It’s been one year. One year since 52-year-old Theresa McEvoy was killed when a stolen Chrysler LeBaron broadsided her silver 1991 Toyota Camry as she drove through the Almon and Connaught intersection in west-end Halifax. One year since a 16-year-old boy was charged with a number of offences, including criminal negligence causing death, related to […]
City
Posted inNews + Opinion
Normal
New Orleans, Louisiana The waiter pours an inch of Blackstone Napa Merlot into a plastic cup and offers it to me. I swish it around. “Very good.” We’ve landed here at Vincent’s, an old-line Italian restaurant where Dean Martin plays on the jukebox. The doors open to the rumble of the St. Charles Avenue streetcar, […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Radio ga-ga
I have this song in my head, an old song by Queen. “Radio Ga-ga.” My partner’s been singing it a lot lately, and so have I. “Radio, what’s new? Radio, someone still loves you.” That’s what we’ll have to find out, now that there’s a deal, now that the lockout is (almost) officially over. You’ll […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Eternal sunshine
A fortune from a Chinese cookie was glued with some sort of goo to Michael Weir’s computer and centred just above the screen. The red ink text was sandwiched between two happy faces. It said: You are heading for a land of sunshine. Michael Weir died on Thursday, September 22. He was at home in […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Dial tones
With the CBC lockout entering its sixth week, woeful fans have had plenty of time to assess what they miss the most from their public broadcaster. Because regional branches of CBC Radio are shut down across the country, original local programming has all but disappeared from the airwaves while day-to-day operations are handled out of […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Shelter storm
At 9am on a recent Friday morning, a motley band of 50 social activists and low income people-many of no-fixed-address pushed shopping carts down Spring Garden Road and shouted out their need for more affordable housing now. “Are shopping carts our national housing strategy?” asked a hand-lettered sign sticking up from one of the carts. […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Locked in
“We’ve just put an offer on the table.” So begins the full page ad in the Globe and Mail (my colleague Tod Maffin reports that such ads cost about $63,000) on Day 45 of the CBC lockout. It’s going to create a lot of talk, this ad. People are going to think it means a […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Week six: Lockout night in Canada
It’s week six and frankly, it’s hard to believe we’re still out there. Do I start every entry like this, or does it just feel that way? I haven’t been to the picket line yet this week. I’ve done a bit of clerical and committee stuff, but not nearly enough to earn my $350 lockout […]
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Getting it together
How can the benefits of living in a co-operative be communicated to today’s youth? That’s the question facing organizers of this week’s Halifax Co-operative World Café, an event designed to inject some new blood into the city’s many co-ops. “There are very few young people under age of 30 who start co-ops or are involved […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Line drive
Ever since CBC management locked its doors against my 5,500 colleagues and me across Canada five weeks ago, many, many things have broken my heart on a pretty near daily basis. In addition to walking the picket line, I’ve volunteered for other duties, most of them organizational, because I’m good at that, and it gives […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Reality cheque
The stress was like a dull throbbing toothache that wouldn’t go away. Her hair fell out, she chewed off her nails and she lost her appetite. Helen Jackson was in a vice grip of stress and anxiety for three years. It started with a single payday loan. “I was scared. I was ashamed to be […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Insecure
Week four. Many of us didn’t believe it would last this long. Others think it’ll go on for a while yet. So much time to think on the line. Lately, I’ve been thinking about security. I’ve been on contracts of varying lengths at CBC for three years. My current contract is for 12 months; it’s […]