Most of the news in 2017 has been spent documenting and/or trying to hide from all the horrible garbage fires happening around us. Here, at the end of the year, we instead wanted to raise a glass of kindness to those who are making this city better—the local points of lights in an otherwise abysmally […]
Justice
Posted inNews + Opinion
The problem with consent
When it comes to rape, the idea of consent is necessary but fundamentally flawed. It is primarily a legal term that has failed women in Canadian criminal law and its popular use in dialogue around sexual assault misses the point. The idea of consent unwittingly reinforces the premise of rape culture. I once worked in […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
BDSM defense will bolster protection of abusive men, says advocate
As soon as she became aware of the Christopher Garnier trial, Laura says a familiar feeling began to sink in. “Here we go again,” she says. “Here’s another person using BDSM to cover up abuse.” A Dartmouth member of the BDSM-embracing Society of Bastet, Laura (not her real name) says the narrative playing out over […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Policing Black Lives exposes Canada’s history of state violence
As social media defies geographic borders, many Canadians scrolling through their timelines are flogged with anti-Black sentiments coming out of the United States. But before basking in the centuries-old falsehood that Canada is nowhere near as racist as the US, you may want to read Montreal activist and author Robyn Maynard’s debut book, 
Policing Black […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Lessons from December 6
There are some dates that just have baggage. December 6 has SO much baggage. We mark the 100th anniversary of the Halifax Explosion on December 6. A French ship was packed with small containers of picric acid, TNT, guncotton and benzo that were dangerous enough on their own, but together would form the most deadly […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
How we choose to remember the Halifax Explosion
If a hurricane passes over a deserted island, says Jacob Remes, no one calls it a disaster. According to the historian, a disaster is defined by people—how society responds or doesn’t respond to its impact. In his book, Disaster Citizenship: Survivors, Solidarity and Power in the Progressive Era, Remes examines those issues through the aftermath […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Today I saw justice, if only for a moment
Today I watched a young woman show up, prepared to testify about the atrocities that have happened at the hands of trash bags, abusers, modern day slave traders. Today I watched as a brave young woman stepped forward to speak out about Halifax’s “dirty little secret.” Today I saw this same woman prepare to stand […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Putting trials on trial
The urgent and vivid public discourse surrounding rape culture has perhaps never been so ubiquitous. The stampede of coverage in the wake of a (seemingly nonstop) list of allegations of sexual misconduct against powerful men in media, entertainment and government is not slowing down—if anything it seems to be gaining more traction all the time. […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Crown drops charges against cannabis club owner
Crown prosecutors have dropped all charges against Christopher Enns that resulted from several police raids on his Farm Assists cannabis centre. Enns announced the news at a press conference Friday afternoon, at what was supposed to be day one of a constitutional challenge against the legal charges. “We were looking forward to having the courts […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Inquiry: Day One
The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls is holding community hearings in Membertou First Nation this week, from October 30 to November 1. Approximately 40 families have registered to make statements. Journalist Maureen Googoo is live-blogging the hearings each day on Twitter and her crowdfunded news site, Kukukwes.com. Googoo is sharing […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
African Nova Scotian communities form an integral part of our past, present and future
The African Nova Scotian Decade for People of African Descent Coalition welcomes the recent report from the United Nations Group of Working Experts on People of African Descent on its mission to Canada. More than 25 African Nova Scotian organizations presented to the Working Group in October 2016 and are pleased to see many of […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Guilty verdict for Jimmy Melvin Jr.
Jimmy Melvin got a not-guilty verdict at a murder trial earlier this year, but today he was convicted of trying and plotting to kill. A Nova Scotia Supreme Court jury in Halifax on Thursday declared James Melvin Jr. guilty of attempted murder and conspiracy to commit the murder of Terry Marriott Jr. The charges stem […]