Let’s be honest: sometimes politics can be overwhelming. But we’re here to introduce university students to their new home, right here in the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM). Now that you’re here, it’s good to know who you can complain to. Knowing who represents your community is an important part of being an engaged citizen, and […]
Politics
Posted inArts + Music
Art is the resistance
Art and politics have always been related—a strange, warped sisterhood, pushing and pulling like the tides. When waves roll to the right, art is there to pull back with both hands (think of Andy Warhol’s attack on consumer culture that was his Campbell’s Soup Cans). In many ways, there is no political punch like the […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Climate protection is not a partisan issue
Media and politicians often regard environmentalists as a special interest group with political priorities served by “green” parties. If a Green politician isn’t present or allowed to participate in a public debate, journalists tend to eschew environmental questions, considering them the purview of the absent party. It’s absurd to think an issue like climate change […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
White supremacy in Halifax
To understand the growing right-wing movements in this province, I subjected myself to the convention for Maxime Bernier’s People’s Party of Canada at the Atlantica Hotel in Halifax on Friday, January 18. Fully aware of the United States’ MAGA movement and the disgusting politics of the alt-right, I was still not prepared for what I […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Sharing nudes: Advice for all the Tony Clements out there
On Tuesday, November 7, amid the Ameri- can midterm election results starting to roll in, Conservative MP Tony Clement issued a statement admitting to sharing nude images online with a person other than his wife. This came as no shock to many twenty-something women who quickly took to Twitter to share stories of creepy Instagram […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Trump’s words have weaponized terror
Words cannot adequately express my outrage at the attempted bombings against one of the most reliable sources of journalism in America and on this planet. It is heartbreaking to imagine what CNN workers and their families went through as these attempted bombings unfolded. Likewise for the families of the Democratic politicians, liberal supporters and Trump critics […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Unclear mandates at the Office of African Nova Scotian Affairs
How and why did the original African Nova Scotia Affairs’ mandate change and why is the Office of African Nova Scotia Affairs now part of the ministry of Communities, Culture and Heritage? The expansion of the OANSA can be of benefit, if it had the goal of creating an African Nova Scotian representative in the […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Alt-right revolution on campus
The first time Calista Hills encountered a white supremacist was on her university campus. It was during the spring, says the Dalhousie Arts and Social Sciences Society president. The man showed up uninvited to a closed event, taking the space for his own, with his friends spouting subtle racist and fascist ideals. He masked his […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Conservative Party’s Halifax implosion
Rogue MP Maxime Bernier officially left the Conservative Party of Canada today. From a press conference in Ottawa, Bernier announced his official resignation to say that he’s starting his own political party. He’s already accepting donations. The announcement came as the Conservative Party kicks off its three-day national policy convention in Halifax. Leader Andrew Scheer told […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
SCIENCE MATTERS: Reconciling energy and Indigenous rights
In 2007, Canada was one of four countries to vote against the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (with New Zealand, the United States and Australia). With its single-minded focus on making Canada an “energy superpower,” albeit only with fossil fuels, the Harper government feared the declaration’s concept of “free, prior and informed” […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
25 for 25: episode 1998
It was #MeToo moment decades before #MeToo even existed. Gerald Regan, former Nova Scotian premier and Liberal party statesman, brought to court on eight charges of sexual assault against victims as young as 14. Journalist Stephen Kimber was there watching the trial in 1998 when Regan was eventually acquitted. He wrote about the story for The Coast […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
SCIENCE MATTERS: Fake grassroots campaigns deserve uprooting
AstroTurf looks and feels like grass—in an all-too-perfect way. But it’s not grass. Now the well-known artificial turf’s brand name has taken on a new meaning, referring to purported “grassroots” efforts that are actually funded and supported by industry and political entities. Some people, organizations and campaigns around everything from forestry to fossil fuels look […]