By now, you’ve probably heard about the Sobeys pharmacy manager who found herself in hot water after using a provincial drug database to “snoop” on the medical information of friends, relatives and even her child’s girlfriend. This is just the latest embarrassing privacy failure for the Nova Scotia government, following on from two personal data […]
Opinion
Posted inNews + Opinion
The weight
On August 7, 1993, Gregory Gerald Jodrey of Gaspereaux, Nova Scotia was murdered in Wolfville. Gregory was my best friend and I loved him dearly. Twenty-five years later, the hole remains in my heart and the anvil remains in my stomach. The bare facts are that Gregor was at the tavern in Wolfville, met a […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Reintegration: A nicer word for assimilation
Afghan children are among those who have never seen an Afghanistan not inflicted by violence. As an Afghan, my children, brothers and sisters are dying. I am an Afghan youth displaced due to violence. I may have never seen the violence on the land that is indigenous to me, but it is this violence which […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
UPDATED: False outrage over this past weekend’s Marine Band protest
Update: Since this piece was published Shaw has deleted his tweets and web producer/social media manager Andrea Jerrett has apologized to Masuma Khan. Her emailed message is shared below with Khan’s permission. “While CTV Atlantic always strives to report accurate information, in this case, our reporter did issue a tweet with incorrect information,” Jerrett writes on […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Christ preached love, not intolerance
We are all of us shipmates on the surface of a vessel called Earth. All religions of the world expect acceptance, respect and the right to worship and conduct themselves within the laws and doctrines of their chosen beliefs; without prejudice or interference. Should not these concepts apply to sexuality as well? Certain clerics are […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
100 different ways to keep a government secret
Politicians of all stripes love to talk about transparency. They praise it, they throw around buzzwords like “open by default” or, in the direct words of Stephen McNeil, promise to make Nova Scotia “the most open and transparent government in the country.” None of these promises mean much if you don’t read the fine print […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Educating Shawn Cleary about journalism
District 9 councillor Shawn Cleary went on one of his ill-advised Twitter rants this past week. What set him off this time was an opinion piece by Stephen Kimber published in Tim Bousquet’s Halifax Examiner. (Disclosure: I have written for the Examiner and I am enrolled in a King’s MFA program in which Kimber teaches.) […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
DNA does not define us
I’m ambiguously brown. By that I mean I have brown skin and almond-shaped eyes. I get those from my dad who is Mi’kmaq. I also have curly hair, freckles and thin lips from my mom, whose grandparents came from Scotland. “Where are you from?” is a very common question in my day-to-day as people try […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
SCIENCE MATTERS: Energy efficiency and technology squeeze the carbon bubble
The carbon bubble will burst with or without government action, according to a new study. That will hurt people who invest in fossil fuels. As energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies improve and prices drop, global demand for fossil fuels will decline, “stranding” new fossil fuel ventures—likely before 2035, according to the study in Nature […]
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The last ship to transport Africans to slavery was helmed by a Nova Scotian
As HRM officials lament the recent Halifax Transit “suck me, boy” racism that, along with a slew of other offences, has earned this town the moniker “Halissippi,” I’m mindful that the Clotilda—the last ship to transport Africans to bondage—was helmed by a Nova Scotian. His name? Captain William Foster. Famed for her novel Their Eyes […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Civil servants lied to the police and that needs to be addressed
It’s been a few months now since a 19-year-old Nova Scotian’s family home was raided over a rarely used “unauthorised access to computer” charge, which is a federal offence carrying up to 10 years in prison. There’s a hole in the middle of this whole story that needs to be addressed: civil servants lied to […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Being a Jamaican man in Nova Scotia
Last week, Cumberland North MLA Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin gave me my “told-you-so” moment of the month when she shared her concerns that legalizing marijuana could make Nova Scotians lazy like Jamaicans. Smith-McCrossin said in a subsequent apology post on Facebook—since deleted—that her comments “were criticized as racist and insensitive.” Of course, they were. Many quickly came […]