Crisis? What crisis? Just a(nother) ‘new (lack of) direction’ for healthcare

Last week’s “mutual” firing of the province’s deputy health minister shows just how unwilling our premier is to acknowledge our healthcare crisis — let alone do something about it. Last week, when Premier Stephen McNeil “mutually” agreed to fire Denise Perret — the deputy minister of health he’d hired just two-and-a-half years ago — he […]

Trying to crawl through a loophole on gender discrimination

When last week’s human rights commission hearing on gender discrimination in Halifax’s fire service began, lawyers for HRM tried to get the complaint tossed on a technicality. The good news is that they lost. The bad news is that they tried. In lawyer terms, it probably made sense. Scrounge in the legal underbrush for a […]

Ka-ching. Ka-ching. Your tax dollars at work covering government butt

As Justice David Farrar summed up the appeal court ruling: “It would be manifestly unfair to allow the province to hide behind solicitor-client privilege while at the same time impugning the conduct of its solicitor.” But that didn’t stop the McNeil government from trying. And trying. Last week, the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal instructed […]

‘This is North Preston:’ a story that ‘needs to be heard’

“This is North Preston” is a film about the stereotype of North Preston that allows the young men who’ve been stereotyped for so long to speak for themselves. Jaren Hayman is from Toronto. He’s 32 years old, a white man. He began his professional career as a drummer, touring North America, but eventually morphed into […]

A tale of two protests

While officials moved quickly to respond to student protests about the cancellation of high school rugby, they were quick to erect roadblocks when students wanted to protest climate change. “In my view, kids should be in class.” Premier Stephen McNeilMarch 2019 “Something is happening hereBut you don’t know what it is,Do you, Mr. Jones?” Ballad […]

Health care crisis? What health care crisis?

Listen to Premier McNeil and Health Minister Delorey and you might imagine Inez Rudderham’s problems are specific and anomalous. Fix them and we fix the problem. The problem is McNeil and Delorey are the problem. “To the premier of Nova Scotia, I dare you to take a meeting with me, and explain to me, and […]

Who’s sorry now? Not the premier, not the justice minister, not the police

No one in authority seems willing to apologize for the decades of “disproportionate and negative” impact street checks have had on Nova Scotia’s black community. Worse, no one seems to committed to finally ending them once and for all. This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner April 22, 2019. Our question for today: why is it so […]

Verdict without end

More than 20 years after former Nova Scotia premier Gerald Regan was acquitted of sexually assaulting multiple women, other women are still coming forward with still more stories of what he did to them, still needing finally “to be heard.” ‘Catherine’ is one of them. This column originally appeared in theHalifax ExaminerApril 15, 2019. I shouldn’t be surprised. Not after Me-too. But I am. Still. It happens […]

Wilson-Raybould, Churchill? Evidence our legislative committee systems don’t work

The committees don’t work, of course, because of the people in charge. But the system itself makes that failure possible, even inevitable. This column first appeared in the Halifax Examiner April 8, 2019. Quick now, what does Judy Wilson-Raybould v Justin Trudeau, Gerald Butts, Michael Wernick et al have in common with Zach Churchill v […]

Stunting 101: The games Bay Ferries plays

Bay Ferries says its Yarmouth ferry service’s real problem has nothing to do with the government’s over-subsidization or its own over-pricing. Blame it on the “nasty” opposition. This column first appeared in the Halifax Examiner April 1, 2019. Mark MacDonald knows which donkey to pin the blame on for the fact his Bay Ferries Ltd.’s money-sinking pot of a […]