Unfinished business: Donald Sobey, Derek Power and the ‘pardoned’ sexual assault

During his lifetime, Donald Sobey did his best to bury the truth of his 1991 sexual assault conviction with dismissive public statements, non-disclosure agreements, a federal pardon, philanthropy and many, many good deeds. None of that made the life of the young man he’d assaulted any easier. Now Derek Power is telling his story, finally […]

Were Nova Scotia Mounties right to refuse to identify the mass killer’s weapons?

Did the RCMP commissioner attempt to unduly interfere in a police investigation? Or did local Mounties try to unduly control the narrative? Those are the questions at the heart of recent parliamentary hearings. They’re also the subject of this week’s column. The gunman in the deadliest school shooting in Texas history bought two AR-style rifles legally just […]

Short Snappers from the doggiest days of summer…

Tim Houston’s friends, Bay Ferries’ numbers, and the end of People’s Park is the beginning of… What friends are for… Well, that went well. On August 10, barely two weeks after announcing he had appointed two of his personally chosen, personal friends of many years to head up two new Crown corporations — at up […]

People’s Park, the police, and the solution that isn’t

It’s not clear what will happen next at the homeless encampment at Meagher Park. What is clear is that whatever it is won’t solve the real issues. I do not believe further civilian efforts will result in the park being vacated, as such I am asking your help to enforce the relevant provisions of the […]

Will the mass casualty commission report even matter?

Last week, Examiner editor Tim Bousquet asked ‘What’s the point of the Mass Casualty Commission?’ In his column today, Stephen Kimber offers a (slightly) more hopeful take. He says it’s too soon to know. So… is it already too late for the Mass Casualty Commission’s final report to matter? Was its credibility irreparably shredded even […]

Lisa Banfield and the search for ‘truth’

Cross-examination isn’t the only valid — or always best — truth-seeking method of testing evidence. And, in light of last week’s controversy over Lisa Banfield’s appearance before the mass casualty commission, it’s worth asking whether the truth was all that was being sought. “We keep getting confronted by people who seem to have a perception […]

Of elephants and tidal waves and the future of the bar society

The now-available video of the bar society’s incoming president’s remarks to the annual general meeting puts a new — and more hopeful — spin on what she actually said than the one I suggested in last week’s column. In last week’s column about the annual meeting of the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society — “NS Bar […]

NS Bar Society: another day, another racism investigation

The Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society’s new president, already under fire from within over her speech at the society’s AGM, has hired a Toronto law firm to investigate more allegations from within of “direct and systemic discrimination and harassment.” We can only hope that former provincial ombudsman Doug Ruck’s internal review into allegations of systemic discrimination […]

What the Mounties don’t want you to know? Everything…

The latest foundational document from the Mass Casualty Commission details everything the RCMP didn’t say in the days after the worst mass killing in Canadian history. It’s a long list. [Canadian Press:] Canadians would very much like to know how many people have died? [Chief Superintendent Supt. Chris Leather:] I can tell you that in […]

Random thoughts on a random day in a random June

Whatever happened to Thursday? What’s so affordable about so much housing? Why so little information about power company pay? And other thoughts on a June day. Whatever happened to Thursday? On Thursday, the CBC’s Anjuli Patil reported the Houston government had decided not to release passenger numbers for our controversial, heavily subsidized Yarmouth-to-Bar-Harbor ferry. When […]