This story was updated August 29 to include a quote from Tim Houston making clear the province must reach 75 percent fully vaccinated to enter Phase 5. Phase 5 is scheduled to start Wednesday, September 15, Houstrang says. Monday afternoon, during their first provincial COVID briefing together, incoming premier-designate Tim Houston and chief medical officer […]
Lyndsay Armstrong
Lyndsay was a city reporter covering all things Halifax, health and COVID-19. She is a data journalist who has covered provincial politics for allNovaScotia.com and represented Nova Scotia in a national investigation into lead in drinking water with the Toronto Star and Global.
Posted inNews + Opinion
Halifax police chief Kinsella defends use of force at the Memorial Library shelter protest
Halifax Regional Police chief Dan Kinsella, who was not present at yesterday’s chaotic arrests and protest, says officers “responded appropriately” when using pepper spray which hurt at least one child. In a media availability Thursday afternoon, following 24 arrests made August 18 as police forcibly removed shelters and tents inhabited by unhoused Haligonians, the police […]
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How the city created a crisis Wednesday with a shelter siege
In mid-July, when eviction notices were posted on several Halifax Mutual Aid-built shelters across Halifax, HRM councillor Shawn Cleary assured Haligonians that the removal of unhoused residents’ tents, wooden shelters and belongings would happen without violence. “If someone is dragged out of one of these shelters by a police officer I’ll be down there with […]
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Halifax results and ridings in the 2021 Nova Scotia election
Happy post-election, Nova Scotia. After an interesting 31-day campaign dominated by talk of health care, rent control and sexism—not to mention a federal election call arriving at the tail end of the provincial campaign—the province elected a Progressive Conservative government. Tim Houston will be Nova Scotia’s next premier. For the best look at election results […]
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No ballots taken at Clayton Park West returning office break-in
With provincial election day looming, a break-in at the Clayton Park West returning office resulted in stolen ballot boxes and IT equipment, but no ballots were taken, Elections Nova Scotia said. The returning office for District 10 at 137 Chain Lake Drive was broken into in the evening of Sunday, August 15, according to a […]
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Encouraging student vote
With the summertime election call, student organizations have been hard at work encouraging the nearly 60,000 people studying in Nova Scotia to get out and vote under stranger-than-normal circumstances. The Canadian Federation of Students is highlighting election issues like tuition costs, climate change and tackling racism in a non-partisan campaign to encourage student votes. Related […]
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Dr. Strang pens letter to NS families to encourage student vaccine uptake
Nova Scotia’s top doctor wrote to families of students about the importance of getting a vaccine ahead of the school year—and urged those eligible but still unvaccinated to get their shot as soon as possible. The province has not, however, released its back to school plan. In a letter sent to families of students from […]
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Strang ready to “take action” if New Brunswick cases keep rising
Nova Scotia top doc Robert Strang says he’s watching New Brunswick closely and is ready to take action if needed, following a spike in COVID cases over the week. NB has reported 44 new cases since last Saturday, and Friday it shifted to phase green—meaning no more masks, physical distancing or capacity caps. Given that […]
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Who’s missing from the tally of vaccinated Nova Scotians?
some Nova Scotians left the province to be vaccinated, back when our rollout was barely rolling at all. Some Nova Scotians were out of the province when we had the best vax rate in Canada, and got vaccinated to catch up before coming home. Some Nova Scotians spend their working hours away, so it made […]
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Viola Desmond and Alexander Keith’s graveyard clears heritage hurdle
Halifax’s Camp Hill Cemetery got almost perfect marks in its evaluation at a special meeting of the HRM heritage advisory committee. Among the thousands of marked and unmarked graves at the 177-year-old burial ground are the final resting place of both civil rights activist Viola Desmond and brewer-politician Alexander Keith. In a virtual meeting last […]
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Battle of the health care promises: Liberal, NDP, PC
Nova Scotia’s pandemic-time election has a clear focus—health care. PC leader Tim Houston launched his campaign with a massive health spending promise. NDP leader Gary Burrill pledged to eliminate ambulance fees and add nursing home beds for all who need them. And today, day 11 of the general election, Iain Rankin laid out the Liberal […]
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Government tells Nicole Gnazdowsky she’s “no longer welcome” to contact the province
About an hour after The Coast published a story about Nicole Gnazdowsky’s 510-page FOI document findings—which included instructions from government staff to delete notes of meetings—Nova Scotia’s associate deputy minister of justice told Gnazdowsky she was no longer welcome to communicate with the department. “Your communication with Labour and Advanced Education (LAE) staff has become […]