Earlier this fall when Premier Tim Houston announced that Pat Dunn, a white man, would be the new Minister of African Nova Scotian Affairs, Vanessa Fells immediately started getting phone calls from media asking her for comment on Dunn’s appointment. “When things like that happen, our members only meet once a month,” Fells said. “So, […]
Weekend File
A look back on our stories from July 31 to August 6, 2021.
Welcome to Weekend File, where you’ll find links to all the articles you might have missed last week. Jump to sections in this article: Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Saturday, July 31 1. Liberals unveil plans for affordable housing, anti-racism, and inclusion Jennifer Henderson reported on the Liberal Party’s social policy platform, […]
Lockdown is loosening and apples are blossoming
Morning File, Wednesday, June 2, 2021
Step out of lockdown and into “PHASE 1” of reopening, Nova Scotia. May we never look back … News 1. COVID-19 update Reopening, “Phase 1” As of 8am today, lockdown restrictions in Nova Scotia are lightening (slightly). We’re now in “phase 1” of the province’s reopening plan. Among the changes in restrictions: You can now […]
Defund the Halifax police
With calls around the world to redirect police resources, Halifax city councillors are tripping over themselves to see who can be most "pro police"
Since the widely publicized death of George Floyd at the hands of MPD officer Derek Chauvin (what some commentators have called a “televised lynching”), calls for police accountability and even abolition have been growing, with protestors taking to the street in cities across North America, including Halifax. These calls are beginning to be heard and […]
Halifax cops and Black people: the Rodney Small case
Morning File, Thursday, June 4, 2020
News 1. Police and Black people in Halifax The police murder of George Floyd is highlighting what Black people have known forever: there is too much policing. On Tuesday, Sarah Dobson drew our attention to the Halifax case of Rodney Small, then a 15-year-old living in Uniacke Square. An appellant court ruling explained the (alleged) […]
Street checks: there’s not much hope for change
This month, Nova Scotia passed a law banning street checks – but what will change? Even before Retired Justice Michael MacDonald’s 108-page report concluded that street checking – the practice of stopping of citizens to collect and record their personal information — contravenes freedoms guaranteed by the Charter and at common law, street checking had […]
What did Halifax’s new police chief Dan Kinsella learn in Hamilton?
Hamilton is the hate crime capital of Canada, but instead of investigating the white supremacist and other right-wing terrorist groups targeting Black, Jewish, and the LGBTQ communities, Hamilton police trained its investigative unit on people of colour and anarchists. And, with Kinsella in an administrative position, the Hamilton police adopted new methods of surveillance of marginalized people, and bloated its budget with the purchase of militarized equipment.
Since his arrival in Halifax and swearing in this summer, Halifax police chief Dan Kinsella has been making the rounds, meeting with police and community members. As the legislature returns for the fall session, questions will resume about street checks, and how the government and police intend to address the issues raised by the Wortley […]
Board looks to expand police data collection to identify race-based patterns in all police stops
Morning File, Tuesday, September 17, 2019
News 1. Police data collection The police board has approved a motion to ask Halifax Regional Police for a plan to implement a Wortley report recommendation that would see racial data collected on all police stops, including traffic stops. Currently, that data is only collected for street checks, and shows that Black Haligonians are six […]
New top cop Dan Kinsella: no racial profiling, just “some inequalities, some negative experiences”
Morning File, Wednesday, July 10, 2019
News 1. New police chief won’t say “racial bias” Dan Kinsella, the new Halifax police chief was a guest on CBC Radio’s Information Morning today. Host Portia Clark, in her polite and persistent way, pressed him a couple of times on the question of street checks and racial profiling. Asked about street checks, Kinsella replied: […]
A lot of people in Halifax will be hungover at work on Thursday
Morning File, Tuesday, May 21, 2019
News 1. Gold “Here’s the deal,” writes Joan Baxter: On Wednesday, May 14, an Australian gold mining company called St. Barbara Limited, with one gold mine in Australia and a second one in Papua New Guinea, agreed to pay $722 million for Atlantic Gold Corporation, which operates one open pit gold mine in Nova Scotia, […]