Welcome to our 52nd Weekend File! One year of weekly article compilations. Jump to sections:
Saturday
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday, June 25
Atlantic Gold’s parent company hints it may halt its Nova Scotia operation
Joan Baxter had the latest on Atlantic Gold and its plans (maybe) for a mine in Nova Scotia. As Baxter reported, Atlantic Gold’s parent company, St Barbara Ltd, issued a statement this week that falsely blamed the province for permitting delays. That led to a fall in St Barbara’s stock price by 14%.
Sunday, June 26
What the Mounties don’t want you to know? Everything
Stephen Kimber reviewed the latest foundational document from the Mass Casualty Commission, which details everything the RCMP didn’t say in the days after one of the worst mass killings in Canadian history. And it’s quite a long list. “Treating the public like they don’t need to know much… or anything at all,” Kimber wrote. “Sounds like the RCMP’s communications strategy.”
Monday, June 27
1. Federal government denies sexual assault by RCMP officer in X.Y. case
Zane Woodford had this article on the case of a Halifax woman named in court documents as X.Y., who is suing Halifax Regional Municipality and the federal government. As Woodford reported in January, the woman said she was sexually assaulted by two police officers as a girl in the 1990s. Now, the feds claim the accused RCMP officer didn’t sexually assault a teenage girl in the 1990s, but if he did, he “was acting outside the scope of his duties as an employed officer.”
2. The poise and dignity and badassedness of women’s righteous anger
Tim Bousquet kicked off the week with a video of Olivia Rodrigo and Lily Allen singing with righteous anger after the overturning of Roe vs. Wade on Friday. “John Roberts has clearly lost the ‘respect the court as an institution’ battle,” Bousquet wrote. Jennifer Henderson contributed to this report with news about the salaries of executives at Nova Scotia Power.
3. Books about Black history, Black Canadians highlight of Delmore “Buddy” Daye Learning Institute event
Matthew Byard attended the Report to the Community, an annual event hosted by the Delmore “Buddy” Daye Learning Institute. The group talked about two books it’s published recently, and featured guest speaker Brian Daly spoke about increased representation of racialized groups in newsrooms. Byard also learned what the institute has planned for the next year and more.
Tuesday, June 28
1. Dunn says he ‘didn’t exactly anticipate the backlash’ after he was appointed as minister of African Nova Scotian Affairs
Matthew Byard got a chance to interview Pat Dunn, about a year after his appointment as minister of African Nova Scotian Affairs. Byard had just 10 minutes to ask a few questions, including about the response to his appointment from the Black community .
2. Morning File: The casual ableism of cooking snobbery
Philip Moscovitch wrote about two recent essays he read on cooking and disability by writer Gabrielle Drolet. Drolet, who loves to cook, also has thoracic outlet syndrome, which it makes it tough to do anything requiring fine motor skills. That got Moscovitch thinking about ableism in cooking and the snobbery around some of the shortcuts and tools people use to cook.
3. Purported letter to RCMP Commissioner Lucki rebuked her for trying to influence messaging after mass murders
Last week Jennifer Henderson and the Halifax Examiner broke a story that RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki potentially compromised an active investigation into the April 18/19 mass murders for political purposes. This week, Henderson wrote about a letter that was sent to Lucki rebuking her for her actions after the murders.
4. Group wants heritage designation for house of Nova Scotia’s first Black doctor
Matthew Byard spoke with William Breckenridge, who is researching the history of a North Street house where Dr. Clement Ligoure operated a clinic. Breckenridge is working with the Friends of the Common, who say the house is at risk of demolition and they want to see it get heritage designation. Byard also learned more about Ligoure himself.
5. Halifax council votes to plan for Centennial Pool replacement, support universal basic income, and more
Zane Woodford was at this week’s meeting of Halifax regional council. Coun. Waye Mason brought a motion aiming to get staff moving on a report into a new 50-metre pool for the HRM. Also: details on a letter council wants to send to the feds to get them to create a guaranteed income; the list for new names for Cornwallis Street; and a church on Kaye Street gets heritage designation.
Wednesday, June 29
Morning File: Stuck on stick: clinging to the manual in an automatic world
Ethan Lycan-Lang wrote about teaching his friend how to drive with a stickshift. Manual transmissions may be on their way out, but Lycan-Lang still prefers it to an automatic. “Knowing how to drive stick gives the illusion that I know what I’m doing,” he wrote. “It makes me appear cool and competent, even though almost anyone can quickly pick up this skillset.”
Thursday, June 30
1. Morning File: What’s the “one small habit” that keeps a man organized? A wife
Last week Suzanne Rent read a thread on Twitter in which a man (PhD, CEO, and father of six) shared his tips for how he keeps his life and career organized. The man shared screenshots of a calendar he spends 90 minutes each week creating and updating. But Twitter followers said he forgot one very important detail: his wife. Rent wrote about the real value of all the invisible work women do that benefits men and others.
2. Nova Scotia’s second busiest emergency department is dealing with record-breaking overcapacity
Yvette d’Entremont interviewed Dr. Mike Clory, Cobequid Community Health Centre emergency department chief and chief of medical staff, about all the factors behind the record-breaking visits to that hospital’s emergency room, which are now at “a highly concerning level.” It’s an eye-opening look at what’s happening at the province’s second-busiest emergency room.
From our archives
It’s summer and a lot of people are travelling now, but remember the summer of 2020 when we were all living in the Atlantic Bubble? Travel was a bit different that first summer of the COVID-19 pandemic. As Tim Bousquet reported on July 6, 2020, the rules around entering Nova Scotia got tougher after a traveller from the United States failed to self-isolate in Nova Scotia and then started a COVID-19 cluster on PEI. Under those new rules, all travellers had to provide a phone number and address for where they were self-isolating. And that person had to be available to take calls for 14 days. If the person couldn’t be reached after three tries, the police would check on them in person to make sure they were isolating as required. Ahhh, the summer of the Atlantic Bubble.
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