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 to the assault of Chief Michael Sack that occurred on Wednesday October 14, in New Edinburgh.

RCMP have charged 46-year-old, Chris Gerald Melanson, of Digby County with Assault. Melanson was arrested yesterday evening, October 16, and has been released from custody on conditions. He is scheduled to appear in Digby Provincial Court December 21 at 9:30 a.m.

The investigation is ongoing.

The Nova Scotia RCMP will continue to take steps to ensure that those who unlawfully interfere with or threaten the safety of any person or property may be held accountable in accordance with the laws of Canada.

The second arrest was related to Tuesday’s burning of a van at the lobster pound that was later itself burned to the ground on Friday:

RCMP charge man as a result of vehicle fire in New Edinburgh

October 18, 2020, New Edinburgh, Nova Scotia…Meteghan RCMP have laid charges in relation to a vehicle fire that occurred on Tuesday October 13, 2020.

On October 13, Meteghan RCMP were called to a disturbance outside a lobster pound in New Edinburgh.  While on scene, police extinguished a vehicle that was on fire and heavily damaged.

The RCMP began the investigation and have charged 31-year-old, Michael Burton Nickerson, of Yarmouth County with Arson – Damage to Property.

Nickerson was arrested yesterday afternoon, October 17. He has been released from custody on conditions and is scheduled to appear in Digby Provincial Court December 21 at 9:30 a.m.

The RCMP has a significant presence in the Meteghan area, including general duty officers from several local detachments; officers from across the division and RCMP in Prince Edward Island with specialized training in de-escalation and crowd control. Our Division Liaison Team is also fully engaged in the area, continuing their work to build and maintain relationships among those involved.

The investigation is ongoing.

The Nova Scotia RCMP will continue to take steps to ensure that those who unlawfully interfere with or threaten the safety of any person or property may be held accountable in accordance with the laws of Canada.

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2. Reactions

Supporters of the Mi’kmaw lobster harvesters gather on the rocks along the Saulnierville Wharf on Sept. 17, 2020/Photo by Stephen Brake

“About a thousand people gathered in Grand Parade on Sunday, singing, drumming and voicing their support for Indigenous harvesters on Nova Scotia’s southwestern shore, who are exercising their right to fish — outside the commercial season,” reports Elizabeth McSheffrey for Global News:

It’s an assertion of treaty, constitution and court-protected rights that has cost Sipekne’katik fishers dearly since their launch of a moderate livelihood fishery in mid-September. This week, they were the target of assault, arson, vandalism, threats and intimidation.

“Four cabinet ministers and the NDP have requested an emergency debate in the House of Commons over a treaty dispute between commercial fishermen and Mi’kmaq fishers,” reports the Canadian Press this morning:

Fisheries and Oceans Minister Bernadette Jordan says parliamentarians should have the opportunity to voice their concerns about the violence that’s erupted over the dispute about Mi’kmaq treaty rights to fish for a “moderate living.”

She and three other ministers — Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller, Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett and Public Safety Minister Bill Blair — requested the debate in a letter to the House Speaker last night.

“There is no excuse — period, full stop — for the violence and vandalism currently taking place in southwest Nova Scotia,” writes Stephen Kimber:

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.

Click here to read “Troubled Waters.”

Kimber is getting a bit of push-back on this, with some people saying the second sentence contradicts the first, or that he really is excusing racism.

Readers can decide for themselves whether Kimber expressed it inelegantly. For myself, I think context does indeed matter, if only so we can better understand how, why, and when racism is expressed, and perhaps so we can learn how to respond to it.

There’s a view that “racism” is merely and only the direct active violence and discrimination of one individual against another.

Take, for example, when Const. Kenneth O’Brien said “I am not a racist person,”and that “race was not a factor” in the arrest of Adam LeRue. I don’t have enough information to say one way or the other whether the arrest was warranted, and I have no reason to think O’Brien doesn’t believe what he said, but my first reaction to O’Brien’s statement was “that’s ridiculous.”

That’s because I know racism is embedded in myself. How could it not be? I grew up in a starkly segregated community that grew out of slavery and Jim Crow, and that just a few years before I was born shuttered its public schools rather than integrate them. Racist attitudes were expressed openly, but even when not, they were part of the fabric of everyday life — from the neighbourhoods we lived in, to how schools were run, to what were considered the “good” and “bad” parts of town, to who got hired into what jobs and what was expected of them, to how sports leagues were organized, which children played with each other, and on and on and on. Literally everything was to some degree an expression of racism. I’m no genius, but I’m smart enough to realize that that racism influenced how I think and react. It’s not enough, or even true, for me to say, “I’m not racist.” Rather, I have to say, “this terrible legacy has infected me, and I have to actively work to counter it, and even then I’ll probably often fail.”

Anti-indigenous racism in Nova Scotia has its own history, is embedded in society in particular ways, and expresses itself distinctly. But there’s no getting around it: by virtue of, well, conquest, the entire society is deeply — systemically — racist.

Understand that racism is the economy. English Canada was built on the enslavement of millions of people. While the bulk of that slavery happened south of here, the North American imperial enterprise as a whole was funded by slavery. Were there not slavery, there’d be no empire, and therefore no Canada. And the conquest of Canada necessarily meant othering Indigenous peoples and considering them a lesser kind of humanity in order to justify taking their land and destroying their cultures and economies. The entire Canadian enterprise was and is racist. You can’t separate the two because they are one and the same.

Likewise, the Nova Scotia economy is dependent in large part on the export of lobster — it’s responsible for something like a quarter of the GDP. Back when people travelled for business, our premier regularly flew to China to shill the lobster industry, with great success. Those of us working in Halifax very much benefit from the sale of lobster, and to the degree that the industry is racist, so are our jobs and our own livelihoods.

But what do we do with that? Of course acts of violence should be condemned and the protagonists arrested, but I don’t think it gets us very far to say “those people over there are racists and bad and we people over here are not racist and so are therefore good.”

In my university days, we pretend radicals spent a lot of time trying to understand where blue collar working people were coming from. It was taken for granted that capitalists purposefully and consciously stoked racism in order to divide the workforce to better control workers. It’s a bit more complicated than that, I now realize, but there’s truth to it. And just as well, there is no doubt a corporate agenda at play in stoking the racism in the lobster fishery. (See Linda Pannozzo and Joan Baxter’s threepart series on the lobster fishery for an in-depth discussion of that.)

There’s a game American liberals and leftists are playing right now, with regard to Trump supporters: are they economically threatened or simply racists? It’s a stupid question, for a lot of reasons. To begin with, plenty of quite wealthy people are Trump supporters. But more to the point, separating out the economy and racism is pretending that the economy itself is not racist. Every bit of the economy is racist. Racism is embedded in everything.

In terms of the lobster fishery, it seems to me that the relatively (relative to the enormous and growing overall catch) tiny pursuit of a “moderate livelihood” for Indigenous fishermen can be easily worked out so that everyone is satisfied. But racism? Man, that’s going to take more work than we’re prepared for, I fear.

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3. Women take half of Halifax council seats

The women elected to Halifax regional council on Saturday. Top row, from left: Cathy Deagle-Gammon, Becky Kent, Trish Purdy, and Kathryn Morse. Bottom row, from left: Iona Stoddard, Pamela Lovelace, and Deputy Mayor Lisa Blackburn.

“Just two years after guys named Steve outnumbered women on regional council, Haligonians have opted for near gender parity,” reported Zane Woodford late Saturday night:

At least seven women were elected to serve as councillors in Halifax Regional Municipality for the next four years, according to unofficial election results tallied Saturday night.

Click here to read “Women win big in Halifax election, full unofficial results delayed in some districts.”

Patty Cuttell — Photo: Zane Woodford
Patty Cuttell — Photo: Zane Woodford

One of the delayed election results was for District 11, but on Sunday unofficial results were in, and Patty Cuttell came up victorious. Again, Woodford:

Patty Cuttell is the unofficial winner in District 11 — Spryfield-Sambro Loop-Prospect Road, beating runner-up Bruce Holland by just 28 votes.

Click here to read “Following delay in Halifax election results, Patty Cuttell unofficially wins District 11 by 28 votes.”

So, unless a recount reverses Cuttell’s victory, fully half of the council seats will be occupied by women, which is a long-overdue and astonishing reversal of fortune.

I’ve long argued that reducing the size of council from 23 to 16 seats — and therefore increasing the size of each district — favoured the “traditional” white male incumbent candidates with connections to the business community, and that seemed self-evident as the percentage of women decreased every election since.

Until now. Suddenly, we not only have half the seats occupied by women, but two by Black people (Iona Stoddard and Lindell Smith, who was reelected), and on top of that, two incumbents (Richard Zurawski and Steve Streatch) were defeated, a very unusual occurrence.

I don’t have a theory for what happened. Maybe the pandemic and/or electronic voting (which I’ve long opposed) have an unexpected (by me) democratizing effect. I’ll think about it more. I’m happy to be wrong about stuff, and can revise my stands on these issues.

But for now, I’m going to go with the best and simplest explanation: the winning candidates ran good campaigns and appealed most to voters. That’s how it’s supposed to work.

Oh, incidentally, another woman, Amanda McDougal, defeated incumbent Cape Breton Regional Municipality Mayor Cecil Clarke.

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4. Nursing homes

The Northwood nursing home on Gottingen Street in Halifax. Photo: Halifax Examiner

“For the first time in Nova Scotia, two eldercare advocacy groups have joined forces with unionized healthcare workers to push the provincial government to address chronic labour shortages and underfunding affecting thousands of seniors requiring nursing home care,” reports Jennifer Henderson.

Click here to read “Eldercare advocacy groups and unions join forces to press for more nursing home funding.”

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5. COVID-19

Photo by Fusion Medical Animation on Unsplash

There were four new cases of COVID-19 announced in Nova Scotia over the weekend. All four are in Nova Scotia Health’s Central Zone (basically, HRM and Windsor), and all four people self-isolated as required. There are now six known active cases of the disease in the province, but thankfully none of the people are in hospital (the one person who was in ICU for over three weeks is no longer in hospital, and that person’s case is considered resolved).

Related to the new cases, Nova Scotia Health has issued four advisories about potential exposure, three of which are flights into the airport, and one which is a cab from the airport, as follows:

Air Canada flight 610 on October 12 from Toronto to Halifax. It departed Toronto at 2:10 pm. Passengers in rows 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 seats D, E, F are more likely to have had close contact. Passengers in these seats are asked to self-isolate as required, monitor for symptoms and call 811 for advice.

Air Canada flight 604 on October 12 from Toronto to Halifax. It departed Toronto at 8 am. Passengers in rows 27, 28, 29, 30 seats A, B and C are more likely to have had close contact. Passengers in these seats are asked to continue to self-isolate as required, monitor for symptoms and call 811 for advice.

It is anticipated that anyone exposed to the virus on these flights may develop symptoms up to, and including, October 26. Those present on these flights but not in the identified rows and seats should continue to self-isolate as required and self-monitor for signs and symptoms of COVID-19 until October 26.

The advisory is related to an individual(s) who accessed a cab departing the Halifax International Airport on October 12 between 5-6 pm, travelling to a residence in Halifax. The advisory is being issued out of an abundance of caution.

In addition, Nova Scotia Health is directly contacting anyone else known to be a close contact of the person(s) confirmed to have COVID-19.

It is anticipated that anyone exposed may develop symptoms up to and including October 26, 2020.

Air Canada flight 604 on October 15 from Toronto to Halifax. It departed Toronto at 8 am. Passengers in rows 21-27 seats D, E and F are more likely to have had close contact. Passengers in these seats are asked to continue to self-isolate as required, monitor for symptoms and call 811 for advice.

It is anticipated that anyone exposed to the virus on these flights may develop symptoms up to, and including, October 29. Those present on these flights but not in the identified rows and seats should continue to self-isolate as required and self-monitor for signs and symptoms of COVID-19 until October 26.

Evidently, as more cases appear in the rest of Canada, we’re getting more travellers into the Atlantic Bubble with the disease. That’s to be expected, but so far those travellers are self-isolating and appear not to be contributing to further spread. The system is working as designed.

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Noticed

A side-scan sonar image of the Straits of Mackinac lake bottom, taken on Sept. 23, 2020, shows what appears to be stones in at least a half-circle, visible in the orange and yellow band on the left, about halfway down. Side-scan sonar uses ultra-sonic waves bounced along a lake bottom to detect items on the sea floor. The group behind the Straits exploration believe this is evidence of rocks intentionally placed there by a culture at a time when the area would have been above-water — around the end of the Ice Age some 10,000 years ago.

“A team of nonscientists may have inadvertently confirmed the most important finding in Great Lakes archaeology in at least a decade,” reports Keith Matheny for the Detroit Free Press:

The group, made up mostly of Native American tribal citizens, utilized a remote-operated underwater vehicle in the Straits of Mackinac to take a look at Enbridge’s Line 5 oil and natural gas pipelines on the lake bottom. But among the things they found were stones they say appear arranged in circular and linear patterns on the lake floor.

If that was done by the hands of humans, it occurred when the Straits area was last above water — near the end of the last Ice Age, about 10,000 years ago.

“We didn’t expect to find this — it was really just amazing,” said Andrea Pierce, a 56-year-old Ypsilanti resident and citizen of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, who was one of four women who drove the project to inspect the Straits bottom.

“My question is, who knew they were there?”

The finding seems to correlate with a University of Michigan archaeologist’s 2009 discovery of similar stone formations under water in Lake Huron, near Alpena, also believed from an ancient, Ice Age-era culture. That professor, John O’Shea, told state officials in February that a consultant, hired by Enbridge to explore the area of its proposed Straits tunnel pipeline project, relayed to O’Shea that he had seen similar rock formations in the Straits.

The entire article is worth reading; it’s a fascinating look at the history and politics of the Enbridge pipelines, and how native people and others came together in an unlikely endeavour to inspect the pipelines.

I recall as a child learning about one of the oldest English settlements in Virginia Beach that had been consumed by the Lynnhaven River; even in the 18th century people would swim in the water and “read” the submerged tombstones with their toes. So people have been curious about things under water for a long time.

Underwater archeology started in earnest with the invention of SCUBA gear in the 20th century, but for a long time focused primarily on finding shipwrecks. More recently, however, archaeologists have realized that there’s a wealth of sites worth exploring, as the last 10,000 years or so has seen sea levels rise, submerging lots of what used to be oceanfront and waterfront human habitations.

There’s probably much to be explored right here in the Halifax area.

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Government

City

No meetings.

Province

Monday

No meetings.

Tuesday

Veterans Affairs (Tuesday, 2pm, Province House) — Don McCumber and Valerie Mitchell-Veinotte from the Royal Canadian Legion – Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command will talk about poppies.


On campus

Dalhousie

Monday

A photo of Noreen kam from Dalhousie University.
Noreen Kamal

Improved Health Outcomes for Ischemic Stroke Patients Across the Entire Population of Alberta Through a Provincial DoortoNeedle Initiative (Monday, 12:30pm) — Noreen Kamal will tell us

Stroke is a devastating disease, as it is the leading cause of severe disability. Ischemic stroke, the most common type of stroke, is treatable with intravenous alteplase; however, the effectiveness of this treatment is highly time dependent. In stroke minutes matter! A provincial Improvement Collaborative methodology was deployed from April 2015 to September 2016. with a vision to lower door-to-needle times across the province. A full pre-post analysis of the Improvement Collaborative was conducted using data from July 2007 to December 2017. Results show that the percentage of patients discharged home from acute care increased from 45.6% to 59.5% (P<0.0001), and the in-hospital mortality decreased from 14.5% to 10.5% (P=0.0990). An overview of how this research will be translated to Atlantic Canada through the ACTEAST (Atlantic Canada Together Enhancing Acute Stroke Treatment) project will be discussed.​

More info and link here.

Tuesday

Coastal Risk Governance: Lessons From COVID19 (Tuesday, 7pm) — From the listing:

​If both COVID-19 and climate change are to be treated as emergencies, the response by our leadership should have many of the same characteristics, including a clear, adaptable, and coordinated approach. This panel will explore viable policy options for the climate during and following the challenges brought about by COVID-19.

Info and link here.

Saint Mary’s

Monday

Navigating the Library: Resources and Search Strategies to be a Top-Notch Researcher (Monday, 7pm) — more info and webinar registration here.

Tuesday

Women in Retail (Tuesday, 10am) — online panel with Solange Strom, Annemarie Dillard, Sarah Jordan, Janis Leigh, and Meghna Modi, who will

discuss their journey to executive positions in the retail sector. Tune in as they talk about valuable lessons learned, challenges faced, and share advice to the next generation of young female leaders interested in a career in retail.

Register here.

A photo of Margaret Robinson
Margaret Robinson

Conversation on Indigenous Issues (Tuesday, 2pm) — online video premiere of a conversation with Margaret Robinson. More info and registration here.


In the harbour

01:30: APL Dublin, container ship, sails from Pier 41 for New York
03:00: Siem Commander, offshore supply ship, sails from Old Coast Guard base for the Sable Island field
05:30: Siem Cicero, car carrier, arrives at Autoport from Emden, Germany
09:00: Maersk Mobiliser, offshore supply ship, arrives at Pier 27 from the Sable Island field
10:00: One Magnificence, container ship, sails from Fairview Cove for Dubai
10:00: Atlantic Sail, ro-ro container, arrives at Fairview Cove from Liverpool, England
12:30: East Coast, oil tanker, arrives at Irving Oil from Quebec City
15:30: Siem Cicero sails for sea
16:00: MOL Emissary, container ship, arrives at Fairview Cove from New York
16:30: Atlantic Sail sails for New York


Footnotes

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Tim Bousquet

Tim Bousquet is the editor and publisher of the Halifax Examiner. Twitter @Tim_Bousquet Mastodon

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19 Comments

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  1. Ian Porter commented: “Tim Bousquet’s self-examination for inherent racist attitudes is an exercise we all need to undertake. It would be little easy, though, to identify racism as the sole source of anger among southwest Nova fishers…”

    As I see it, Tim showed racism is the sole source of anger in that the capitalist economy (profit) is the issue here and the economy is racist. Tim noted that “separating out the economy and racism is pretending that the economy itself is not racist.” Capitalism and Racism are conjoined. Racism is not an offshoot of capitalism; it was integral to its development. The capitalist system of profit-making and system of discrimination (racism) are mutually reinforcing. As stratification economist, Darrick Hamilton, puts it: “Racism is a tool, a mechanism. In many settings, it’s purposeful. Sure, bias can become implicit or unconscious through socialization. When people are exposed to negative racial images and rhetoric to denigrate black people, they begin to react differently. But that is a secondary effect from the initial tool that was used.” While ”self-examination of for inherent racist attitudes is an exercise we all need to undertake,” enlightenment of such alone will not solve the problem of racism. That’s because, as Hamilton put it: “You’re not getting down to the root. Racism is profitable.”

    If I’ve misrepresented Tim’s argument, I’m sure he will let me know.

  2. The median after tax Canadian income in 2018$ was 91k/household for those under 65. There were 51k metric tones of lobster caught/sold? in N.S. in 2014. At 5$/pound not taking into account overhead there would be enough for about 10 000 households to live off the N.S. lobster fishery at a median income. Obviously overhead is significant and the ridiculous artifice of license value is another kettle of fish. Only a finite amount of lobster can be caught per year and it is currently almost all caught by non First Nations. That is where the quota needs to be reduced. I don’t see how it can be fixed otherwise. Please correct me if there’s any other solution to this issue.

  3. Your comparison of Constable O’Brien to yourself is infuriating. He did not grow up in the U.S as you did and besides, who gave you the ability to see what is in a person’s heart? You don’t speak for all white people.

  4. Just a great analysis of racism by Tim Bousquet. It is noticeable that its full import is not reflected in the comments to date. It reminds me of a letter to the editor of the Globe and Mail from 12 December 2014, A18, titled “Rinelle’s Canada” by one Josephine Grayson of Toronto. It was written in response to an article published two days before titled “Teen survivor of Winnipeg attack calls for national inquiry:”

    ‘Rinelle Harper and Malala Yousafzai are teenaged girls who suffered horrendous physical assaults. Both survived. And both are showing great courage in speaking of changes that must be brought about in their societies.
    The Canadian government and people have celebrated Ms. Yousafzai. We have not shown such recognition of Ms. Harper, probably because the assault happened in Canada and the society that needs to change is ours.’

  5. Tim Bousquet’s self-examination for inherent racist attitudes is an exercise we all need to undertake. It would be little easy, though, to identify racism as the sole source of anger among southwest Nova fishers. Support for lobster conservation has been hard won over the past generation. It took a lot of effort by fisheries officers and industry organizations to hammer the idea of a collective interest into some very hard heads. That by no means justifies violent, destructive, threatening demonstrations but it is a history that will need to be taken into account if any workable settlement is to be achieved.

    1. For decades men and women fishers around the province have stopped lobster fishing in the summer because the science and studies show that lobsters are breeding and females are carrying their eggs that can be destroyed if they are hauled up in traps, shells are soft due to molting or shedding their shells and are not good for export – and the heat in the summer can make a significant number of lobsters weak and die quickly. This is a critical time – and lobsters need to be left alone.

      This “time out” is what has kept this industry alive for decades. It is a major conservation measure.

      In the summer – in our inlets, harbours and bays – lobsters migrate to reproduce. Now, that is all being cast aside – to start a moderate livelihood…right at the time when lobsters are the most vulnerable.

      One would think that many Nova Scotians would understand that this is the real issue…the real concern. But nope. The media – the Mi’kmaq – have spun this around so that it is no longer a conservation issue – but they have implied that it is racism.

      The headline – “Commercial Fishermen Stand up for Conservation” wouldn’t sell many headlines now would it – but this is just as true.

      And for those who think that this is just a few traps and does no harm like that Dalhousie woman interviewed by CBC – who has never been on the water?

      One trap can catch around 20 pounds of lobster in the summer.

      In the winter when it is cold – they may catch 3-4 measure (legal) lobsters.

      Chief Sack says that he issued 7 licenses at 50 traps each.

      That is 350 traps can potentially be removing 7000 pounds of lobster a day from a bay when the lobsters are BREEDING!

      Multiply that by 30 days in a month – for six months…and after several years – we are ruining the bay for everyone…

      Allow this to happen in every harbour along the coast?

      And it’s not good. The writing is on the wall…

      Yes – they have a right…but it is being practiced in the wrong time of year.

      1. Oh dear, facts aren’t welcome when it comes to allegations of racism. Chief Sack picked a time and a place to start a fight and get a definitive result. Good for him, Justin is full of puffery but now he has to ensure a just and legally sound settlement of the issue is reached before the violence gets worse. On Saturday CBC broadcast a 1 hour long documentary about the death/murder/manslaughter of a fisherman near Isle Madame.
        I know from personal experience that many fishermen have their own way of settling affairs and without recourse to the police. I can recall one telling me ‘Be careful who you go hunting with’.

      2. So if I went and grabbed 1 lobster during the summer did I ruin the fishery? 2? Where does the number become a conservation threat? I’d tend to side with the science on this one, rather than the knee-jerk “one is too many!” feeling, that no doubt comes from white fishers’ jealousy rather than any concern for the stocks (see: pouring chemicals in fished lobster).

        I also understand that the moderate livelihood fishery is actively avoiding fishing molting and pregnant lobster.

        1. In Maine they fish lobster year round. About 100km across the bay. They have managed their fishery successfully for just as long as those here who take the summer off. In the warm gulf of St. Lawrence they fish during the summer months you seem to think are so crucial. Clearwater and Membertou fish year round in LFA 31. There are a variety of ways to manage the resource.

          It’s not your job to tell the Mi’kmaq how or why or where to fish. That’s why this whole thing is off the rails.

          Being a good partner in conservation means that it’s your job to LISTEN to them and accept that they have traditional practices that are at least equal in value and likely something you and everybody else can learn from. Have an open mind.

  6. The riddle of racism

    There is a Mi’kmaq inshore lobster fishery going on right now off Cape Breton–without any racist violence. Are white fishers in Cape Breton less racist? Are the white fishers In Comeauville more?

    Too bad David Graeber the “anarchist anthropologist” just died. He probably could have helped give us an answer.

    1. David Graeber @davidgraeber wrote: “I’m an anthropologist, sometimes I occupy things & such. I see anarchism as something you do not an identity so don’t call me the anarchist anthropologist.”

      Perhaps not an issue of more or less racist, but rather more or less greedy. Angry white fishers with a sense of entitlement see this lucrative industry as their domain and don’t want to share it. Perhaps white fishers in Cape Breton believe past conflict, fights, violence was not good for them and that co-operation, co-existence with indigenous fishers is best for everyone.

  7. Who knew you can win an election with less than 20% of the votes – Cuttell 19.6% in Spryfield; Purdy 19.7%. in Cole Harbour.

    1. Another First Past the Post result.
      So 80% of those in that district who bothered to vote did not choose the winning candidate. This is why we should be using a ranked ballot IMHO.

      Wonder what voter turnout was? 25-30%?
      With online, phone and paper vote options, there really was no excuse for almost anyone choosing to ignore such a basic civic duty. We all face the consequences of electing these people to represent us in City Hall. That’s why I believe all voting should be mandatory.

      Finally I believe all ballot papers should have None of the above as the last option. Should that win, a caretaker representative would be appointed by the relevant elections body pending a new election in which candidates rejected this time would not be allowed to run. I can just see Halifax City Council or political parties supporting that!

  8. Infected people should not be permitted to go anywhere on an airplane. It’s unthinkable that after 9 months we still don’t have a readily available instant test for Covid.

  9. Was it slavery that made empire possible? Or empire that made slaery possible? There may be a chicken-and-egg cunundrum here.
    The chief way in which most of us may be implicated in slavery is through the capital accumulation generated by plantation economiess that produced cotton, tobacco, sugur, rice–sources of capital that could be invested in time in other industries as they developed, from which future generations derived much income and dividends; capital and earnings that were directed to phinanthropic endevours, such as universities, which are now agonizing on how to deal with that legacy.