Omicron (less than) one month later

In the month since the Omicron variant was confirmed in Nova Scotia, we’ve gone from 20 cases in a day to over 1,000. Time to take a moment to think about those trying to make sense of it all and make the best decisions for all of us. On Wednesday, November 24, 2021 — just […]

‘Saving lives is more important than business’

The government’s pre-emptive response to our latest COVID spike from many local restaurants, bars and small businesses — all of which are suffering financially — was encouraging. And should encourage the rest of us to do our part too. On Monday, the night before the government imposed a mandatory two-week closure of all bars and […]

Nova Scotia is safe for school children and would-be municipal politicians… but not for Liberal MLAs

The McNeil Liberal government sends kids back to school and orders municipal elections to proceed as planned, but its MLAs refuse to commit to continuing to meet, even virtually, during the pandemic. Welcome to another week in the Land of Hypocrisy. It was just another week in our paradoxical parallel-universe paradise. On Tuesday, September 8, […]

Zach Churchill: our schools will open 100 per cent… unless they don’t

It’s easy to understand why the government’s school-opening plan is still more hope than certainty. What’s less easy to understand — or forgive — is its business-as-usual secrecy, which has created unnecessary anxiety among students, parents, teachers and business. It’s hard not to sympathize with those charged with deciding whether and how to re-start the […]

Northwood: when a ‘review’ is just a cover-up

Last week, the McNeil government announced its plans for a “review” of the 53 COVID-19 deaths at Northwood. The problem is that it isn’t a review, just another excuse not to be accountable. On Thursday, my colleague Jennifer Henderson ventured where few of us would willingly dare to venture: into a post-cabinet-meeting virtual scrum where […]

Shiny budget surpluses versus investing in long-term care

Our long-term current crisis in long-term care, now in the spotlight because of COVID019, is the result of lots of choices governments have made. We need a public inquiry to hold them accountable, and to make share our long-term care future is better than its past. Choices? Crushing health care unions versus investing in long-term […]