Union-chief spat just the tip of the troubles at Halifax Regional Police

“I have confidence in Chief Daniel Kinsella’s ability to lead the Halifax Regional Police…” Yes: 3.4 percent. No: 96.6 percent of the 83.7 percent of the Halifax Regional Police Association’s more than 600 members who voted in a recent union-organized poll answered “an overwhelming” no to the statement. No matter how you count, that’s a […]

Defunding the police by increasing funding for the police?

Halifax City council approved a slightly smaller increase for policing than the chief requested. But it’s still an increase. And not the “rethinking” of the role of policing in our society critics are asking for. “We are in a crisis. We are in dire straits. We need to be able to make sure that we […]

Getting coffee while black

What does a recent human rights case — and HRM’s lack of response to it — say about the state of race in Halifax in 2021? On the morning of Jan. 24, 2017, Gyasi Symonds, a provincial department of community services caseworker, did what many of us routinely did in pre-pandemic times. He went for […]

Councillors cancelled the tank contract. Good. Now what?

We are in a moment. It has forced us to rethink what we mean by policing, and by public safety, and to begin to reimagine a world in which public safety does not necessarily mean a cop with a gun killing someone with whom he is supposedly conducting a “wellness check,” or six cops with […]