League Misconduct

At 2:30 p.m. on July 4, 2016, Nova Scotia Minister of Labour Kelly Regan issued a news release. Athletes playing on Nova Scotia-based teams are exempt from parts of the Labour Standards Code… It was the Monday after the Canada Day long weekend, the beginning of our traditional summers-long political disengagement. This out-of-nowhere decision hadn’t […]

Do teenage athletes playing for for-profit teams deserve the same protections as other workers?

Bobby Smith, majority owner of the Halifax Mooseheads, wasn’t available to talk to reporters last week about government changes to labour laws exempting his QMJHL team from paying its teenaged hockey players minimum wage, or vacation pay, or limiting the hours they work. No matter. The government’s press release helpfully quoted Smith, declaring teams like […]

Two good guys. Two good journalists. RIP

They were different men at different stages of their personal lives and professional careers. No matter. With last week’s too-soon deaths of Allan Rowe, the longtime Global television anchor turned MLA, and Matthew Wuest, the former Halifax Metro sports journalist and founder of the legendary Capgeek hockey insider’s website, the local journalism community is a […]

The Halifax Mooseheads should have known…

The Halifax Mooseheads should have known. On Tuesday, Oct. 7, at 10:50 p.m., Halifax Regional Police responded to an accident on Freshwater Trail near Dartmouth’s Russell Lake. One car had smashed into a second, parked vehicle, causing extensive damage. Sources say there was an open bottle of alcohol in the first car, and police charged a young man they […]

Ron is grinning… Dave is worried… And the Cup is in the House

So… did Percy really pop Keith? Is the premier going to pull the plug? Can I get back to you? I’m still in the Metro Centre. It’s fun, frenzied Friday night. “The Cup is in the House,” and the house is bursting. Ten-thousand-five-hundred-and-ninety-five fans, plus media, scouts, officials, parents, friends of friends. Expectant, ready to […]

Making the Mooseheads

(“Making the Mooseheads” won an award for best sports journalism at the 2013 Atlantic Journalism Awards.) Behind the scenes of how Halifax’s junior team went from worst in the country to being the kings of Canadian hockey. By Stephen Kimber On Friday, April 5, at the Metro Centre, the Halifax Mooseheads—the number-one-ranked team in all of Canadian junior […]