A week ago Tuesday night, someone tried to kill me. I was walking across Thistle Street in Dartmouth, in the mid-block crosswalk that leads from the Sportsplex to the Common. There was a car coming down the hill, but I had plenty of time to get safely to other side. As I crossed, however, I […]
Editorial
Posted inNews + Opinion
Utility sales never a good idea.
Maybe Nova Scotians could learn a lesson from the public outcry in New Brunswick over plans for the sale of NB Power to Hydro Quebec. The uproar began last fall when John Ritter lookalike Shawn Graham announced the sale of NB Power’s transmission and distribution system, as well as its power plants, for $4.8 billion. […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Canadian-sponsored apartheid
“Write down!/I am an Arab/and my identity card number is 50,000…Record!/I am an Arab/You have stolen the orchards of my ancestors/And the land which I cultivated/Along with my children/And you left nothing for us/Except for these rocks../So will the State take them/As it has been said?!…Write down on the top of the first page:/I do […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
HRM’s secret arena contract
Halifax Regional Municipality has a “black budget”—a secret, off-the-public-books budget, completely off-limits to the citizenry. A black budget is the absolute antithesis to democracy, because without public knowledge of government expenditures there can be no accountability, and without accountability there can be no democracy. At issue is the new four-pad arena on Hammonds Plains Road. […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
O, Canada!
Steve Harper’s on-again, off-again flirtation last week with expunging sexist language from our national anthem brought back bitter memories of my misspent youth hunched over a battered Underwood. While neighbourhood kids indulged in light-hearted play—sniping at hunters in the woods or setting fire to the town crematorium—I huddled in the cellar hammering out stories, poems […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Community building
This week’s Coast takes a detailed look at the intriguing possibilities for Halifax’s central library—everything from the potential for an inspiring new building with beautifully designed public spaces to the opportunities for a vigorous balance between old and new media. Our reporting celebrates what we see as a victory in the clash between town and […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Buses beg as cars cash in
Halifax council has been doing good work on the transit front. Councillors have committed to buying 45 new articulated buses—15 will hit the streets in coming months—and have agreed “in concept” to an aggressive five-year transit expansion plan that, if implemented, will see big improvements in bus service. Of course it will cost more money […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Voters Should Turn Their Attention to Corporate Subsides
I‘m not religious, but last Sunday I felt like parking myself in the nearest church pew to thank god for the uproar over MLA expenses. At first, I thought the expenses story was a tempest in a teapot. I blamed sustained media hype for the furor over MLA spending on such items as big-screen TVs, […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Sea of corruption
It’s the easiest media story in the world: The government auditor issues a report slamming outrageously out-of-control provincial MLA expenses. Report the details, hound legislators for responses, demand release of more info, write screaming editorials. Repeat, for as many days as possible. I mean, why not? But lost in the hoopla is context, and so […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Omar Khadr’s treatment ruled supremely unjust
In a sharply worded 9-0 ruling, the Supreme Court declared last week that the federal government’s ongoing treatment of Omar Khadr violates the principles of fundamental justice and his right to liberty and security. In one scathing passage, the judges condemned Canadian officials for repeatedly interrogating the Canadian teenager at the Guantanamo Bay torture camp […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
City’s Citizen’s Survey says…not much
One of my favourite American blogs is Nate Silver’s fivethirtyeight.com. Silver is a Chicago writer and owner of sports media company Baseball Prospectus and uses his blog to examine political polling. “Both baseball and politics are data-driven industries,” explains Silver. “But a lot of the time, that data might be used badly. In baseball, that […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Haiti is poor for a reason
As video showing the devastation of Haiti flashed around the world, the media carried heart-rending stories of death and disaster. Dahoud Andre, host of a Haitian radio program in New York, told the story of a woman in Haiti’s capital who returned home after the earthquake to find her house flattened. “Her husband and her […]