It’s February, the most dangerous month of the year for free speech and free expression in Canada. A good way to start off the month if you’re white is by a bunch of white people having a conversation among themselves about how important it is to have a conversation about whether blackface is racist or […]
Bearing Witness and Paying Tribute: Morning File, Saturday, November 18
1. What it’s like when someone dies in custody. An original report from prisoners Background. November 22nd will be 10 years since the death of Howard Hyde in custody. Hyde was tasered by correctional officers during a mental health crisis. His death also marks the last time there was a public inquiry in the province into […]
Arise Ye Nova Scotia Slaves: Morning File, Friday, February 10, 2017
News 1. Teachers reject contract The Nova Scotia Teachers Union sent out the following release last night: Teachers reject tentative agreement Nova Scotia’s 9,300 public school teachers have voted to reject a third tentative agreement reached between the Nova Scotia Teachers Union and the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development since the opening of […]
When We Name Who We Are: Morning File, Saturday, December 17, 2016
1. Inside Out I write a lot about prison, and most of what I write about are the terrible things that happen to people inside. But along with the sad and tragic and painful and unjust things, there are also moments we don’t talk about as much, moments of compassion, and resilience, and transformation that […]
On the Money: Morning File, Saturday, December 10, 2016
News
Viola Desmond, Carrie Best, and serving face
A Black journalist and her newspaper championed Desmond's cause
Having abandoned my dream to become a prison warden, I came late to a journalism career. There was one other Black woman at the San Francisco Chronicle when I joined the staff, as a rookie reporter, in the mid-1980s. But having had a falling out with the powers-that-be over the paper’s lackluster coverage of the local Black […]