The Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission has hired one of the country’s leading experts on racial bias in policing for an independent review of police street checks. University of Toronto criminology professor Scot Wortley appeared before Halifax Regional Police brass and the city’s Board of Police Commissioners on Monday to answer questions about his upcoming […]
Police
Posted inNews + Opinion
Police commission to look for new legal rules on street checks
Police commissioner Waye Mason is calling for HRM’s legal team to look into new rules around the department’s use of street checks. 
On Monday, the city councillor told his colleagues at the Board of Police Commissioners that he’d be making a motion on the matter at its next meeting in September. Mason wants the municipality’s […]
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Hells Angels resurgence in Halifax not something to celebrate
After a raid on their Fairview clubhouse in 2003 effectively folded the Nova Scotia chapter of the Hells Angels, the organized crime syndicate went dark here for more than a decade. Their return has been heralded by some members of the public on social media as a positive for the community. On every news story […]
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Mayor and Mi’kmaq Chiefs oppose plans to topple Cornwallis statue
Mayor Mike Savage says both he and the Nova Scotia Assembly of Mi’kmaq Chiefs are against a protest planned to topple the statue of Edward Cornwallis. “If Mi’kmaq activists and their supporters take down the Cornwallis statue before we are given an opportunity to cooperatively forge a better way forward, we will set back progress […]
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Checking up on street checks
Halifax police are still waiting for an independent analysis of its street check data before deciding what, if any, action to take on the controversial practice. In the meantime, more and more records keep getting added to the pile. A January CBC investigation analyzed over a decade of Halifax Regional Police data and found that […]
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Uniacke Square security cameras slammed as invasion of privacy
There are far better ways to improve standards of living in Uniacke Square than throwing up dehumanizing security cameras. So says Josh Creighton, who used to live in the public housing community. He calls plans to install a new surveillance system in the area an invasion of privacy, and proof of the wide disconnect between […]
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Maybe don’t turn yourself in at Voluntary Surrender Day
Anyone with an outstanding warrant might want to think twice before attending this weekend’s Voluntary Surrender Day. There’s “not much” benefit to the accused, says lawyer Trevor McGuigan. “You have no obligation to turn yourself in.” Halifax Regional Police will be holding its inaugural surrender event this Saturday, April 29, at the Dartmouth North Community […]
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Police still looking for $8,900 in misplaced cash
Progress is being made tracking down thousands of dollars that went missing from the police department’s evidence control system. Halifax Regional Police has located over 90 percent of the $104,289 in cash evidence that couldn’t be found in last summer’s drug exhibit audit. In an update to the Board of Police Commissioners on Monday, chief […]
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Rhonda Britton’s call to action
Pastor Rhonda Britton is striving to perfect a balancing act. At one end of the spectrum is a chorus of voices—enraged and betrayed by proven, repeated discrimination. On the other end are the promises and actions of those in the seats of power. Britton must be the bridge between both. It’s exactly what she was […]
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Impassioned debate on police street checks at north end meeting
“Do you deny institutional racism exists!?” shouts a man, rising to his feet, to cheers and rumblings in a crowd of more than 70 people. There’s a pause. Then Halifax Regional Police chief Jean-Michel Blais responds: “What do you mean by institutional racism?” This is just one of many charged exchanges that broke out during […]
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Evidence out-of-control: a provincial inquiry is needed into HRP’s drug exhibit audit
Last summer The Coast revealed that an internal audit conducted by the Halifax Regional Police had found widespread problems with the security and record keeping inside the HRP’s Drug Vault—the storage area that holds evidence seized in drug crimes—including missing drugs and cash. Now it turns out the problems have existed for much longer and […]
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Ted Upshaw’s dedication
Ted Upshaw is gigantic. At six-foot-six, the 60-year-old towers over the average person. But his sunny disposition is more reminiscent of the Big Friendly Giant than the “fee-fi-fo-fum” variety. Robert Graham (Ted) Upshaw became the first African-Canadian to be a commissioned inspector by the RCMP in 1999. Now working as a public safety advisor with […]
