On Monday, Health Minister Randy Delorey will…

Well… Delorey ‘may’ unveil some part of some pre-selected, non-binding recommendations from a secret, penalty-of-six-months-in-prison-for-talking-about review his government-commissioned into the deaths of 53 residents at Northwood this spring. The government’s selective secrecy is deliberate, and its purpose is obvious. On Monday, September 21, 2020, Health Minister Randy Delorey will … Well, he may unveil some […]

Nova Scotia is safe for school children and would-be municipal politicians… but not for Liberal MLAs

The McNeil Liberal government sends kids back to school and orders municipal elections to proceed as planned, but its MLAs refuse to commit to continuing to meet, even virtually, during the pandemic. Welcome to another week in the Land of Hypocrisy. It was just another week in our paradoxical parallel-universe paradise. On Tuesday, September 8, […]

Is your school safe to reopen? Don’t ask your lapdog Liberal MLA

Why do we bother to elect members of the legislature to represent us if they won’t, or can’t, or, most certainly, don’t? So, my question today is this: Why do we bother? Why do we bother to elect members of the legislature to represent us if they won’t, or can’t, or, most certainly, don’t? Let’s […]

Will the new McNeil be like the old one? Let’s hope not

If there is just one trait I will hope for in a new Liberal leader — a person who will automatically become our premier without benefit of even any public laying on of electoral hands — it is simply be that she or he not be as unreflectively, reflexively anti-union as the incumbent. If there […]

Tara Thorne and the tweet that trumped 20 years of exemplary arts coverage

How do we balance Tara Thorne’s history of supporting artists and culture in Halifax with what even one of her supporters described as ‘a hurtful and very bad joke tweet’? These days, it seems, we don’t. I will confess off the top I don’t know the specifics of what freelance arts journalist Tara Thorne tweeted […]

So long, Stephen, we knew you too well

If there has been a singular defining characteristic of Stephen McNeil’s career as premier of Nova Scotia, it is his righteously self-righteous confidence in the rightness of whatever he says is right, damn the consequences, dismiss the naysayers, dump on the media. Sometimes, that has served him — and us — well. Most of the […]

Shrubsall: no guarantees

Serial sexual predator William Shrubsall was sentenced to more prison time in New York last week. How much more? That depends. Not on our parole board, which failed abysmally. But on the willingness of women like T. C., K. C. and Tracy Jesso who continue to make sure his past — and his potential for […]

Portapique: how to (maybe) turn a rickety review into a transparent public inquiry

Premier McNeil says if the panel reviewing Nova Scotia’s mass shooting believes they need more authority to do their jobs, he’ll give it to them. Their first order of business, therefore, should be to demand the review become a full, transparent public inquiry. Without that, there will never be public confidence in their work. Allow […]

Zach Churchill: our schools will open 100 per cent… unless they don’t

It’s easy to understand why the government’s school-opening plan is still more hope than certainty. What’s less easy to understand — or forgive — is its business-as-usual secrecy, which has created unnecessary anxiety among students, parents, teachers and business. It’s hard not to sympathize with those charged with deciding whether and how to re-start the […]

Does Stephen McNeil believe in workers’ rights? Next question

Our premier prefers to attack those who dare to question him. Just ask the unarmed, unionized compliance officer recovering from an assault at our border, or the Crown attorneys reprimanded for trying to protect their collective rights. Quick question. Does Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil believe in Section 2(d) of the Canadian Charter of Rights […]