The Lyle Howe case: guilty, but…

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner July 24, 2017. The CBC headline — “Halifax Lawyer Lyle Howe Found Guilty of Professional Misconduct, Incompetence” — was simple. And it is accurate. So far as it goes. But the actual 140-page decision by a disciplinary panel… IN THE MATTER OF: The Legal Profession Act, S.N.S. 2004, […]

The Chronicle Herald strike meets the ‘final option’

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner on July 17, 2017. For the sake of the 53 reporters and editors still walking the picket line at the Halifax Chronicle Herald, part of me hopes super-mediator-arbitrator-industrial inquiry commissioner William Kaplan is able — through an initial stage of mediation next month — to find a quick […]

Sears stiffs its staff while vulture capitalists profit. Discuss

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner on July 10, 2017. On Friday, I was mindlessly meandering the aisles of my local Superstore, foraging for food and filling time, when I chanced on a conversation at the pharmacy. A man was paying for a prescription. “Just six dollars,” the woman behind the counter said […]

Mind your own business

This column originally appeared in the July-August 2017 issue of Atlantic Business Magazine. For each of you who has lamented the lack of business acumen among our political ruling class, or longed for a shimmering titan of industry to step from the boardroom and lead us all to the promised political paradise of tax-limited, bureaucracy-free corporatist […]

Growth Op: Maritime Marijuana

This story originally appeared in the July-August 2017 issue of Atlantic Business Magazine. This is the final boarding call for Flight… Not yet. Paging passenger Evan Price… Just a few more minutes. Please proceed to Gate… One more minute. Just one more… Your aircraft doors are closing… It was December 13, 2016. Evan Price had spent […]

Is it always a bad idea to get government involved in journalism?

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner on July 3, 2017. “It’s always a bad idea to get the government involved in journalism.” Tim Bousquet June 27, 2017 I hesitate to disagree with Tim Bousquet, the editor of The Halifax Examiner, my colleague and boss. But in this instance I do. Not completely, […]

Can a ‘white van driver’ be a terrorist? Discuss

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner on June 26, 2017. I was watching CNN last Sunday night. It is my guilty-pleasure punishment for the sin of obsessing too much about what Donald Trump might do next. Trump had filled up his Father’s Day dissing his predecessor, Barack Obama, in 140-character vitriol. He’d falsely […]

Stephen McNeil’s 20 per cent majority: a referendum on…?

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner on June 19, 2017. So that didn’t take long. It will be three weeks tomorrow since Nova Scotians voted in a provincial general election. You may remember that election: the one in which Stephen McNeil’s Liberals came within a few hundred votes here or there of losing their majority […]

Wade Smith’s unfinished legacy: ‘It’s up to us…’

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner, June 12, 2017. “Maybe we need to look at an all-black school or other alternatives.” It was April 2006 and Wade Smith, then the vice principal of St. Patrick’s High School in Halifax, was musing to former-student-become-CBC-journalist Maggie Rahr about a recently released report on the province’s progress — […]

Since none of the above is on the ballot…

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner May 29, 2017. Who would you like to see win tomorrow’s provincial general election? Who should win tomorrow’s provincial general election? If you answered none of the above to either — or both — of the above, welcome to the club. And perhaps welcome too to […]