The Mass Casualty Commission report meets the ‘somewhat surprised’

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

The Mass Casualty Commission report meets the ‘somewhat surprised’

I was not surprised by the numbers of people who pronounced themselves “somewhat surprised” by the sweeping and consequential content of last week’s report of the Mass Casualty Commission. Many of those same people had spent much of the past three years dismissing, marginalizing and otherwise declaring the whole exercise a waste of time at best, […]

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

Bedford school stabbings: the talking points memo

Education minister Becky Druhan had an opportunity to address larger issues of violence in our schools and lack of mental health supports. Instead, she retreated into bland obfuscation and deflection I have no doubt Becky Druhan is a smart person, more than capable of standing her ground, holding her own in the cut and thrust […]

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

What Michelin wants, Michelin gets… always

I knew it. I don’t know it, of course. Not officially. Still. But that’s only because of all the usual bafflegab from all the usual sources. Let’s backtrack. Start with this Saltwire headline from last Tuesday: “Michelin to Spend $300 Million to Expand, Modernize Nova Scotia Operations.” In smaller print, there was this subhead: “Tire […]

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

March break, Cuban beaches and… politics?

The CBC continues to push an anti-Cuban line while downplaying the U.S. embargo On Monday, March 6, CBC Radio’s local morning newscast carried a report on Cuba by national reporter Evan Dyer, which also appeared on cbc.ca. “As holidaying Canadians return to Cuba,” it began, “Cubans themselves are fleeing in record numbers.” CBC’s Information Morning […]

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

Beware CSIS ‘whistleblowers’ bearing scoops

For me, the most intriguing aspect of the current federal foofaraw over allegations that the Chinese government has been attempting to meddle in… well, everything everywhere is not that they are. That’s what superpowers do with their super powers. Evidence? How about the last 150 years of US mucking about in the internal affairs of […]

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

Coach Brandon, his players and their parents versus mindless zero-tolerance policies

In an earlier, less perfect world, we wouldn’t be texting about it. Journalists wouldn’t be reporting on it. I certainly wouldn’t be writing a column about it. It probably would never have happened at all. But here we are. The reality is that we still don’t know exactly what happened in that gym in tiny […]

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

There was an emergency, Ottawa was right to act, but others might reasonably see it differently

It was all so… Canadian. On Friday, Feb. 17, Ontario Appeal Court Judge Paul Rouleau released his Public Order Emergency Commission Report, the blandly named, legally mandated, historically consequential results of his 10-month inquiry into last winter’s controversial convoy protests and — more to the point — whether those protests justified Justin Trudeau’s decision to invoke the […]

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

Lisa Banfield: criminal charges v discretion, compassion, common sense

Let’s start with this scenario. A woman with a decades-long history of having been brutalized and controlled by her common-law partner — a history that was known or should have been known to the police — is coerced into helping her partner transport ammunition for his cache of largely illegally obtained weapons. Does the RCMP […]

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

Premier on power rate hikes… the sounds of silence

For me, it was the silence that spoke most loudly last week. On Thursday, the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board “approved significant rate increases for customers of the province’s monopoly power company, in apparent defiance of the provincial government,” as Globe and Mail reporter Matthew McClearn put it. Defiance… You will remember — how […]

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

Our ER health care crisis: going like hell in all directions, while getting nowhere fast

I have no doubt that Tim Houston genuinely wants to “fix” health care. He ran a provincial election campaign fixated on that singular if inexact goal. He has staked his political future, even his ultimate place in Nova Scotia political history on the claim that he alone can make health care healthy again. So why […]