Will Waterville sexual assaults investigation be a watershed… or another Shelburne

“Anyone who comes forward does so voluntarily, and we will be taking a trauma-informed approach when we’re speaking with them,” explained Cst. Shannon Herbert, an investigator with Operation Headwind, the RCMP’s investigation into allegations of sexual assault at the Nova Scotia Youth Centre in Waterville. Operation Headwind, she told a press conference last week, was […]

Unfinished business: Donald Sobey, Derek Power and the ‘pardoned’ sexual assault

During his lifetime, Donald Sobey did his best to bury the truth of his 1991 sexual assault conviction with dismissive public statements, non-disclosure agreements, a federal pardon, philanthropy and many, many good deeds. None of that made the life of the young man he’d assaulted any easier. Now Derek Power is telling his story, finally […]

Shrubsall: no guarantees

Serial sexual predator William Shrubsall was sentenced to more prison time in New York last week. How much more? That depends. Not on our parole board, which failed abysmally. But on the willingness of women like T. C., K. C. and Tracy Jesso who continue to make sure his past — and his potential for […]

Coming to terms with Gerald Regan’s complicated legacy

How do you reconcile the contradictory facts of our 19th premier’s life? You probably can’t. No matter what you write, you’re either rinsing Regan’s black heart in the cleansing stream of his passing or dancing gleefully on his grave. Most news reports I saw got it about as right as those complicated realities — and […]

Shelburne School for Boys: Good intentions gone wrong? Or…?

Was the government’s compensation program crafted out of a well-intentioned desire to allow victims to tell their story “without a public spectacle” that would re-victimize them? Or in a desperate attempt to keep the public from ever learning the real story behind the abuse of children in care? While pursuing something else entirely yesterday, I […]

Verdict without end

More than 20 years after former Nova Scotia premier Gerald Regan was acquitted of sexually assaulting multiple women, other women are still coming forward with still more stories of what he did to them, still needing finally “to be heard.” ‘Catherine’ is one of them. This column originally appeared in theHalifax ExaminerApril 15, 2019. I shouldn’t be surprised. Not after Me-too. But I am. Still. It happens […]

Aphrodisiac: Sex, Politics, Power and Gerald Regan

Prologue (Excerpted from Aphrodisiac: Sex, Politics, Power and Gerald Regan) On the morning of December 18, 1998, Canadians awoke to the shocking news that Gerald Regan, the former premier of Nova Scotia and onetime federal cabinet minister — who was on trial in Halifax on charges of rape and attempted rape involving three women — had […]

The judge, the complaints and finding the balance between judicial independence and public confidence

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner April 9, 2018 “In the Matter of Complaints Against Judge Gregory Lenehan, made pursuant to the Provincial Court Act, R.S.N.S. 1989, c. 238 …” If nothing else, last week’s decision by the review committee looking into allegations of “misogynistic reasoning,” and “gender bias” by Nova Scotia Provincial […]

Taxi sexual assaults: Is there too much focus on what women ‘can do’?

Last week, Halifax police outlined what women who take cabs “can do for their own personal safety.” The warnings follow a spike in reported sexual assaults in taxis: five in the last year, three in the last month. Women should: telephone, rather than hail a taxi so there’s a record of their call; note […]

Ghomeshi not guilty? How about “not proven”?

The courts need another option. On Thursday, Ontario Justice William Horkins found former CBC host Jian Ghomeshi “not guilty” of five sexual-assault-related charges involving three different women. Legally, it was the right decision. But it isn’t the right conclusion. As Judge Horkins acknowledged, not guilty “is not the same as deciding in any positive way […]