News
1. Assembly of First Nations continues
Halifax Examiner coverage includes:
Ghislain Picard named Interim National Chief
AFN renews call for national inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women
Tsilhqot’in ruling could set precedent in land disputes, AFN hears
The last two articles are behind the Examiner’s pay wall. You can purchase a subscription here.
2. NSCAD rejects affiliating with Dalhousie
To the great relief of students, the college’s board of governors decides to go it alone.
3. Preepers convicted of the murder of Melissa Peacock
If you need the gruesome details.
4. Roundabout construction
North Park Street is closed for five weeks.
5. How low is the crime rate?
The two-man murdering spree of the Preeper brothers aside, the crime rate is otherwise so low that people breaking into vending machines is now considered “news.” Metro is on it, or you could just read the police department’s news release.
Views
1. Protected ocean reserves
Canada’s ocean reserves appear to be puny compared to the areas protected by other nations, says Parker Donham.
2. The Musée des Acadiens des Pubnicos
Gillian Wesley and Drew Moore go there.
Government
No government meetings today
On Campus
Dalhousie
Book launch (5pm, University Club dining room)—Author Janet Kitz presents her book Andrew Cobb: Architect and Artist.
Halifax Planetarium (7:15pm, Room 120, Dunn Building, 6310 Coburg Road)—”Lives of the Stars.” Says the planetarium: “Not all stars are created equal! From small brown dwarfs to white supergiants, stars range in size and age; some have bizarre properties, quite unlike our sun!” Five bucks at the door.
Daily Plug
After New Orleans, San Francisco is the most distinctive American city. But SF’s storied past and supposed left-leaning present isn’t reflected in the mainstream media of the town. The San Francisco Chronicle has taken an absurd conservative editorial line in recent years, perhaps because the once-great alt weekly, the Bay Guardian, has all but collapsed, providing no progressive media voice to balance the corporate line. The Guardian once routinely published 100 page+ editions but after long-time publisher Bruce Brugmann sold the paper in 2012, it is now often slimmer than Halifax’s Coast. Worse, last year the new corporate owners of the Guardian fired Tim Redmond, who Brugmann calls “one of the finest editors in the country.”
When I lived in California I sought out the Guardian every week, which wasn’t easy to do in Chico, a three-hour drive away from San Francisco. I particularly enjoyed reading Redmond’s articles, and I flatter myself by saying my work has been heavily influenced by his. The loss of the Guardian voice is a true tragedy.
Thankfully, however, Redmond has started a news site called 48 Hills. “There are 47 named hills in San Francisco – and as those of us who have spent their lives fighting for social and economic justice know, there’s always one more hill to climb,” he writes. 48 Hills has an interesting business model: it’s owned by a non-profit “with a community-based board and a mission to serve a city battered by evictions, displacement, and economic inequality. We are unafraid of controversy, proud of our politics, owned by no investors, driven not by profit but by a passion for journalism that matters.” The venture survives entirely on reader contributions.
But enough of the media inside baseball. The true joy of 48 Hills is Redmond publishes great writing, like this recent piece, “Airbnb rebrands neoliberal bullshit as genitalia-shaped bullshit,” by Julia Carrie Wong, who writes:
JULY 16, 2014 — Corporate branding is always bullshit, but tech industry branding is a special breed of bullshit, if for no other reason than its pretentions to being something more than straight-up bullshit. Silicon Valley branding reads like the product of a mind caught between the revolutionary fervor of an alternative summer break spent digging a well in Guatemala and the WASPy reticence instilled while spending every other summer learning the value of a dollar by caddying for dad’s business partners. Everyone wants to turn a profit, but no one wants to admit it. The result is cutthroat capitalists who think they are changing the world.
That’s great stuff. Read the whole piece here.
In the harbour
(click on vessel names for pictures and more information about the ships)
Arrivals
Maasdam, cruise ship, Charlettown to Pier 22
Mainport Pine, research/survey vessel, BP Survey to Pier 25
Berlin Express, Containership, Cagliari to Fairview Cove.
Departures
Zim Savannah to Kingston, New Brunswick (port near Saint John)
Massdam to Sea
Of Note:
Yesterday’s ferry announcement was a dud. The feds re-announced money they already announced they were going to spend. No news on the new boat.
Footnotes
Aside from the AFN meeting, July in Halifax is generally a slow news time. Council meetings resume next week, and we’ll be diving back into that coverage. Stay tuned.