Rick Mehta: Acadia clarifies, commingles, confuses

The Mehta case isn’t about free speech. And it’s not the exercise of academic freedom. It is a professor in a position of power publicly bullying his own students for his amusement and the adulation of his followers. Reason enough to fire him. But… This column first appeared in the Halifax Examiner September 17, 2018. Start […]

Rick Mehta: a firing offence or just offensive

This column first appeared in the Halifax Examiner September 10, 2018. I will confess I’m conflicted about the news Acadia University has fired Rick Mehta. On Friday, the university confirmed it had terminated the controversial psychology professor, effective August 31, but then refused to say why or “provide any elaboration” about what it called “a personnel […]

Christopher Garnier’s PTSD: right policy, wrong result, better outcome…

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner September 3, 2018. Sometimes a right policy results in a wrong result. Most of the time — including in the case of convicted murderer/diagnosed PTSD sufferer Christopher Garnier — we are better off focusing on the right policy rather than on the occasional unexpected, unhappy wrong result of that […]

Is NS Tory leader wannabe John Lohr Maxime Bernier in waiting?

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner August 27, 2018. Will Nova Scotia’s Progressive Conservatives pull a federal Conservative Party and stagger out of their October 27 leadership convention hopelessly divided between their regular right-wing whingers and their ultra-right-wing whiners? Could PC leadership hopeful John Lohr — he of the Northern-Pulp-protesters-were-paid, free-speech-for-fanatics, let’s-build-more-statues-to-Edward-Cornwallis, frack-yes(!) […]

McNeil says there’s ‘lots’ of film activity; the facts tell a different story

There is something vaguely Trumpian in Premier Stephen McNeil’s continuing, reality-be-damned insistence his government’s 2015 consultation-and-logic-free decision to dump a longstanding, working-well film tax credit, then replace it with a more restrictive, less incentivizing “Nova Scotia Film and Television Incentive Fund” is all working out just fine, the way we planned it, thank you very […]

Health care crisis? Check. Leadership to solve it? Another question…

Did you know that, as of Friday morning, the Nova Scotia Health Authority’s News website was reporting a full computer page — 10 different items — flagging current, ongoing, never-ending emergency room closures in Nova Scotia? From the Lillian Fraser Memorial in Tatamagouche, to the Eastern Shore Memorial in Sheet Harbour, to Guysborough Memorial, to […]

The Yarmouth ferry subsidy? Still? Still more? Always…

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner July 30, 2018. I could say I told them so — and I did, way back when “them” was still Rodney Macdonald and his Tories, and from then on forward through Darrell Dexter and Stephen McNeil to whatever same-old-same-old will come next — but I’d have to stand in […]

Outraged about Russian meddling in the US election? What about…?

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner July 23, 2018. Americans are right to be outraged at the outrageous Russian interference in their 2016 presidential elections. They are correct to be appalled not only that their Putin-puttana-ed president continues to pretend that what happened didn’t happen, but also that their commander-in-chief and his principle-free, […]

The gospel according to Mark (Lever)

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner July 16, 2018. “We believe being in 25 communities is a big strength… I believe telling local stories in Gander, and in St. John’s, and in Corner Brook, and Summerside, and Sydney are going to be what supports this network. Not amalgamating. Not putting the same copy […]

Canada’s border: Donald Trump stands on guard for he

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner July 9, 2018. “Border disputes do not go away; they fester. And when other factors push them back to the surface — the discovery of valuable resources, an assertion of national pride, a mishap at sea — the stakes can suddenly rise to a point where […]