Catherine Tully’s power to persuade vs government’s power to ignore

If you’re denied access to information even after the information and privacy commissioner has reviewed your request and deemed it legitimate, your only recourse is to take the government to court. At your own expense, of course. It doesn’t have to be that way. It is because it’s in the government’s interest to keep you […]

The president versus the press. Or should that be the president thanks the press?

The day after the US mid-terms, Donald Trump staged a rambling 90-minute press conference to spin the dross of Republican electoral loss into the gold of never-ending Trumpian triumph, and thus re-establish his personal ownership of the news cycle. The press made it easy for him. I’ve never been a fan of press-conference journalism. It […]

Jen’s choice is no choice at all; why not?

Jen Powley is smart. She has four degrees. She’s a prize-winning author with an eclectic CV and a significant record of ongoing accomplishment. She’s still only 41. So why does she face a government-imposed Hobson’s life choice: go into a nursing home to be warehoused and “removed from society” for the rest of her life, […]

Robert Stapells

Bob Stapells died Saturday, November 3, 2018, at 74. The radio-ad-salesman-turned-developer-turned-city-councillor-turned-entrepreneur was one of Halifax’s larger-than-life characters. While I didn’t always — often, hardly at all — agree with his views, he was inevitably a charming, fun-to-be-around person who wore his heart, and his heartaches on his sleeve. I wrote this profile of him for […]

Let us eat cake

Since 1971, Nova Scotians have been paying the price for Michelin’s success. And not just with grants and loans and the rest. We’ve been paying with our sovereignty and self-respect too. This column first appeared in the Halifax Examiner October 29, 2018. Granton, Nova Scotia: Michelin North America (Canada) Inc. today announced two new projects at […]

Cannabis is still legal

And the story is still news. Sorry, it will be for more time than you might like. It’s what happens when you become one of the first countries in the world to admit it’s OK to smoke pot. Just sit back, relax and… This column first appeared in the Halifax Examiner on October 22, 2018. […]

Why the pre-legalization crackdown on medical cannabis dispensaries?

Why have our police forces suddenly become the Hell’s Angels of medical cannabis, badge-toting, tough-guy enforcers of the government’s price-fixing monopoly on the pot business? This column first appeared in the Halifax Examiner October 15, 2018. On Wednesday, Oct. 17, recreational-but-fun-free cannabisfinally becomes legal in Canada. Before we go there — and we should — let us […]

Do P-3 hospitals offer value for money spent? None of your business, says Stephen McNeil

What does Deloitte — the company we paid $500,000 to analyze the wisdom of P3s for new hospital infrastructure — have to say in its report. We don’t know. Why not? Because “your Liberal government,” which, since 2013, “has been dedicated to being the most open and transparent government in the country, tirelessly working to […]

Don’t tax the rich. They don’t pay. Uh… what?

How is it possible our formerly best-to-do taxpayers, who paid $33.1-billion into federal coffers in 2015 could only pony up a paltry-by-comparison $26.3-billion in 2016? What really happened? We thought you’d never ask. And what will happen as a result? Don’t ask. This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner October 1, 2018. Did you […]

Stephen McNeil: Read his lips. Just don’t believe a word he says

Here in Stephen McNeil’s Nova Scotia, we should mark Right to Know Week by lowering the flag to half-mast and lighting a mourning candle in memory of the quaint notion citizens have some fundamental right to know what its government is doing. This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner September 24, 2018. Happy “Right […]