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 […]
Opinionated
Posted inNews + Opinion
The FOIPOP breach and the dangers of criminalizing research
Last December, two journalists in Myanmar, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, were invited to dinner by police officers to discuss their research into war crimes carried out by the military. The officers handed them some documents, then immediately arrested them under the country’s Official Secrets Act for possessing the classified material. As absurd as […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Free speech warriors fighting a selective battle
Nova Scotia loves to get on the bandwagon a few months or years after a trend has hit its saturation point everywhere else. It’s a few years late, but we’re still all in on hamburgers, re-opening coal mines and building failing convention centres. The latest cool thing from last year is enlisting to fight in […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Gentrifying Blackness in Halifax’s inner city
Agricola, North, Barrington and Cogswell Streets were my old boundaries—my safe place, my sanctuary, my community, my hood. Now it seems as though it belongs to someone else. Its gradual transformation from a historic Black community to a trendy place to live and be entertained has rendered unfamiliar, uncomfortable and unaffordable spaces for many of […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Anna Thematic is genderqueer royalty
If you think of queer culture, one of the first things to come to mind—for better or worse—is drag. It’s a performance art that engages with and subverts gender norms, says local genderqueer drag performer Anna Thematic. “For me, drag has often been a safer space in which to explore my own gender identity and […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Five steps for making that dreamcatcher you liked on Pinterest
You’re a good person who really cares about diversity, inclusion and the plight of historically oppressed people. You have at least three tattoos from other cultures on your body, you do yoga, you don’t wear headdresses to music festivals (we won’t talk about that bindi or those white-people dreads) and you really appreciate and respect […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Getting blamed for our own murders
I was 18 years old the first time I drank—three years older than Tina Fontaine was when she was killed. It was at a party in university held in my residence dorm. It was one of those parties where the house leaders mix together a big vat of mystery booze in a plastic garbage can […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Resigned to isolation in an inaccessible city
As a person living with cerebral palsy, the concern of accessibility is always on my mind. I take the time to map out my routes and watch the weather, hoping that I will be able to take a bus and make that commitment I planned weeks ago. When winter arrives, I brace myself. It still […]
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
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
Tax avoidance is legal and that should make you furious
Earlier this month the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists released the Paradise Papers—a massive leak of documents that show just how pervasive legal tax avoidance through offshore banking has become. Some of those whose dealings in Bermuda have been questioned have defended themselves by explaining that their critics’ outrage is misplaced since sending money offshore […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
ASK HOLE: Help! I need a last-minute Halloween costume
Dear Ask Hole, Halloween is upon us, and I still don’t have a costume. It seems that I’m the only one in my friend group who leaves Halloween to the last minute, panics and goes as a potato. I really want to wow my friends this year, but I’m fresh out of ideas. Do you […]