Stephen McNeil could learn a thing or two from Fidel Castro

Cuba’s ambassador to the U.S., José Cabanas, speaks during end-the-blockade event in Washington. (Bill Hackwell) This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner on September 25, 2017. My wife and I recently spent a week in Washington, D.C., advocating for an end to the failed, 56-years-and-counting U.S. blockade of Cuba. We were with a group that […]

The politics of economics

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner on September 18, 2017. In last Wednesday’s “Morning File,” Tim Bousquet walked us through the most recent disappointing passenger counts from the still ongoing, seemingly never-ending bottomless money pit we call the Yarmouth-to-Portland ferry service. (It’s worth noting that Tim got his numbers from that’s-public-information-you’re-entitled-to-know-so-here-you-go Portland, Maine officials […]

The Herald strike ends, how long will the bitterness linger?

This column first appeared in the Halifax Examiner on September 11, 2017. The question was straightforward. Would the replacement workers who’d taken their jobs for the previous 19 months continue to work in the newsroom, the Chronicle Herald reporter wanted to know? There was a long silence. “Yes,” Mark Lever responded finally. Later, another reporter […]

Are you better off? Discuss

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner on September 5, 2017. As someone who has spent most of his life living to the rhythms of academia of one sort or another, I always think of the day after Labour Day as the real New Year’s Day, an annual day of stock-taking, resolution-making and future-fantasizing. […]

Bar Society says Lyle Howe should be disbarred, ordered to pay $500,000

The Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society wants Lyle Howe not only disbarred from practising law for at least five years, but it says he should also have to pay between $450-600,000 of the costs of the disciplinary hearing against him. The society estimates its total cost in the case at $1.1 million — a figure that […]

Name? Un-name? How about no name?

Last Wednesday in Morning File, Tim Bousquet went on a rant. “Stop it,” he wrote. “Stop naming shit after people who are still alive.” The specific object of Tim’s ire that morning was not immediately apparent among the story’s cascading collection of photos of local edifices named after the alive and hopefully well (not […]

Mark Lever’s sins against journalism

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner on August 21, 2017. If Mark Lever really wants to restore public confidence in his post-strike Halifax Chronicle Herald, he could begin by acknowledging — and publicly apologizing for — some of the newspaper’s most egregious sins against journalism during the past 18 months. The problem with […]

The Herald strike is over. Now the hard part begins

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner on August 14, 2017 “I want to thank the arts community in particular and everyone in general for their tremendous support during the Chronicle Herald newsroom strike,” popular and influential longtime arts journalist Elissa Barnard wrote on her Facebook page last week. “I have decided not to go […]

The Liberals’ $24.5-million Acadia University funding fandango

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner on August 8, 2017 Back in the summer and early fall of 2014, I served on an inelegantly named “Faculty Working Group on the Future of the College” at King’s, the small liberal arts and journalism university where I’ve taught since before forever. Our working group […]

Who’s going to fix our broken criminal justice system?

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner on July 30, 2017. “The evidence has therefore made it clear to us that it can be unfair to expect that a brass knuckle possession, or breach of recognizance, or theft-under file for a repeat offender currently in custody being dealt with on a legal aid certificate will […]