What would Graham say?

As a bitter strike at Atlantic Canada’s largest and most storied daily newspaper heads into its second year, both sides frequently invoke the memory of the Halifax Chronicle Herald’s late publisher to justify their competing arguments. But the more important question now is, will Graham Dennis’s 170-year-old newspaper even be around for anyone to remember […]

Stephen McNeil: are Nova Scotians just parking their votes and keeping score?

What a difference a week — or a poll — makes. On December 6, Corporate Research released its quarterly snapshot of the state of play in Nova Scotia politics, and it seemed to be more of the same-old, same-old, ho-hum, nothing-to-see-here-folks, move-along news story. CRA concluded the governing Nova Scotia Liberals remained our “preferred party” […]

Teachers: light at the end of the tunnel? What tunnel?

It’s been a full week since the Liberal caucus revolt Stephen McNeil insists never happened; since Education Minister Karen Casey’s 180-degree, we-must-close-all-the-schools-right-now-to-protect-student-safety/no-we-will-reopen-all-the-schools-tomorrow-to-protect-our-government’s future; since the government called its special session of the House of Assembly to pass legislation to impose a rejected contract on the province’s 9,300 teachers, then sent the MLAs home with nothing […]

How the government chose to build two new schools in the ‘right’ place in the right pre-election time

The very suggestion the Nova Scotia government would cherry-pick new school building projects from the bottom of the priority pile simply because said schools would be built in constituencies held by Education Minister Karen Casey and Premier Stephen McNeil, is — cue the harrumphs — “a ridiculous comment to make.” So says the minister […]

Viola Desmond to be honoured on $10 bill

Reports the CBC this morning (December 8, 2o16): Black rights activist Viola Desmond will be the first Canadian woman to be featured on an $10 bill, beginning in 2018. Finance Minister Bill Morneau and Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz announced the selection of the beautician and businesswoman, who is best known for her refusal to accept racial segregation in a Nova Scotia movie […]

The Ghomeshi verdict isn’t Marie Henein’s fault

Get it out of the way first. I do believe those women who came forward to accuse former CBC host Jian Ghomeshi of sexually assaulting them. And I salute their courage in doing so. That said, I don’t agree with those who want to silence Ghomeshi’s lawyer, Marie Henein, for the crime of having done […]

Media Coverage Of Fidel Castro’s Death Has Been Abysmally One-Sided

“Former U.S. President George W. Bush, who led his country into a disastrous war with Iraq on the basis of concocted evidence of weapons of mass destruction and who authorized the use of torture against foreign prisoners of war in violation of the Geneva Conventions and international law, died today…” No, George W. Bush did […]

Mark Never, Grant Machum and ‘Graham Dennis isn’t around to save you anymore’

When the Halifax Chronicle Herald’s reporters and editors went on strike last January, I, like many readers, cancelled my subscription as a least-we-could-do gesture to support those journalists who produce the news that made the Herald an actual newspaper, and not just another advertising flyer. Although I’d grown up with and subscribed for more than […]

The publisher’s daughter

After nearly a decade of self-imposed exile, Heather Dennis returned to her family’s newspaper business in the mid-1980s with plans to turn the Mail-Star into a newspaper people would want to read. Her supporters said she was “a breath of fresh air.” Her detractors wished she’d go away and leave them alone. From Cities Magazine, March 1988 “The […]

Three takeaways from America’s fool’s game election

You walk into the room with your pencil in your hand You see somebody naked and you say, “Who is that man?” You try so hard but you don’t understand Just what you will say when you get home Because something is happening here but you don’t know what it is Do you, Mr. Jones? […]