With a proposal that insists on all kinds of community engagement—even from those wholly opposed to the idea— Halifax’s board of police commissioners moved the process for community consultation on defunding the police forward this week. After a messy start, the board’s request for a committee made up of community stakeholders to look at a […]
Halifax Regional Police (HRP)
Posted inNews + Opinion
The Black Lives Matter sign on Gottingen Street is a form of resistance
On the east side of Gottingen Street, between Uniacke Street and the Halifax North Memorial Library, an eight-by-16-foot Black Lives Matter banner was hung at the beginning of August. It was put there after a string of gatherings, protests and vigils took place in Halifax on the heels of the killing of George Floyd by […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
In all but two of HRM’s business units, women are underrepresented among top-earners
About one in five Halifax Regional Municipal employees were paid over $100,000 in salary and compensation in the 2019-20 fiscal year, landing them a spot on the publically released Statement of Compensation (AKA Halifax’s sunshine list). The point of the sunshine list is to increase transparency within HRM and its work—and it becomes especially relevant […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Defunding the police is still a problem for Board of Police Commissioners
Earlier this month, Halifax’s Board of Police Commissioners held a chaotic and tech-troubled virtual meeting—slated to discuss defunding the police, it was mired by a bad definition and hot tempers and only got through one item on the agenda. At the last meeting, a motion from staff outlined a suggested definition for what defunding the police […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
The charges against Santina Rao have been dropped
A grapefruit, lettuce and two lemons. These are the supposedly concealed items mother of two Santina Rao was accused of smuggling out of the Mumford Road Walmart one Wednesday afternoon last January. A grapefruit, lettuce and two lemons, items worth altogether less than $10, a price she intended to pay but never got the chance […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Half of the city’s highest-paid staff work for Halifax Regional Police
Calls are being made across North America to reduce or redirect police budgets in the wake of another killing of an African-American man by police in the US. But the crime against George Floyd is far from the only reason citizens are ready to change the status quo—here in the Maritimes, a police officer responding […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Hundreds protest Regis Korchinski-Paquet’s death in Halifax
Hundreds of people gathered at Victoria Park in Halifax on May 30 to protest and mourn the death of Afro-Indigenous woman, Regis Korchinski-Paquet who died on May 27 in Toronto. The protesters practiced COVID-19 safety guidelines as they marched from Victoria Park to the HRM Police headquarters with placards and banners as they chanted “No […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Sobering centres are “far more humane than the drunk tank”
Advocates say that HRM needs to make drastic changes to how it cares for people with substance-use problemsin our city. Harry Critchley, vice chair of the East Coast Prison Justice Society, and Leah Genge, a physician with specialty in addiction who works at Mobile Outreach Street Health and Direction 180, urged the Board of Police […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
What happened to Santina Rao in a Halifax Walmart should never happen again
The Hyde Inquiry. The Wortley Report. The Fraser and Gardner trials. Constable Joseph Farrow’s assault charge. Indigenous, Black, people of colour, trans and nonbinary people have been calling this out forever, but the outrageous violence Santina Rao experienced at the hands of police last week has to be the last straw for Halifax’s tolerance of […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Halifax Regional Police review suggests reorganization, more civilian input
It’s time for a little re-organizing at Halifax Police Headquarters now that regional council has approved a slew of recommendations designed to amp up the “effectiveness and efficiencies” of policing in HRM, including new roles for civilians. In November 2019, Vancouver-based Perivale and Taylor Consulting prepared a $195,000 report on the internal workings of Halifax’s […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Board of Police Comissioner’s last meeting of 2019 gives update on street checks
At a Board of Police Commissioners meeting on Monday, both the HRP and RCMP Chiefs gave updates on how community engagement is going following the Wortley Report. The 186-page report from University of Toronto criminology professor Scot Wortley found that street checks overwhelmingly target people of colour. On average, from 2006 to 2017, Black people […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
“We have failed you,” police chief Dan Kinsella tells Black community
It was an important day for Halifax’s Black community as it heard, for the very first time, the official apology from one of the institutions that has caused it harm and grief for generations. Halifax Regional Police chief Dan Kinsella addressed an audience of about 100 people Friday morning at the Halifax Central Library. […]
