A poor example
I feel many Nova Scotians would be startled and distressed to learn that 21.6 percent of our children are living in poverty. That was revealed in a 2017 report on child and family poverty in Nova Scotia. And it is much worse for our Black children, our Mi'kmaw children and our immigrant children, especially in Korean and Arab families. Not having enough money affects children in many ways—including food, shelter and security—but also carries on to how well a child does in school, staying in school and every other aspect of a child's life into and as an adult.
The news about child poverty is quite a contrast to last Friday, when politicians and hobnobbers at the opening of the new-but-not-finished convention centre. I was trying to imagine what the $400 million of public money sunk into Nova Centre over the next 25 years could do to address child poverty in Nova Scotia. Maybe that's something the Auditor General could look into. But then I remembered Nova Scotia's broke. We live in a time of austerity. We can't support health care workers or pay teachers, so failing the next generation is normal too. What was I thinking? —Peggy Cameron, Halifax
Explosive errors
There is a small but significant error in Jennifer Henderson's article in your issue about the Halifax Explosion centenary ("The disaster artist," cover story, Nov 30). Ms. Henderson states: "Immediately following the blast in 1917, the Art College where Lismer was principal became a temporary morgue." But this was not so. I think there was only one temporary morgue, and that was the basement of the Chebucto Road School. It is true that Arthur Lismer wrote in a letter to Eric Brown, dated Dec 14, 1917, "my school is full of coffins now and all boarded up." But he is referring to empty coffins which the next-door funeral home, Snows, was forced to stack on the streets around and inside the Victoria School of Art and Design. At least 60 coffins can be seen in the photograph accompanying your article. Lots of coffins—no bodies.
I will admit to missing this error when Ms. Henderson asked me to fact check on November 7. A good example of this is a typo of mine in a 1994 paper with David Simpson, "Realities, Myths and Misconceptions of the Explosion." I wrote: "The data on the explosion cloud indicates that the non-symmetrical cloud rose to more than 3,600 metres (2,000 feet)." The 2,000 figure is a typo, and should have been 12,000. Easy enough to correct if a reader converts 3,600 metres to feet. But some have "corrected" it a different way, and today you will find some writers blindly describing a cloud that rose to more than 20,000 feet. —Alan Ruffman, Halifax
Correction
Catherine Campbell went to the Alehouse on September 11, 2015, not September 10 as was reported in Maggie Rahr's Dec 7 City section story "You don't go from being choked to dead." Her remains were found a few days later on September 15, not the next day as we published. We regret the errors.
Maud about you
Are people talking about how great this @TwitCoast cover is (The Holiday Planner, Dec 7)? Because people should be talking about how great this cover art is. I keep finding new and wonderful things every time I look. —Bobby O’Keefe via Twitter @Bobby_OK
