Bar Society says Lyle Howe should be disbarred, ordered to pay $500,000

The Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society wants Lyle Howe not only disbarred from practising law for at least five years, but it says he should also have to pay between $450-600,000 of the costs of the disciplinary hearing against him. The society estimates its total cost in the case at $1.1 million — a figure that […]

Name? Un-name? How about no name?

Last Wednesday in Morning File, Tim Bousquet went on a rant. “Stop it,” he wrote. “Stop naming shit after people who are still alive.” The specific object of Tim’s ire that morning was not immediately apparent among the story’s cascading collection of photos of local edifices named after the alive and hopefully well (not […]

Mark Lever’s sins against journalism

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner on August 21, 2017. If Mark Lever really wants to restore public confidence in his post-strike Halifax Chronicle Herald, he could begin by acknowledging — and publicly apologizing for — some of the newspaper’s most egregious sins against journalism during the past 18 months. The problem with […]

The Herald strike is over. Now the hard part begins

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner on August 14, 2017 “I want to thank the arts community in particular and everyone in general for their tremendous support during the Chronicle Herald newsroom strike,” popular and influential longtime arts journalist Elissa Barnard wrote on her Facebook page last week. “I have decided not to go […]

The Liberals’ $24.5-million Acadia University funding fandango

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner on August 8, 2017 Back in the summer and early fall of 2014, I served on an inelegantly named “Faculty Working Group on the Future of the College” at King’s, the small liberal arts and journalism university where I’ve taught since before forever. Our working group […]

Who’s going to fix our broken criminal justice system?

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner on July 30, 2017. “The evidence has therefore made it clear to us that it can be unfair to expect that a brass knuckle possession, or breach of recognizance, or theft-under file for a repeat offender currently in custody being dealt with on a legal aid certificate will […]

The Lyle Howe case: guilty, but…

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner July 24, 2017. The CBC headline — “Halifax Lawyer Lyle Howe Found Guilty of Professional Misconduct, Incompetence” — was simple. And it is accurate. So far as it goes. But the actual 140-page decision by a disciplinary panel… IN THE MATTER OF: The Legal Profession Act, S.N.S. 2004, […]

The Chronicle Herald strike meets the ‘final option’

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner on July 17, 2017. For the sake of the 53 reporters and editors still walking the picket line at the Halifax Chronicle Herald, part of me hopes super-mediator-arbitrator-industrial inquiry commissioner William Kaplan is able — through an initial stage of mediation next month — to find a quick […]

Sears stiffs its staff while vulture capitalists profit. Discuss

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner on July 10, 2017. On Friday, I was mindlessly meandering the aisles of my local Superstore, foraging for food and filling time, when I chanced on a conversation at the pharmacy. A man was paying for a prescription. “Just six dollars,” the woman behind the counter said […]

Is it always a bad idea to get government involved in journalism?

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner on July 3, 2017. “It’s always a bad idea to get the government involved in journalism.” Tim Bousquet June 27, 2017 I hesitate to disagree with Tim Bousquet, the editor of The Halifax Examiner, my colleague and boss. But in this instance I do. Not completely, […]