Tim Bousquet

Nova Scotia’s scandal du jour demonstrates what journalists can do when they set their minds to it. The Ernie Fage saga has generated reams of newsprint, hours of videotape and stoked the investigative instincts of Halifax’s finest news gatherers. And all this great journalism was spawned by a sports reporter’s dented fender. So what do […]

When writing about the airport, I’m obliged first to point out the larger environmental context of the place. Air travel, notes British Guardian columnist George Monbiot, “is currently responsible for 3.5 percent of the total human contribution to global warming. This could rise to as much as 15 percent by 2050.” Monbiot calls for an […]

Looking back at this past year, it’s clear that Canadians individually have embraced an environmental ethic. But the further removed you get from the people, the less responsive the politicians. Let’s start with the people. A November CBC poll found that 71 percent of Canadians said the federal government wasn’t doing enough to address their […]

“Huh?” That was the collective reaction among fishermen, environmentalists and marine biologists last month when John Risley, chair of Bedford-based Clearwater Seafoods, dissed the international movement for a moratorium on deep-sea bottom trawling. “There is zero scientific evidence, not one shred of scientific evidence,” Risley told the St. John’s Board of Trade, “that these fisheries […]

Run the 100-metres in under 10 seconds while breathing sulphur dioxide, and watch out for splotches of oil lying about the track. That’s pretty much what the people who want to bring the 2014 Commonwealth Games to Halifax are asking of the world’s elite athletes. The bid committee proposes to host the games at Shannon […]

Last month, the people hoping to bring the 2014 Commonwealth Games to Halifax announced a major advertising campaign, with ads splashed on billboards and buses, on TV and in newspapers, and with a large web presence. “There’s a strong desire for further information,” spokesperson Deborah Hashey told city council. “The ad campaign is making information […]

When it comes to addressing greenhouse gas production, the city of Halifax is starting to get it right. It’s the province that’s still getting it wrong. In August the city announced it wanted 20 percent of the electricity it uses—21 gigawatt hours annually, enough to power the city’s streetlights—to come from renewable sources, and asked […]

On any given day several hundred people use Point Pleasant Park, and most of them are carrying a plastic bottle of water. That’s because there isn’t a working drinking fountain in the park. An ancient fountain sits near Black Rock Beach, but it’s been capped off so long it’s more rust than metal. Nowadays, it’s […]