Developers get to change rules, the rest of us not so much

If it’s become acceptable — routine really — for developers to apply to bend municipal planning strategy and land use zoning regulations to green-light projects that don’t fit within the rules as they are, should it not be just as possible for ordinary citizens to seek similar exceptions to red-light those who plan to do things […]

Fort McMurray: worst times, best moments

Sometimes, the worst times create the best moments. My nominee, among many, for last week’s best moment is a Calgary woman named Rita Khanchat. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start with those worst times. One week ago today (Tuesday), Wildfire MWF-009 — now colloquially and correctly known as “The Beast” — flared out […]

Racism’s crime: ‘devaluing of self and others’

Where to begin? With the too-soon deaths of three young black men murdered in separate incidents within a week last month? Or with last Monday’s announcement the provincial government is restructuring — which is to say eliminating — a community-based program in North and East Preston, Cherry Brook and Lake Loon that had been helping […]

Doctor dysfunction and the case of Gabrielle Horne

I first wrote about the case of Dr. Gabrielle Horne in May 2006. By that time, the incident that initially sparked my interest was already four years old. Who would have guessed then it still wouldn’t finally be resolved 10 years later? In mid-October 2002, the head of the QE II’s department of medicine […]

Sarah Dennis apologizes… but ignores the reason she had to

Chronicle Herald publisher Sarah Dennis was contrite. Under the headline, “We Have Listened And Will Learn From This,” she wrote about her newspaper’s mis-handling of the infamously viral story that “should not have been released.” She seemed forthright: “apologize,” “failure of foresight,” “acknowledge our mistakes,” “accept and try to learn from criticism…” But nowhere in […]

Stephen McNeil’s film dream — you have to (make) believe

To hear him spin it, you’d think Stephen McNeil lived inside the fantasy bubble of film and television instead of outside, systematically decimating the real-world industry that creates screen magic. In January, two of Nova Scotia’s most successful production companies became the latest to announce they were shuttering their businesses here. Since 2001, Special Effects […]

Why Bay Ferries wasn’t concerned, and why we should be

It was early February. The first “new-ferry-system-has-not-been-confirmed… we-must-unfortunately-cancel-the-space” emails from skittish U.S. tour operators had begun landing on reservations desks at Nova Scotia hotels and resorts. Local tourism operators desperately needed to know if there would — as the government had promised — actually be a ferry service this summer between Yarmouth and Portland, Maine. […]

Ghomeshi not guilty? How about “not proven”?

The courts need another option. On Thursday, Ontario Justice William Horkins found former CBC host Jian Ghomeshi “not guilty” of five sexual-assault-related charges involving three different women. Legally, it was the right decision. But it isn’t the right conclusion. As Judge Horkins acknowledged, not guilty “is not the same as deciding in any positive way […]

We call suicide a preventable cause of death, but…

Cody Glode had everything to live for. He was a handsome 20 year old, the youngest firefighter — and first Mi’kmaw — in Truro’s fire service. “The boys at the fire department welcomed [him] with open arms,” his mother says, but Cody’s “true passion” remained mixed martial arts. He was a featherweight fighter. His […]

Time for American policy makers to walk a mile in Cuban shoes

By John Kirk and Stephen Kimber On Dec. 17, 2014, President Barack Obama went on television to declare the United States was unilaterally ending America’s “outdated approach [to Cuba] that, for decades, has failed to advance our interests.” So why do so many American politicians and commentators still persist in arguing the U.S. has been […]