Note to the reader: This post contains screenshots and references to anti-Semitic, misogynistic, and violent language. It may be triggering to individuals who have experienced online bullying or harassment. Please proceed with care. We are witnessing a steep escalation in white nationalism in Nova Scotia. This is not hyperbole. I do not say this lightly. […]
Liz LeClair
Posted inOpinion
What ‘Code of Misconduct’ taught me about silence, survival, and consent in hockey culture
Content warning: discussion around sexual assault and sexual assault trials. This weekend, I finally brought myself to watch Code of Misconduct. If you have not heard of it, Code of Misconduct is a Canadian documentary directed by Sébastien Trahan that premiered at the Hot Docs festival in April. It features investigative journalist Rick Westhead, who […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Peace does not begin with silence
In 1957, scientists from both sides of the Cold War travelled to a small village in Nova Scotia to talk about nuclear weapons, global annihilation, and what it would take to pull the world back from the edge of catastrophe. These individuals came in spite of their differences and long-held hostilities. What emerged from this […]
Posted inOpinion
The antidote to what ails our society is community care
On Saturday, I sat in a circle. Not a committee. Not a task force. Not a working group with terms of reference and a mandate to report back to a Minister. A simple circle. Seating was arranged so that no one sat at the head or the back, and everyone was equal. That arrangement was not […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Banning the people from the people’s house
On Wednesday, March 24, a group of spectators sat in the public gallery of Province House at 11:30pm and watched the government pass a budget that is doing real harm to real people across Nova Scotia. They didn’t go there to protest. They didn’t go there to sing. They went to look the government in […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Nova Scotia’s budget cuts will hurt the nonprofit sector more than COVID ever did
The last three weeks have been some of the most demoralizing — and also some of the most galvanizing — of my career in the nonprofit sector. When the Houston government tabled its provincial budget, it did so without consulting the communities it was gutting. Indigenous communities, Black and African Nova Scotian communities, 2SLGBTQIA+ groups, […]
Posted inUncategorized
Used, abused, and left to struggle: When politicians use advocates to seek political points
This weekend, I had the pleasure of sitting down and speaking with artist, DJ and podcaster Israel Ekanem for My Blackout podcast. This was a rare moment of good health, as I have been struggling for months with complications and chronic pain related to abdominal adhesions. Talking to Israel was a joy. He asked complex […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Nova Scotia’s culture of silence is deadly
This past week, Lisa Banfield, the former spouse of mass shooter Gabriel Wortman, gave a series of public interviews ahead of the release of her book, First Survivor: Life with Canada’s Deadliest Mass Shooter. In it, she recounts decades of psychological and physical violence. What Banfield describes aligns with what experts call coercive control and […]
Posted inOpinion
Mandy Wood deserved better. So do the women of Nova Scotia
On Christmas Day, Mandy Wood died. Wood was a beloved radio host based in Truro. She was also a woman failed—systematically and repeatedly—by Nova Scotia’s healthcare system. Mandy died from a rare form of vulvar cancer that went misdiagnosed for more than a year. Mandy waited for two years to see a gynecologist, and by […]
Posted inOpinion
Why the ability to speak truth to power matters, and why Houston and his staff are quelling dissent
On Nov. 28, former Justice Minister and Attorney General Becky Druhan participated in a panel discussion and made a public admission that many of us in the advocacy space have long suspected: the centralized, leader-centric political environment cultivated under Premier Tim Houston’s government has stifled dissent and silenced critics. Speaking alongside Independent MLA Elizabeth Smith […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
When symbols replace substance: Tim Houston’s populist use of the military
Last week, Premier Tim Houston used his office and considerable public platform to admonish the judiciary over the issue of wearing poppies in courtrooms. For anyone who missed it: Houston took to X to rage against two Nova Scotia judges who supposedly asked people not to wear poppies in the courtroom. The outrage cycle that […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
A cabinet shuffle that distracts us from a crisis
Last week, Premier Tim Houston unceremoniously removed two members of his cabinet. One of them was Becky Druhan, MLA for Lunenburg County and the now-former Minister of Justice — notably, the only person with a law degree to hold that portfolio under Houston’s leadership. This shake-up came right after the shortest legislative sitting Nova Scotia […]
