Every few months, there’s talk in the air about radically transforming the structure of HRM or of the Halifax council—de-amalgamate, cut HRM in two, adopt right-wing American libertarian-style tax policies (i.e., “tax reform”) or, most recently, reduce the number of councillors. This last idea is now the subject of a council subcommittee and, in typical […]
Editorial
Posted inNews + Opinion
2010 predictions: Year of Fire
As 2009, the year of the ox (solid, stolid and steady) gives way to 2010, the year of the tiger (fiery, ferocious and fearless), it’s time to review last year’s predictions, then gaze into my crystal ball once again. I hate to brag, but all of my 2009 predictions were 100 percent bang on. Remember […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Climate change 2010: time to get our shit together
Funny what flipping a calendar page means to us. This last week of the year we assess our failures and successes, recall people we’ve lost. The newspapers break out their “best of 2009” lists and, next week, the “what to look for in 2010” lists pop up. A lot of this reflection is playful, but […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Changing climates
My favourite media moment at the Copenhagen climate conference came last Thursday when Evo Morales declared: “Capitalism is the worst enemy of humanity.” Bolivia’s president was being interviewed by Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now, heard at noon weekdays on CKDU. Morales, speaking through a translator, described the irrational and unlimited industrialization that destroys the […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Chequebook politics leaves city staff short changed
Last week, city staff announced that the pay rates for Halifax councillors had been improperly calculated, and so every councillor serving since 2005 would receive a one-time payment making up for lost pay. The payments totalled $246,096.16; some councillors received as much as $8,000, but most considerably less. Councillors used to set their own pay […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
We are Canadian. We are all villains now.
“O wad some Power the giftie gie us, to see oursels as ithers see us!” Robbie Burns composed those immortal lines before the advent of today’s powerful international media. These global village chroniclers are certainly giving Canadians the gift of seeing ourselves—and the picture’s not pretty. Apparently we’re seen as corrupt villains bent on derailing […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
PR ranks swell as journalism suffers
Where’d all the reporters go? That was the question I asked in an email to many of my media colleagues last week. I was wondering what happened to the dozens of reporters who were laid off from the Chronicle-Herald in February and from the closing of the Daily News last year. It was impossible to […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Insecurity complex
“Have you got your lanyard, sir?” inquired a security official in the lobby of the Westin hotel Saturday morning. “No, I’m media,” I replied, “and I still haven’t registered for the conference.” The security guy made it clear I wouldn’t be going anywhere without official ID consisting of a plastic card clipped to an orange […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Capital Health unions earn their naps
“Where’s the nap room?” is the running joke over at Capital Health, as employees scurry around the hallways and peer through doors and windows in the faux-search for the celebrated, but elusive, “private rooms for napping.” The nap rooms were cited by Toronto publisher Mediacorp and Maclean’s magazine as reason why the Capital District Health […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
NDP deliver protected wilderness to seal hunters
Oh, how I wish I could declare Province House a protected wilderness. How else to preserve that rare and forever-endangered flower, political common sense. Now that the NDP juggernaut has swept into office, political common sense may be trampled into extinction. Consider, for example, last week’s verbal gyrations performed by our new environment minister. Sterling […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Tories hijack Halifax’s recession
If anyone doubts that Conservatives are politicizing the spending of economic stimulus money, they need only look at how stimulus money is flowing through HRM. Halifax council held a rushed meeting the afternoon of April 28 to come up with ways to spend $87.75 million in stimulus money. Mayor Peter Kelly, who is a member […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Whatever Happened to School Flu Shot Clinics?
The Second Wave is upon us and so is a newly diagnosed condition – “H1N1 psychosis,” an overwhelming fear of catching the flu. First diagnosed last week at the Montreal Children’s Hospital, it seems to be spreading everywhere. Long line-ups at community clinics, the vaccine supply shortage, and recent shifts in our H1N1 response strategy […]