City council stumbles… again, always

The lesson from last week’s reversal of council’s decision to sell the former St. Patrick’s-Alexandra school to a private developer? Even when our councillors finally, belatedly get it right, they bungle the process so badly everyone walks away more than slightly soiled and embarrassed by the whole exercise. In December, over angry objections of […]

Time for a public inquiry into the Fenwick MacIntosh case

One hopes Nova Scotia’s prosecution service will find compelling legal grounds to appeal last week’s Nova Scotia Court of Appeal decision overturning Fenwick MacIntosh’s conviction for sexually abusing children. The accusations are too serious and the legal issues too important not to appeal. But whatever the outcome of the legal process—and, indeed, without waiting for […]

Rocky Jones: The past and future of the Nova Scotia human rights' struggle

I wanted to ask Rocky Jones about his Wednesday lecture: “The Struggle for Human Rights in African Nova Scotian Communities, 1961-2011.” No problem. When? Not today. He’s on a panel at a national conference on public policy. Saturday, he’s in Truro, keynote speaker at an International Year for People of African Descent symposium. Then Ottawa […]

Occupy protesters speaking for more than just themselves

Occupy Nova Scotia’s campers will decamp—temporarily—from Grand Parade so Remembrance Day ceremonies can take place there next week. Given the respectful, peaceful tenor of the protest, that’s hardly surprising. Neither will it come as any surprise—though it will doubtless disappoint Mayor Peter Kelly—that the protesters also intend to rebuild their tent village and continue the […]

Shipbuilding contract: the good, the better but not the best

The good news is we won. The better news is that we won fair and square. The best news would be for the process by which Halifax’s Irving shipyard last week won a $25-billion federal shipbuilding contract-for-a-generation become the new norm. But that last, of course, is least likely. That’s because the shipbuilding contract was […]

Banning developer cash: methinks thou dost protest a bit too much

Well, Brad Johns certainly kicked over a few hornets’ houses. The Sackville municipal councilor had the temerity last month to suggest “individuals or businesses directly involved with the development industry” be banned from contributing to local candidates’ elections. Within days, prominent Halifax developer Wadih Fares was demanding an apology. “Who does he think we are? […]

Doing the right thing the wrong way

It has been a crazy rollercoaster of a pin-balling, ping-ponged week for those of us who get our knickers knotted about seemingly esoteric matters like public access to public information and government accountability. But all’s well that ends well… sort of. Let’s start with NDP MLA Howard Epstein’s “inadvertent” leak of confidential caucus information indicating […]