There were strange, powerful forces at work that first year. It was 1995, and a couple things happened to put Halifax in the national spotlight. First, popular local politician Alexa McDonough got elected leader of the federal NDP. Then the independent communities of Bedford, Dartmouth, Halifax and Halifax County were formally merged into the Halifax […]
Opinion
Posted inNews + Opinion
Letters to the editor, October 31, 2019
Good call, NDP Terminating the candidacy of anyone who’s been nominated by a party’s members is not something a political party does casually. The nominated Dartmouth candidate who Judy Haiven refers to in her recent Coast letter was removed due to views she held which she later acknowledged to have been inappropriate, hateful and hurtful, […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
There’s a revolution happening in Lebanon
T here is a revolution happening in Lebanon that’s resulted in the resignation of the country’s prime minister. On October 17, what started as a protest of just a few thousand people, quickly grew into millions worldwide—including Halifax— standing in solidarity. The Lebanese are taking to the streets to protest years of corruption, unbridled nepotism and […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Making more resources for fathers in Halifax who need them
In 2016, I was a lost father. I had no idea what was to come, it was uncharted territory. I was a male victim of domestic abuse. I quit my job of seven years to try and give my son stability when his mother went back to work after her maternity leave ended. I thought I was doing […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Letters to the editor, October 24, 2019
NDP mistake In last week’s City article “Pushing beyond the glass ceilings of BIPOC political representation,” writer Julia-Simone Rutgers raises the good point: in all four Metro ridings, there has only ever been a “smattering” of racialized candidates, and none ran for the major parties in Monday’s federal election. But one recent incident was left […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Where strategic voting in Halifax will get you in the federal election
Canada is not having just one election on October 21. We’re having 338 elections. In order to decipher all the bullshit coming at you this election season you need to: first, understand how your vote elects a parliament; second, know how that parliament becomes government and; third, make a stiff drink or cry or both. […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Letters to the editor, October 17, 2019
The protest vote It’s great to see young folks around the world standing up to protest the environmental destruction of our planet (“Young people aren’t fucking around with the climate,” The City section story by Mallory Burnside-Holmes, September 19 ). As a teen in 1970, I was inspired by David Suzuki to get involved in […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
A water protector and teenager, targeted and trolled
For several years me and my Indigenous community have been fighting Alton Gas and the pulp mill to keep our waters clean. My intention at the Extinction Rebellion protest on Monday morning was to try to get the government and Trudeau to make decisions and changes. The group was only supposed to march the bridge from […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Letters to the editor, October 10, 2019
I stand with her As a parent, this is what I’m witnessing in the picture people are painting about my daughter’s participation in the Macdonald Bridge protest. I wasn’t on the bridge that day because of personal health issues in my life, but what I am seeing in the days afterward is people looking for […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Letters to the editor, October 3, 2019
Dumb stadium Dear Mike, Andy and Steve, How dare you? I could use all that wool you are using to pull over the public’s eyes in my next granny knitting project. Instead, I will use my grandmother voice to express my extreme dismay and displeasure at your latest shenanigans. Our grandchildren, including yours, deserve better. […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
An investment company bought my building
Though I’m reluctant to “air my dirty laundry in public,” to quote my grandmother, I do so in hopes it may help in some way to ameliorate others’ circumstances. The facts are brief and similar across the board. Much of my backstory is in the documentary My Week on Welfare by Jackie Torrens and Jessica […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Letters to the editor, September 26, 2019
Election readiness I am a student studying conservation biology, learning about the consequences of human action on our climate and biodiversity every day. I am lucky that I am educated on the urgency of this climate emergency, however, not everyone understands what is at risk and what must change to evade this crisis. In a […]