Freelance

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

How much health care could $10 million have bought — and why it didn’t

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner on November 27, 2017. Let’s begin with what we don’t know. We don’t know when the province’s court of appeals, which held a hearing earlier this month, will rule on a Nova Scotia Health Authority appeal of a judgment against it in the case of cardiologist Dr. Gabrielle […]

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

UARB fails to protect whistle-blowers, punish wrong-doing bus company

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner on November 20, 2017. Last week, the province’s Utility and Review Board issued a scathing, 180-page decision accusing Nova Scotia bus operator Stock Transportation of “repeatedly operat[ing] its public passenger vehicles, including its school buses, as it wished and contrary to the Acts, rules, regulations, its licenses, and orders; even […]

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

The Paradise Papers, the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation and tax reform

This article originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner on November 14, 2017. Quick now. What has the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation (“a citizens’ advocacy group dedicated to lower taxes, less waste and accountable government”) had to say about all those revelations of tax-sucking, financial jiggery-pokery uncovered in the Paradise Papers? Sorry. Time’s up. You win. […]

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

Winning, losing and Jamie Baillie

This column original appeared in the Halifax Examiner November 6, 2017. Many years ago, probably after an election campaign he’d just lost that he believed he should have won, I interviewed then-Nova Scotia Liberal politician Gerald Regan. He was in a philosophical mood. “Victory and defeat,” he told me, paraphrasing a Rudyard Kipling poem, “are equal […]

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

Masuma Khan and the issue of freedom of speech

(This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner on October 30, 2017.) Should the vice president of the Dalhousie Student Union have faced even the whiff of disciplinary action from the university’s administration for a less than genteel Facebook exchange she had with some constituents? The short answer is no. The long answer is still no. […]

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

Lyle Howe: a sad end to a sad case

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner on October 23, 2017. “The Hearing Committee of the NOVA SCOTIA BARRISTERS’ SOCIETY gives notice of the disbarment of Lyle Howe of Halifax, Nova Scotia pursuant to Section 45(4)(a) of the Legal Profession Act, effective October 20, 2017 until further notice.” In the end, the end was no surprise. The […]

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

Reparations raises the racism disconnect

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner on October 10, 2017. On Sept. 25, the United Nations Human Rights Council discussed a report on Canada by its Working Group of Experts on Peoples of African Descent. The report, which shone its white-hot light on our country’s sordid history of slavery and racism in virtually […]

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

Beware businesses bearing bleats

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner on October 1, 2017. What should you think when you suddenly find yourself squarely in the firing-squad crosshairs of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, the business-boosting press, Doctors Nova Scotia, lawyers, retailers, restaurateurs, tax planners, even ad hockeries like the newly […]

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

Stephen McNeil could learn a thing or two from Fidel Castro

Cuba’s ambassador to the U.S., José Cabanas, speaks during end-the-blockade event in Washington. (Bill Hackwell) This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner on September 25, 2017. My wife and I recently spent a week in Washington, D.C., advocating for an end to the failed, 56-years-and-counting U.S. blockade of Cuba. We were with a group that […]

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

The politics of economics

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner on September 18, 2017. In last Wednesday’s “Morning File,” Tim Bousquet walked us through the most recent disappointing passenger counts from the still ongoing, seemingly never-ending bottomless money pit we call the Yarmouth-to-Portland ferry service. (It’s worth noting that Tim got his numbers from that’s-public-information-you’re-entitled-to-know-so-here-you-go Portland, Maine officials […]