Last week, HRM council decided to spend $1.4 million on security cameras on Metro Transit buses. This is our leadership’s response to a recent spat of dirty (like the groping of a bus driver) and sometimes violent deeds committed on city buses, usually late at night. There’s a debate to be had about whether this […]
Chris Benjamin
Posted inNews + Opinion
Paint City Hall green
It’s typical of modern democracy that in an October 8 debate—covering big topics like uranium mining, alternative energy, sustainable transportation, pesticide use, food supply, planning, green building and waste management—a comment that road tolls are not such a bad idea may have cost Sheila Fougere her remote shot at becoming mayor. “Asphalt is a petroleum […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Tom surfs and protects
One of the world’s best surfers worries that the Nova Scotian coast is in danger. Three-time world champion surf legend Tom Curren is in town today and tomorrow to raise funds for the Coastal Access Committee, a group of surfers fighting to keep beach access open for all Nova Scotians. He’ll be playing Friday with […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
HRM’s eco-candidates
The discourse from our national leaders on the environment has changed so much since last election, I’m reminded of that Johnny Cash song, “The One on the Right is on the Left.” Closer to home, long-time Halifax MP Alexa McDonough’s reign is over and four political newbies are fighting for her old Halifax seat, so […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine
It starts with a violent coup by dictatorAugusto Pinochet September 11, 1973. The Chicago Boys, a gang of Chilean economists trained by free market guru Milton Friedman, are uncannily prepared with a manifesto of economic policy, “The Brick.” It lands heavy on the left-leaning populace, inducing a state of shock. The Chicago Boys have somehow […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Green biz
Considering the revolving door of retailers in this city, I’ve always figured you’d have to be nuts to start a business here, especially one of those socially conscious hippie enterprises. Turns out I was wrong. “Last year the hundredth monkey theory kicked in,” says Sean Gallagher, owner of three-year-old Terroir Local Source Food. “We got […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Something fishy
What a relief for guilty shrimp lovers. The Marine Stewardship Council has stamped the northern shrimp with its coveted eco-certification as a sustainable and well-managed fishery. The first in Canada. MSC is the non-governmental organization responsible for certifying fisheries as sustainable. An MSC label on your dinner-to-be means it comes from plentiful fish stocks, caught […]
Posted inArts + Music
Africville art marks the spot
The stories of Africville, some horrifying and some inspirational, have been told many ways by many artists: At spoken word events, in the news, in the poetry of George Elliot Clarke. On street murals, inside public schools, at NSCAD University’s new campus, visual representations of Africville abound. This Saturday’s Go North! celebration of creativity and […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Popular Diversions
“No other province has a waste management plan that bans organics from landfills,” says Jim Bauld proudly. Bauld is manager of solid waste resources for Halifax Regional Municipality. He adds that other Canadian municipalities have only recently started to catch up to Nova Scotia’s success in diverting 54 percent of our waste away from landfills. […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Ontario’s wild ideas
I just got back from a trip to Ontario. The leadership over there has some pretty wild ideas. Our province and our regional municipality could learn somethingfrom Ontario. Very few visitors to Ontario bother with the northern half—225,000 square kilometres of boreal forests, or four Nova Scotias. Ontario’s supreme leader, Dalton “no lips” McGuinty, recently […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Lincolnville dumped on again
Maybe, like Kanye West’s explanation for George Bush’s inaction during the Katrina disaster, our government doesn’t care about black people. Maybe that’s why it keeps putting dumps in Nova Scotian communities such as Lincolnville, a small rural black community in Guysborough County. In the 1970s a first-generation dump was put there with no community consultation. […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Carbon Tax
On consideration of life’s two inevitables, most Bluenosers prefer death to taxes. That’s why we elect so many conservative governments. We view new taxes with the same skepticism George Bush applies to climate change. Same with all Canadians, actually. Liberal leader Stephane Dion’s proposed new carbon tax raised ire across this land not seen since […]