I recently finished reading Hitler’s Secret Army: A Hidden History of Spies, Saboteurs, and Traitors, by British journalist and documentary maker Tim Tate. It’s a deeply researched book about ultimately unsuccessful efforts by a mutt’s breakfast of homegrown British fascist groups, lone wolves and oddball networks to undermine support for the Allied war effort, as […]
Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.
- 06/02/2023
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Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.
As a longtime Halifax Mooseheads fan, I’ve spent some time this spring inside a downtown arena named after a bank watching our Quebec Major Junior Hockey League team compete for the Gilles Courteau trophy as their league’s best. The games on the ice have been excellent, but I often find myself drawn to what’s happening […]
- 05/19/2023
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Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.
Nearly seven months ago, on October 18, 2022, Public Works Minister Kim Masland told reporters the Houston government was about to request proposals to conduct an economic analysis of the costs and benefits of the controversial, money-sucking Yarmouth-to-Bar Harbor ferry service. “It’ll be a very broad overview of the economic impacts of the service,” she explained, adding […]
- 05/13/2023
- StephenKimber
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Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.
Let’s start with this… Defunding the police is, in many ways, about reinvesting in fundamental, and historically under-funded, community resources… [Our] last recommendations relate to municipal and police budgeting. One of these recommendations is that any funds diverted from the police budget going forward be redistributed through participatory budgeting processes. Defunding the Police: Defining the […]
- 05/05/2023
- StephenKimber
- 1 Comment
Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.
Until recently, I could not have told you the difference between an elver and one of Santa’s elves. Now, thanks largely to excellent ongoing reporting by the CBC’s Paul Withers, I know more than I ever thought I would want to know about those slithery, slimy, ghostlike creatures. (Bless the public broadcaster — and our […]
- 04/28/2023
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Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.
“The government doesn’t want to be here. This is the place where opposition parties, where media, where Nova Scotians can hold the government to account on their record, and they don’t want to be here. This is a government that doesn’t like to be held accountable.” Welcome to today’s Political Pop Quiz. Which of our […]
- 04/21/2023
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Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.
It was an unsettling, uncomfortable week in the Nova Scotia legislature, and Premier Tim Houston was clearly eager to “move forward.” Move forward from what seemed clear enough. To what was less obvious. Houston’s very bad week actually began the week before, on March 29, when now-independent MLA Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin rose in the legislature to […]
- 04/14/2023
- StephenKimber
- 3 Comments
Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.
I was not surprised by the numbers of people who pronounced themselves “somewhat surprised” by the sweeping and consequential content of last week’s report of the Mass Casualty Commission. Many of those same people had spent much of the past three years dismissing, marginalizing and otherwise declaring the whole exercise a waste of time at best, […]
- 04/07/2023
- StephenKimber
- 1 Comment
Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.
Education minister Becky Druhan had an opportunity to address larger issues of violence in our schools and lack of mental health supports. Instead, she retreated into bland obfuscation and deflection I have no doubt Becky Druhan is a smart person, more than capable of standing her ground, holding her own in the cut and thrust […]
- 03/31/2023
- StephenKimber
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Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.
I knew it. I don’t know it, of course. Not officially. Still. But that’s only because of all the usual bafflegab from all the usual sources. Let’s backtrack. Start with this Saltwire headline from last Tuesday: “Michelin to Spend $300 Million to Expand, Modernize Nova Scotia Operations.” In smaller print, there was this subhead: “Tire […]
- 03/24/2023
- StephenKimber
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STEPHEN KIMBER, a Professor of Journalism at the University of King's College in Halifax and co-founder of its MFA in Creative Nonfiction Program, is an award-winning writer, editor and broadcaster. He is the author of two novels and eight non-fiction books. Buy his books