I was late to the story on Easter Sunday. By the time I rolled over and scanned Twitter, just before noon, news of the Easter morning vandalism on two local Catholic churches had spread far enough that it was the first news I read. It was awful to see an action full of hate, in […]
Opinion
Posted inNews + Opinion
Hiring white men in Toronto to tell our stories: A part of our heritage
Heritage Minutes: If you lived in Canada in the ’90s and had a TV, you’re probably familiar with them. Closing with the tagline “a part of our heritage,” the Minutes’ subjects include the invention of basketball, the origin of the word ‘Canada,’ the Halifax Explosion, the Underground Railroad and many more. Historica Canada began to […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Safer and accessible seating needed on Halifax Transit buses
When I see those blue plastic bus seats, I know I’m in for a stressful ride. Ever since Halifax Transit introduced them last year, they’ve added yet another awkward complication I’m forced to confront en route to my destination. The seats are extremely slippery and difficult to stay on, and I’ve fallen off them more […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
When it comes to opinions, our diversity is our strength
As someone whose job essentially revolves around promoting freedom of expression, it’s been strange to watch over the past few years as this core human right has morphed into a polarizing flashpoint dividing the political extremes. Across the country, socially conscious activists have adopted positions which are shockingly regressive, while objectively terrible people (including literal […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Building a case for an Africentric school
The community my father grew up in went without a school for 40 years. My father, Charlie Wilson, was born into segregation in 1927. He grew up during a time when schools were funded by the communities in which they were located. If your community could not afford to build a facility and pay a […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Work boots and Blundstones: Development in Dartmouth
When I was a kid, they used to just leave stuff to sit and rot in Dartmouth. It has long been ignored as a treacherous wasteland. King’s Wharf was once a rat-infested paradise for pot smoking, rock-throwing ne’re-do-wells. Shannon Park was the flashlight-tag capitol of the Urbanized Maritimes. Now, the developers and entrepreneurs are filling […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
End prison segregation now
“We won!” exclaimed the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, regarding the BC Supreme Court ruling January 17 against sections of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act that allow for indefinite solitary confinement. In the frustrating, protracted, and so-often disappointing battle for prison justice in this country, it is, of course, a win, and to be […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Anti-social media: Why are academics like Rick Mehta so bad at Twitter?
Acadia University psychology professor Rick Mehta is in hot water over his social media posts about residential schools and multiculturalism. He’s not the first academic to find himself in this position. In October, a Drexel University professor was placed on leave after posting on Twitter that a “narrative of white victimization” was to blame for […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
I know what support feels like, and now I feel it slipping away
Can you imagine how it feels to be only 24 years old and you need to wear an adult diaper to catch the gushing blood dripping between your legs? Do you know how it feels to have cracked and bleeding nipples upon a rock hard chest, beneath a frantic newborn baby stuffed into a baby […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Audit needed at community services
The department of community services has failed children in its custody and children of parents reliant on its programs. Something needs to be done. Abdoul Abdi, along with his sister and aunts, should have been welcomed by Nova Scotia with open arms. Instead, shortly after they arrived, Abdi and his sister were placed into the […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Class warfare and the Irving Shipyard
With the holidays coming to an end, negotiations between the Irving family’s Halifax Shipyard Inc. and its unionized workers are set to resume this month with the help of a mediator. In December, the workers, members of UNIFOR Marine Workers Local One voted overwhelmingly in favour of a strike mandate after the employer tabled a […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
We stand with El Jones
As faculty members at Mount Saint Vincent University and concerned members of the Halifax community, we write to express our outrage at the racist caricature of El Jones, our colleague at MSVU, that appeared in the pages of Frank Magazine. The cartoon showed Jones, along with Halifax’s poet laureate Rebecca Thomas and others, at a […]