The municipality’s top manager and the transit union’s president are both laying the blame on each other for the decades of racial harassment that occurred inside Halifax Transit. Despite the confusion, chief administrative officer Jacques Dubé doesn’t think a public inquiry is needed to find out who should be held accountable. “We’re not considering that […]
Jacob Boon
Posted inNews + Opinion
Lawyer slams HRM’s freedom of speech defence for racial abuse
The municipality apparently feels its employees have a Charter right to call each other racial epithets. It’s the bizarre defence that lawyers representing HRM used during an independent board of inquiry into complaints of racial discrimination at Halifax Transit’s Burnside warehouse. As exposed earlier this week in the board’s decision, Black and Indigenous employees in […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Nova Scotia’s prisons still awful
Hey great news everyone, over half the prisoners in the province are on remand and the guards watching them are improperly trained. This comes from auditor general Michael Pickup’s latest report, which lays out a stark portrayal of Nova Scotia’s correctional facilities and their deficiencies in safety, security and training. Policies for the use of solitary […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Halifax fires transit supervisor
A supervisor at the Burnside bus garage has been terminated after a board of inquiry found him responsible for multiple instances of racial discrimination and harassment over the past 18 years. The Coast has learned that Halifax Transit employee Arthur Maddox was fired last week, just days before the scathing board decision by barrister Lynn […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
City hall apologizes for widespread racism within Halifax Transit
Twelve years after the initial complaint was filed, an independent board of inquiry from Nova Scotia’s Human Rights Commission has determined Halifax Transit’s work environment to be abusive and discriminatory. Lynn Connors, chair of the HRC’s board, states in a recently released decision that there is “ample evidence” that “discrimination was ongoing in the workplace.” […]
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Police kill man
Bradley Thomas Clattenburg, 24, was killed Saturday morning by police in Dartmouth. According to CBC, the Truro man was shot and killed after police responded to a call involving someone threatening a Westphal resident with a firearm. Clattenburg fled the house he was located within and was shot dead by police in a nearby wooded […]
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Anti-immigration activists march in Apple Blossom parade
Bullhorn in hand, members of the National Citizens Alliance had a message for the Apple Blossom Festival. “Wake up!” they said. “We don’t want to become a globalist village.” The far-right nationalist group was a surprising presence amongst the community groups, children and colourful mascots making up the Apple Blossom Festival’s Grand Street Parade on […]
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The agave plant is dead
Halifax’s celebrity plant is pushing up daisies. The agave inside the Public Gardens has been killed by Nova Scotia’s chilly spring weather. Like so many of us in this town, it will never blossom. Municipal spokesperson Erin DiCarlo says gardeners haven’t seen much new growth from the plant since putting it outside and some of the […]
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Province promises no payouts to lure conventions
It’s standard practice elsewhere in the world, but government officials say it won’t be happening in Halifax. The Halifax Convention Centre has no plans to offer financial incentives to attract business, promises Events East spokesperson Erin Esiyok-Prime. At least, not any more than has already been spent. The Crown corporation paid out just over $1 […]
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City hall bends over backwards to make Armco happy
You can’t fault the customer service. City council voted on Tuesday to move forward for the second time with a public hearing for the controversial Willow Tree development at the corner of Quinpool Road and Robie Street. The decision was made after a last-minute scramble to once again rewrite HRM’s planning bylaws in order to […]
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History lessons and white academia
“White teachers taught in residential schools, why shouldn’t white profs teach about its history?” It’s a satirical headline from Walking Eagle News, written about the recent controversy at Mount Saint Vincent University and the lack of Indigenous voices in academia. But the joke also speaks to the uneasy and ongoing tradition of white Canadians taking […]