Rocky Jones, thank you and rest in peace.

The last time I talked face to face with Rocky Jones was in November 2011, a few nights before he was scheduled to deliver a public lecture on “The Struggle for Human Rights in African Nova Scotian Communities, 1961-2011.” It could have been the too-wordy title for his autobiography. (Metro File Photo) We met at […]

The hit man, the sexual assaulter, the courts and justice

It’s been an unsatisfying week for the be-seen aspect of that justice-being-done-and-being-seen-to-be-done shibboleth. The more we learned the more clear it is we still don’t know all we need to know about two high-profile court cases to satisfy ourselves justice has been served. Let’s start with the report of the Commission for Public Complaints Against […]

Paramedics can’t strike, but that doesn’t cure what ails a sick system

Now that the government has legislatively punted the possibility of a paramedics strike into the hands of a pick-one arbitrator — who will have to choose between dueling union and management last-best offers for wages and working conditions over the next three to five years — it’s time to ask ourselves a question. What’s wrong […]

07/08/2013
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Trevor Zinck: A fatal mix of alcohol, gambling, politics and delusion

The careening train wreck Trevor Zinck’s political career and personal life had become has finally flown off the tracks, plunged over the cliff and disappeared into an abyss. Zinck, who’d promised a vigorous defence of the criminal charges in the MLA expense scandal, turtled instead. On the the fifth day of his trial — after […]

06/24/2013
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The Home for Coloured Children: Time to Muzzle the Lawyers

For the lawyers, of course, it is about protecting the client, lessening liability, mitigating damages. In that context, perhaps, it makes lawyer sense to niggle over nouns, to parse phrases like “as if we were slaves” for literality, to offer up a bookkeeper’s balance sheet to contradict allegations of underfunding, to use all the lawyers’ […]

06/17/2013
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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 […]

Rehtaeh Parsons, the media and social media: it's complicated

It’s complicated. The Canadian Psychiatric Society, among others, publishes guidelines for reporting on youth suicide. Don’t put the word “suicide” in the headline, it says. Don’t give such stories undue prominence. Don’t describe the method. Don’t glorify the victim. The guidelines are designed to reduce the very real risk of copycats. We know many media […]

Rehtaeh Parsons, cyberspace and "justice:" a cautionary tale

On April 19, 1989, a 39-year-old woman named Trisha Meili went for a jog in New York’s Central Park. She was raped and violently assaulted. Partly because of the attack’s brutality, partly because of news reports the perpetrators were a gang of “wilding” black youths and partly because of who the victim was—white, a Yale […]

Dexter's budget tinkers at the progressive edges, but is that enough?

Did Darrell Dexter balance the budget? Is the pope Argentinian? Depends on which pope you mean. And what you mean by balance. Not to forget “the…” The perhaps more relevant pre-election questions out of last week’s legislature exercise: Would the other parties have done anything different in either the budget’s broad strokes or in its […]

Time to end the 'March Madness Educational Demolition Derby'

Richmond, the primary-to-nine school I attended in north end Halifax, is long gone. Not quite true. The oldest section, ironically the one re-built after the 1917 Halifax Explosion, now serves as a family court building. The other two wings, hastily tacked on after World War II to accommodate then-exponentially expanding baby boom babies, were unceremoniously […]