[Image-1] In the fall of 2014, construction started on a brine discharge pipeline next to the Shubenacadie River, an hour north of Halifax. The development, by a company called Alton Gas, hadn’t yet received full government approval, and it was met with swift protest. A camp was soon erected that was largely occupied by local […]
Miles Howe
Posted inNews + Opinion
Former Energy director now employed as Alton Gas lobbyist
[Image-1] A Department of Energy communications director who became a lobbyist for the Alton Gas project just four-and-a-half months after leaving her public employer says the career move isn’t a conflict of interest. Karen White was communications director for Nova Scotia’s Department of Energy until April of 2015. She left that job and took a […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
The damage of the Harper years
[Image-1] In hushed tones, speaking on conditions of anonymity, one hears a remarkably similar refrain from front-end federal government monitoring staff who were once—and theoretically still are—tasked with environmental regulatory enforcement: There’s no time anymore. So keep your head down and just go through the motions. The back-end staff, office-bound folks who might, say, prepare […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Old age tensions
[Image-1] As we age, we become more concerned with the practical side of life, or so the story goes. Lo and behold, one day we realize that we’re not going to live forever and suddenly all those little things associated with how to age, retire and ultimately die comfortably—things we used to put off and […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Veterans fight Stephen Harper’s pro-Armed Forces stance
On August 17, 2015, Roger Montefrisco, along with several other Canadian Armed Forces veterans, were refused entry to Branch #4 of the Royal Canadian Legion, in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Prime minister Stephen Harper, on the campaign trail, was at the Legion to announce a plan to “strengthen the Canadian Armed Forces reserve force” and “deepen […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
How to destroy a political movement
[Image-1] In terms of the province’s shale gas development agenda, 2013 would turn very nasty. With billions of dollars in hypothetical royalties at stake, two years of false starts, and the likely threat of Southwestern Energy (SWN) suing the province for tens of millions of dollars if the company was forced to default on its […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
So you say you wanna protest
Let’s say you’re that kid with the Noam Chomsky shelf in your bookcase. You’re new to Halifax, you don’t give a shit about Harbour Hopping, and you’ve spent nights wondering who let in all this colonial, let’s drink-it-all-away propaganda anyway. Guess what? Before this was Halifax, this was K’jipuktuk. We’re guests on unceeded Mi’kmaq territory, […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Fight the power
A growing movement to de-privatize Nova Scotia Power Inc. has been gaining traction, at least at the grassroots level. Over the last few months, anti-capitalist action group Solidarity Halifax has been conducting teach-ins, door-to-door campaigns and general rabble rousing in an attempt to put the issue into the public mindset. Nova Scotia Power has done […]
Posted inLifestyle
Is medical marijuana going to pot?
In an early-’90s Civic we drive eastward, away from the Halifax-Dartmouth sprawl, toward the tiny hamlets and villages that tuck themselves into the myriad bays and coves of the eastern shore. In the car the conversation flits quickly from topic to topic, like some conspiratorially minded hummingbird, and runs the gamut of water-cooler fringe-news talk. […]
Posted inLifestyle
Ecology Action Centre’s gift-givers
We asked the greenest elves, those who work at the Ecology Action Centre, what they’d recommend for gifts this holiday season. Conscientious consumption continued Jennifer West’s tips: ICC cooking classes: Offered throughout the year, cost is $115 for four lessons. 453-5327 or icca@eastlink.ca. | Oceanstone Inn and Cottages* in Peggys Cove, 823-2160, oceanstone.ns.ca | Irwin […]
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Occupy 2.0
Reeling from what increasingly appears to have been a well-coordinated, nationwide crackdown upon Occupy encampments, the imminent question now facing Occupy Nova Scotia is, “What now?” The notion of maintaining a communal space remains of paramount importance, and some have devoted themselves to finding an alternate living arrangement. Despite an open invitation from Eddie Carvery […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Twice arrested
On November 11, the Halifax Regional Police department served notices of eviction to Occupy Nova Scotia, then encamped at Victoria Park. Word of the eviction spread among Occupiers and supporters via telephone and email; I got the message and headed down to the park. When I arrived I found an extremely agitated community, already surrounded […]