Time for full disclosure on how many public dollars we really paid private lawyers to defend healthcare bullies

Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.

Time for full disclosure on how many public dollars we really paid private lawyers to defend healthcare bullies

Tim Houston’s new government deserves credit for releasing a blacked-out 13-year-old document showing how much a previous government claimed to have spent on private lawyers in the Dr. Gabrielle Horne case. Trouble is that number isn’t new — or anywhere near complete. It’s time for actual full disclosure. Jean Laroche, the CBC’s veteran legislature reporter, […]

Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.

Canada voted, but your vote may not count… again

How likely do you think it will be that the Liberals bring in electoral reform in this term? Your first two guesses don’t count. So, one more federal election, one more failure to get the results we voted for, one more missed opportunity to change our archaic and unfair electoral system. You may remember the […]

Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.

Are you listening, Minister MacFarlane?

No one — not the overworked, understaffed social workers trying to cope with messes they didn’t make in a bureaucracy they can’t control, not the family court lawyers and judges tasked with enforcing the unreasonable, not the family and children’s advocates trying to change the unchanging, and certainly not the parents and children trapped inside […]

Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.

The RCMP’s ‘no apology’ speaks louder than words

What the Mounties are saying is simply this: Yes, street checks do disproportionately affect African Nova Scotians. But no, that’s not our fault. If you get street checked because you’re Black, well… that’s your problem. You’re Black. And so it goes. So, on the one hand, the RCMP “acknowledges the disproportionate harm that street checks […]

Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.

Does Tim Houston need to press reset on his reset?

Houston began his week in office pressing (yet another) reset on our healthcare mess. He ended it needing to press reset on his relations with the province’s African Nova Scotian community. So, let’s begin this history lesson somewhere in the murky middle muddle, way back in 1994 when a fresh-faced Liberal government led by Dr. […]

Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.

The candidates’ debate, take two

There must be a better way, and not just to conduct candidates’ debates. How would you change how elections are conducted? Last week’s skeptical — some might call it cynical — column about the provincial election leaders’ debate prompted a number of more thoughtful-than-I-deserved responses. Richard Starr, for example, agreed with my point there were […]

Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.

The premier who won’t get involved versus the sister who won’t give up

I can understand why Nicole Gnazdowsky might have become a “hostile individual” after no one in authority would tell her how and why her brother died in a workplace incident. I can’t understand why Premier Iain Rankin can claim he doesn’t have the authority to act in her case because there’s an election campaign underway. […]

Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.

Annette Verschuren’s ‘one more interesting thing’

Ten years ago, Annette Verschuren told a newspaper reporter she had “one more really interesting one in me.” That, of course, was NRStor, the innovative clean energy storage developer. Now? She is, I point out as delicately as possible, nudging 65. Is she ready to retire? “No, no!” she says quickly. “You know what, Stephen? […]

Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.

Election 2021: Welcome to ‘stupid season’

“An election” — as here-and-gone Conservative Prime Minister Kim Campbell once infamously but correctly explained — “is no time to discuss serious issues.” The real reason we are going to the polls in the middle of August is because the Liberals hope, and believe, no one will be paying attention. It’s 7:37 am on Saturday […]

Stephen Kimber’s freelance journalism appears in local, regional, national and international publications.

Iain Rankin scores unforced error after own goal after…

I’m guessing — hoping, for their sakes — the premier’s inner circle wasn’t responsible for “strategically leaking” news about Rankin’s youthful DUIs last week. But they, and Rankin himself, are certainly culpable for what happened after that. Watching Premier Iain Rankin score one own goal after another — and then, oh god, no, yet another — […]