[image-1] Last week Halifax city council updated its various bylaws related to fire regulation. There wasn’t much too controversial there, but the conversation went off in some odd directions. For instance, councillor Steve Streatch had some problems with the part of the fire code outlawing the burning of tires and petroleum products in open air fires. Listen to his take on that here.
Tim Bousquet
Posted inNews + Opinion
City employees to be paid to “volunteer” at Canada Games
City employees will be paid to “volunteer” at the 2011 Canada Games, which will be hosted in Halifax in February. As explained in an email sent Monday from acting CAO Wayne Anstey to staff, the city will match any leave or vacation time employees use to volunteer at the Games with an equal amount, up […]
Posted inArts + Music
The Way We Filmed
A man puts on an over-sized dry suit, demonstrating its watertightness in front of a crowd of dozens. Waving the old Canadian flag in one hand and a British Union Jack in the other, he climbs up a rickety wooden contraption built over the Halifax Harbour and jumps into the water. He back strokes around […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Disrespecting the official flag of HRM is punishable by up to $500 or 30 days in jail
You can go out and buy the Maple Leaf flag, the official flag of Canada, and then insult it in any number of ways—burn it, flush it, fly it upside down, whatever—and suffer only the loss of personal reputation. But, should you get ahold of the official flag of the Halifax Regional Municipality and proceed […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Dan Leger hates his readers
There are lots of reasons why the daily newspaper industry is collapsing, but one is simply this: They hate their readers. I mean, why should average people choose to pay for something that insults them at every turn? But time and again, daily newspapers are siding with the comfortable over the afflicted, the bosses over the workers, the rich over the struggling, so it’s no wonder the afflicted, the workers and the struggling—that is, most people—aren’t interested in buying a newspaper. Take, for instance, this morning’s piece in the Chronicle-Herald by editor Dan Leger, which pretty much slaps working people
Posted inNews + Opinion
The south end smells like shit
[image-1] Halifax residents living in the vicinity of the sewage pumping station at Inglis and Barrington Streets are complaining of a foul sewage smell in their neighbourhood. Thursday evening, the odour was so strong that I could smell it two- to three blocks away, and while driving by in an air conditioned car. Some months ago, Halifax Water manager Carl Yates told me that there were design errors related to the pumping station but, citing pending small claims suits from residents of a nearby apartment building who had their cars flooded with sewage, Yates would not disclose what those errors
Posted inNews + Opinion
Cowardly swarming attacks around Common
Groups of cowards as large as 20 have been brutally attacking people innocently walking in the neighbourhood around The Coast office—north and east of the Halifax Common. The attacks began Friday evening, at 9:20pm, when a couple were attacked by six to eight young males on Maitland Street. Two hours later, a lone man was […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Downtown shuffle
Last week, infrastructure minister Bill Estabrooks told the Chronicle-Herald that he’ll announce a decision about provincial funding for the proposed convention centre in downtown Halifax later this month. I’m guessing from the tenor of his public pronouncements so far that, despite a provincial budget shortfall that will soon loom to perhaps a half-billion dollars, Estabrooks […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Will a new convention centre hotel kill the Halifax hotel market?
Say what you will about the Save the View group, which was formed in opposition to the proposed convention centre in Halifax, but there’s no denying that they are dogged, and determined to bring real analysis to figures that are seemingly randomly generated by Trade Centre Limited and other pro-convention centre groups. Today, Save the […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Firefighter Blair Cromwell fired
The city has fired Blair Cromwell, a firefighter who is part of a human rights complaint against the city. The human rights complaint alleges racial discrimination, while the city fired Cromwell for insubordination. Cromwell has been a firefighter with the city since 1988, and has been battling what he calls racist attitudes among management for […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Bus hell hits Halifax
Growing pains are hitting Metro Transit hard this week. Thanks to the recent opening of the new Ragged Lake Transit Centre—a bus barn that expands service capabilities beyond the old barn in Burnside—Metro Transit has been able to bring 15 new 60-foot low floor articulated buses on line, while retiring five of the old ones. […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Mary’s Place 2 opens Monday
Mary’s Place Cafe 2 (5982 Spring Garden Road, 404-7171) will open Monday morning, says owner Roy Khoury, bringing the same breakfast, vegetarian, vegan and Syrian menu that is found at the original Mary’s Place Cafe (2752 Robie Street, 454-2558). Hours at the new restaurant are 7am-9pm.