Yesterday, we heard two prisoners at the Nova Institution federal prison for women in Truro were awaiting results on COVID-19 tests. Fortunately, by early afternoon, it appeared both were negative— spared for now from being added to a list that’s being compiled by Justin Piche at University of Ottawa. Piche is tracking positive coronavirus cases in […]
Martha Paynter
Posted inNews + Opinion
What happened to Santina Rao in a Halifax Walmart should never happen again
The Hyde Inquiry. The Wortley Report. The Fraser and Gardner trials. Constable Joseph Farrow’s assault charge. Indigenous, Black, people of colour, trans and nonbinary people have been calling this out forever, but the outrageous violence Santina Rao experienced at the hands of police last week has to be the last straw for Halifax’s tolerance of […]
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Clinic 554 has institution status in Canada’s abortion access history—why the changes it propelled shouldn’t spell its demise.
T he only non-hospital based surgical abortion clinic in the Maritimes is in financial trouble. Unlike other provinces and territories, New Brunswick has a clause in its provincial Medical Services Payment Act (Regulation 84-20, Schedule 2 a. 1) specifically prohibiting public payment for abortion “unless the abortion is performed in a hospital facility.” Ten thousand […]
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Six years of abortion advancements in Atlantic Canada
Access to Choice Celebration Monday, April 8, 5:30pm Halifax Distilling Company 1668 Lower Water Street More info at halifax@leaf.ca Six years ago, when Dr. Henry Morgentaler died, many Atlantic Canadian abortion advocates felt disarmed and afraid. Morgentaler’s private clinic in Fredericton had provided most of New Brunswick’s abortions for years, each patient paying $750. The province […]
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Ultrasound ‘policy’ one of Nova Scotia’s many failings on abortion access
An Atlantic Canadian province is once again in the news for failure to provide timely access to abortion for pregnant people. Despite the significant changes to abortion policy in Nova Scotia in the past year—the launch of a toll-free hotline for connection to Mifegymiso (medical abortion) prescribers across the province, the creation of a billing […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
End prison segregation now
“We won!” exclaimed the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, regarding the BC Supreme Court ruling January 17 against sections of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act that allow for indefinite solitary confinement. In the frustrating, protracted, and so-often disappointing battle for prison justice in this country, it is, of course, a win, and to be […]