Reality Bites

The quality-control technician should have moved the bucket off the wet floor and taken the nail out of the pallet: A quality-control technician died this week after inhaling a chemical at a pharmaceutical plant in Nova Scotia. The 46-year-old man worked at the Sepracor Canada Ltd. facility in Windsor. Provincial labour department spokeswoman Jacqueline May […]

I noted Wednesday that Nova Scotia’s access to information laws are basically a joke. Today, I have a demonstration of the fact. You’ll recall that Rodney MacDonald recently approved a “long combination vehicle pilot program”—basically, the provincial government legalized “truck trains,” those two-trailer rigs, on Highways 102 and 104 and various connecting roads. The public […]

In today’s print version of The Coast I make reference to the politics of division that has come to characterize the municipal election, and ask readers to come here to see an expanded essay on the subject. That essay is a few posts down, or you can get there directly through this link.

About 10 percent of registered voters cast ballots in last weekend’s internet portion of the municipal election. If we have the same turnout as the 2004 election—which was coupled with the Sunday shopping referendum—then about 20 percent of the total votes cast will have come via the internet. It’s still too early to say what […]

In all the jurisdictions I’ve worked, Nova Scotia has, by far, the most unfriendly access to information laws. The Freedom of Information process is something of a private, sad joke among journalists, as we get denied, delayed and ignored at every turn by public bodies holding allegedly public info. But it’s not just journalists who […]

I don’t have a problem with heated debate— candidates should try to differentiate themselves from their opponents, and if you can’t stand the heat, you shouldn’t be in politics. So I didn’t find last night’s back-and-forth between Sheila Fougere and Peter Kelly at all offensive. Good on both candidates for a spirited fight. Nor was […]

In this weekend’s Halifax Magazine: “ is a complete farce. What you really have here is a smoke screen put up by a group of South End Halifax business leaders looking to further their own financial interests through a thinly disguised political process. Don’t kid yourself; the only citizens they are truly concerned about are […]

This morning I’ve heard from one reader who says that internet voting didn’t go well for him— as he tells it, he was kicked off the system three times, and it took over two hours to cast votes in all three elections (for mayor, councillor, school board). Is anyone else having problems? Successes? Is the […]

Readers will recall that six-year-old Joshua Penny died in October, 2006, and that Paddy Brogan was found not guilty in Joshua’s death in July of this year. Here’s a Toronto Star story on it: SYDNEY, N.S.–A judge found a Cape Breton man not guilty today of impaired driving causing the death of a young boy, […]

I was discussing the proposed Waterside Centre development with someone this morning, and we both came to the realization that there are some pretty complicated process issues involved with delaying the vote on the application until after the election. Even before getting to the election issue, we have to consider that council’s procedures state that: […]