John Risley: the hypocrisy of the super well-done-by

Billionaire John Risley wants the government to get on with the job of twinning the highway to his mansion. Just don’t tax him to do it. I was scrolling/strolling/trolling through my weekend news feed recently when I stumbled upon this item from the Macdonald Notebook , a business-friendly news site run by former allnovascotia journalist […]

‘Saving lives is more important than business’

The government’s pre-emptive response to our latest COVID spike from many local restaurants, bars and small businesses — all of which are suffering financially — was encouraging. And should encourage the rest of us to do our part too. On Monday, the night before the government imposed a mandatory two-week closure of all bars and […]

Imagine… a provincial Openness in Government Act

If any of the Three Bland Men currently vying for votes among the Liberal faithful needs advice on a shiny new policy promise — one that could not only attract the partisans who will determine the next party leader but also appeal to the rest of us who will ultimately decide whether that new Liberal […]

When is a management fee a profit margin, and does calling it either make it any less a boondoggle?

Lawyers for Bay Ferries and the provincial government were in court last week arguing we should not be allowed to know how much the province is paying Bay Ferries not to operate a ferry between Yarmouth and Maine. Only in Nova Scotia, you say. On Thursday, lawyers for the McNeil government and Bay Ferries Limited […]

What is it about Canadians that makes us different from Americans?

A deferential Canadian columnist, with modestly Canadian smugness, tries to answer that question. On Thursday morning, as is my wont, I was reading “The Morning,” my daily email briefing of all the news the New York Times deems fit to digitize. Think of it as the Americans’ attempt at the Examiner’s “Morning File.” Or perhaps […]

Accountability ain’t what it used to be

Perhaps it never was. But in these days of cascading crises, it’s hard not to notice just who’s missing in action, or acting without accountability, or playing games with their obligation to accountability. ac·count·abil·i·ty | \ ə-ˌkau̇n-tə-ˈbi-lə-tē \ Definition of accountability: the quality or state of being accountable, especially : an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for […]

Troubled waters

There is no excuse — period, full stop — for the violence and vandalism currently taking place in southwest Nova Scotia. That said, the crisis there — and the tangled, troubled history behind it — is far more complex, nuanced and slippery that any simple hashtag-RACISM tweet can ever capture. There is no excuse — […]

Shopping while strolling

A report by Nova Scotia’s Serious Incident Response Team clears Halifax police officers in the violent arrest of Santina Rao. But it doesn’t even try to explain how what happened at the Walmart that day was allowed to become the confrontation that led to her arrest. The purpose of a SiRT investigation is to determine […]

Good intentions, abysmal execution, lost opportunity

Premier Stephen McNeil was right to apologize for our justice system’s long history of racism, but he was wrong in his father-knows-best response to fixing it. It has been ever thus. It was one of those moments when seemingly good intentions smacked up against abysmal execution and resulted in a lost opportunity. Last week on […]

The fishery of frustration

The real reason for the recent confrontations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous fishers is that Ottawa has failed abysmally for more than two decades to negotiate with First Nations to define what constitutes a moderate living. Mi’kmaw fishermen were frustrated. On Sept. 17, 1999, the Supreme Court of Canada had reaffirmed rights established in peace and […]