StephenKimber | Stephen Kimber

The Bar Society’s governing council — ‘We’re supposed to be lawyers?’

Three-hour meetings have turned into seven-hour screaming matches with official agendas abandoned… Confidential deliberations have been leaked to the media before the minutes can be distributed… It’s like high school but not as much fun. Can even Doug Ruck save the provincial bar society from itself? It only feels like I’ve been writing about the […]

Non-resident property tax increases: gone before the ink was dry

On the one hand, I’m not sure what to make of Tim Houston’s full-frontal face plant last week. On the other hand, I know exactly what to make of it. Same old, same old. Still. Again. Always. On the one hand, I’m not sure what to make of Tim Houston’s full-frontal face plant last week. […]

Political accountability meets ‘the permanent campaign’

Nova Scotia’s legislature met for just 19 days. It didn’t do much. And then it adjourned. That is the plan. It was pushing 11 pm on the night of April 22, 2022, and everything that was going to be done — however little of that there might have been — was now well and truly […]

The Lionel Desmond inquiry wraps up

Can we ever really know why Lionel Desmond killed his wife, daughter and mother, and then himself? Does that matter? Don’t we know enough now about all that went wrong in the years and months leading up to the murder-suicide to begin demanding change on all fronts? Was Cpl. Lionel Desmond a victim of a […]

Turmoil at the Nova Scotia Barristers Society, Take 32

The case of the “disappeared” governance review. And so it continues. According to a new report on the inner workings of the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society, “some council members are so concerned with being heard that they cannot listen… New members often feel dismissed and disrespected… Some members are focused on who speaks rather than […]

Law amendments: back to the future

When Stephen McNeil’s Liberals were in power, Tim Houston’s Tories rightly railed against the way the government abused the law amendments committee to rubber-stamp its legislation. Well, now Houston is the premier and guess what? Nothing’s changed. On Monday, April 4, 2022, Nova Scotia’s law amendments committee met to consider Bill 120, amendments to Nova […]

Nick Beaton has every right to be angry, but the rest of us need to let the Nova Scotia Mass Casualty Commission do its job

Despite many early missteps, the commission is now doing what it needs to do — methodically assembling facts and evidence about what happened during Canada’s worst mass shooting and exploring the many larger issues the tragedy requires us as a society to confront. It is impossible not to sympathize with the frustrations of Nick Beaton. […]

Should Nova Scotia lawyers really be allowed to regulate themselves?

Not based on the actions of the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society over the past two years. Perhaps it’s time we followed the path of most Commonwealth countries and decided it’s time — past time — to reconsider letting lawyers be their own judges. A word of advice. You should avoid standing in front of the […]

What would you do with $8.28 million?

Emera’s board decided to give it to its CEO. But at the same time, Emera’s subsidiary, Nova Scotia Power, is asking the rest of us to pay a 10 per cent rate hike so it can run what it calls a ‘reliable business.’ Something does not compute. On Thursday, March 17 — a day that […]

Defunding the police by increasing funding for the police?

Halifax City council approved a slightly smaller increase for policing than the chief requested. But it’s still an increase. And not the “rethinking” of the role of policing in our society critics are asking for. “We are in a crisis. We are in dire straits. We need to be able to make sure that we […]