thursday as he humble-pied his way through a humiliating and complete run back of his government’s month-old, ink-barely-dry plan to hike taxes on non-resident property […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Economy, Featured, Province House Tagged With: affordable housing, CBC, Chester, deed transfer tax, Halifax, housing, housing crisis, Michael Gorman, non-resident property tax, non-residents, Nova Scotia, Premier Tim Houston, Stephen Kimber

Waiting for answers as the Lionel Desmond inquiry wraps up

Can we ever really know why Lionel Desmond killed his wife, daughter, and mother, and then himself? Does that matter? Don't we know enough now about all that went wrong in the years and months leading up to the murder-suicide to begin demanding change on all fronts?

April 25, 2022 By Stephen Kimber Leave a Comment

Was Cpl. Lionel Desmond a victim of a foreign war, systemic racism and siloing of medical records, or was he a perpetrator of domestic violence who murdered the women closest to him? And how do we reconcile it if he was both? — Aaron Beswick Saltwire Network April 20, 2022 I don’t envy Warren Zimmer’s […]

Filed Under: Black Nova Scotia, Commentary, Featured, Province House Tagged With: Adam Rogers, Afghanistan, Desmond Inquiry, Judge Warren Zimmer, Lionel Desmond, Lori Ward, Marie-Paule Doucette, mental illness, PTSD, Racism, Roderick Rogers, Stephen Kimber, Tara Miller, Thomas MacDonald, Upper Big Tracadie

Law amendments: back to the future

When Stephen McNeil's Liberals were in power, Tim Houston's Tories rightly railed against the way the government abused the law amendments committee to rubber-stamp its legislation. Well, now Houston is the premier and guess what? Nothing's changed.

April 11, 2022 By Stephen Kimber

On Monday, April 4, 2022, Nova Scotia’s law amendments committee met to consider Bill 120, amendments to Nova Scotia’s Involuntary Psychiatric Treatment Act. Brian Comer, the Tory minister responsible for the office of addictions and mental health, claimed the amendments will “enhance the protection of patients …  having a mental disorder or severe, persistent mental...

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Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, Politics, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: Law Amendments Committee, Premier Tim Houston, Stephen Kimber

Missteps, Mistakes, and Miscommunications

Morning File, Monday, April 4, 2022

April 4, 2022 By Philip Moscovitch Leave a Comment

News 1. How a series of failures likely led to murders on the morning of April 19, 2020 In the days following the murders of April 18 and 19, 2020, we saw people outraged at what seemed like police inaction or incompetence, and those who had no patience for that view, arguing that it was […]

Filed Under: Featured, Morning File Tagged With: baseball, baseball cards, Brad Balukjian, Brendan Haley, Claudia Chender, Cs. Nathan Forrest, Cst. Adam MacDonald, Cst. Dave Melanson, Cst. Rodney Peterson, Cst. Terry Brown, Efficiency Canada, Fast Food Nation, Iain Rankin, Ikea, Jamie Blair, Jennifer Henderson, John Demont, Kristen Beaton, Mass Casualty Commission, McDonald's, Michaella Scott, murder spree, Nick Beaton, Nova Scotia Power, Onslow Belmont Fire Brigade, Philip Moscovitch, Popeyes, Portapique, RCMP shooting Lower Onslow, Richard Ellison, Stephen Kimber, The Wax Pack, Tim Bousquet, Utility and Review Board (UARB)

What is the pandemic doing to sports — and other — reporting?

Morning File, Monday, January 10, 2022

January 10, 2022 By Philip Moscovitch 3 Comments

News 1. Omicron is testing Nova Scotia’s hospitals Jennifer Henderson digs into the effects of the current COVID-19 wave on the province’s hospitals, looking not just at those hospitalized with COVID-19, but also larger effects on the system. Her lead gets right to the point: The latest wave of COVID is putting pressure on every […]

Filed Under: COVID, Featured, Morning File Tagged With: #HalifaxExaminerSubscribe, Alan Shipnuck, Antonio Brown, Base rate fallacy, Burnside jail, Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility, circus, clean coal, COVID-19, Dr. Nicole Boutilier, Elena Cremonese, Gary Burrill, green choice program, Halifax Common, Halifax Municipal Archives, Halifax Public Libraries, Heather Fairbairn, Jeff Pearlman, Jennifer Henderson, Michael MacDonald, modular housing, Muskrat Falls, New York Times crossword puzzle, Nova Scotia Power, Omicron, Owls Head, Paul Johnston, Rick Stroud, South Africa, Stephen Kimber, The Marshall Project, Tory Rushton, World Health Organization, X-ring ceremony, Zane Woodford, Zoom

Natural born quillers

Morning File, Monday, November 22, 2021

November 22, 2021 By Philip Moscovitch 1 Comment

We are into the home stretch of the Halifax Examiner annual subscription drive. If you are already a subscriber, thank you. If you are not yet a subscriber, please subscribe. A few weeks ago, Jeremy Klaszus of the Calgary digital news site The Sprawl tweeted that he had been thinking a lot about a quote […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: car crashes, Cheryl Simon, French tacos, Haley Ryan, hemlock, Indigenous art, Jean Laroche, Josie McKinney, Kay Sark, Lyle Howe, Matthew Byard, Montreal, Nova Scotia Barristers' Society, Philip Croucher, Philip Moscovitch, Quill art, Quilling, Robie Street, Scott Smith, StarMetro Halifax, Stephen Kimber, Steve MacKay, Taryn Grant, The Quill Sisters podcast, The Star Halifax, Tim Covell, Traffic, Traffic calming, Typewriters, Underwood, Yvette d'Entremont, Zane Woodford

The romance of the typewriter

Morning File, Monday, November 15, 2021

November 15, 2021 By Philip Moscovitch 4 Comments

Good morning! We are halfway through the annual Halifax Examiner November subscription drive. Of course, you can subscribe any old time, but it’s particularly helpful if you subscribe in November. Why? Well, it gives the Examiner a good idea of what it can budget for reporting in the coming year. Is there money to launch […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Canadian Association of Physician Assistants, David Hayes, Duncan Idaho, Dune, emergency room closures, family doctors, Golden Girls, Matthew Byard, MLA Susan Leblanc, Philip Moscovitch, Saliva, Stephen Kimber, Stilgar, Suzanne Rent, Tim Covell, Tim Houston, typewriter

Martin was abused when he was a child in provincial custody at the Youth Training Centre in Waterville; now he’s an adult in provincial jail and can’t get counselling

"People don't want to have to talk to the police about it, they don't want to go to court about it, they don't want to deal with that side of it. So a lot of people may not qualify for counselling because they don't want to tell their story. It stirs up stuff that they don't want to think about."

October 28, 2021 By El Jones 2 Comments

Names in this story have been changed for confidentiality. This article contains discussion of childhood sexual abuse. From the time I began working with incarcerated men in Nova Scotia, I heard stories about abuse at the “Youth Training Centre” for supposed young offenders in Waterville. In phone calls and letters, as we built trust together, […]

Filed Under: Black Nova Scotia, Featured, Health Tagged With: Ashley Smith, Black incarceration, El Jones, incarceration, Nova Scotia, Nova Scotia Youth Centre, prisons, sexual abuse, Stephen Kimber, trauma, Waterville

Weekend File

The articles we published from October 16 to 22, 2021.

October 23, 2021 By Suzanne Rent Leave a Comment

Welcome to Weekend File. Here are links to all the articles you might have missed last week. Jump to sections in this article: Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday     Sunday, October 17 1. White lawyer Nash Brogan and Black lawyer Lyle Howe are each charged with professional misconduct, but the Barristers Society is […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Albert Marshall, Allana Loh, Alton Gas, anti-vaxxer, Blue Mountain-Birch Cove Lakes Wilderness Area, Bunside, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS-NS), CBRM, COVID-19, CPAWS, Devin Maxwell, Disability, Disability Atlantic Arts Symposium, Eastern Front Theatre, Fademasters, fat bikes, Fat Juliet, Halifax, Halifax Board of Police Commissioners, Halifax Regional Council, Halifax Transit, Halifax’s License Appeal Committee, Harry Critchley, homelessness, housing crisis, Kayla Borden, Law Amendments Committee, Lionel Desmond, Lyle Howe, Mary Campbell, Nash Brogan, nicole gnazdowsky, Northern Pulp, Nova Scotia, Nova Scotia Barristers' Society, Nova Scotia Police Review Board, Peggy's Cove, Port Wallace, Raymond Sheppard, Shubenacadie River, Spring Garden Road, Stephen Kimber, Tremanye "Trobiz" Howe, urban legend, Valley Regional Hospital, Weekend File Oct 23 2021, Zane Woodford

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PRICED OUT

A collage of various housing options in HRM, including co-ops, apartment buildings, shelters, and tents
PRICED OUT is the Examiner’s investigative reporting project focused on the housing crisis.

You can learn about the project, including how we’re asking readers to direct our reporting, our published articles, and what we’re working on, on the PRICED OUT homepage.

2020 mass murders

Nine images illustrating the locations, maps, and memorials of the mass shootings

All of the Halifax Examiner’s reporting on the mass murders of April 18/19, 2020, and recent articles on the Mass Casualty Commission and newly-released documents.

Updated regularly.

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.

The Tideline, with Tara Thorne

Two young white women, one with dark hair and one blonde, smile at the camera on a sunny spring day.

Episode 79 of The Tideline, with Tara Thorne, is published.

Grace McNutt and Linnea Swinimer are the Minute Women, two Haligonians who host a podcast of the same name about Canadian history as seen through a lens of Heritage Minutes (minutewomenpodcast.ca). In a lively celebration of the show’s second birthday, they stop by to reveal how curling brought them together in podcast — and now BFF — form, their favourite Minutes, that time they thought Jean Chretien was dead, and the impact their show has had. Plus music from brand-new ECMA winners Hillsburn and Zamani.

Listen to the episode here.

Check out some of the past episodes here.

Subscribe to the podcast to get episodes automatically downloaded to your device — there’s a great instructional article here. Email Suzanne for help.

You can reach Tara here.

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Recent posts

  • Last week tied the record for weekly COVID deaths in Nova Scotia May 20, 2022
  • National study to assess pandemic’s health impacts, potential long-term effects of COVID-19 May 19, 2022
  • NSTU president concerned about conflict as province announces end to mask mandate in schools May 19, 2022
  • Royal flush: the monarchy’s role in reconciliation and Canada today May 19, 2022
  • Dartmouth man charged with wilful promotion of hatred May 19, 2022

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