Sunday afternoon the province gave a coronavirus media briefing. It looked a lot like Friday’s briefing, with four officials—premier Stephen McNeil, health minister Randy Delorey, and both the chief and deputy chief medical officers of health, Robert Strang and Gaynor Watson-Creed respectively—sitting in a row, behind microphones, in front of Nova Scotia flags. But where […]
Stephen McNeil
Posted inNews + Opinion
Mi’kmaq scholar Daniel Paul on the Boat Harbour closure
In the week before Christmas, many Nova Scotians were filled with uncertainty and dread in the lead-up to premier Stephen McNeil’s Boat Harbour decision, but Daniel Paul wasn’t one of them. The 81-year-old Mi’kmaq elder and author says he wasn’t surprised when the premier, despite pleas from mill executives and forestry workers, said he would […]
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Coast 25: 30 of the most important things we’ve written
“Adam’s fall” Matthieu Aikins’ award-winning feature on suicides from the Macdonald Bridge is a heartbreaking read even now, a decade after its publication. A year after Aikins’ story was printed, the bridge commission finally decided to install safety barriers along the old bridge to prevent future deaths. Seals of approval One of the most-read stories […]
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Rolling out the red carpet
Argyle Street will be painted red this weekend. From Thursday through Saturday, thousands of Liberal members will come from away to Halifax—gathering at the financially embattled Nova Centre for the governing party’s national convention. Faithful foot-soldiers travelling from across the country will get to rub shoulders with some of the most powerful politicians nationwide, and […]
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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 […]
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Protest potpourri scheduled for Province House
Nova Scotians are spoiled for choice when it comes to protesting their government. In what’s practically become an annual tradition, this week hundreds of people will once again gather outside Province House demanding change and voicing their opposition to a growing portfolio of disappointments. The Nova Scotians Rise Up event—scheduled for noon on the 27—will […]
Posted inLifestyle
Weed and alcohol are too close for comfort in Nova Scotia
The Federal Task Force on Cannabis Legalization and Regulation recommends cannabis be sold separately from booze, in stand-alone stores. That’s the way PEI and New Brunswick are gonna deal with legal weed. It’s an approach endorsed by multiple studies explaining how THC and alcohol exacerbate each other’s effects and intensify injury and fatalities when mixed, […]
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Michelle Coffin is reclaiming her story
On a recent Sunday afternoon in May, Michelle Coffin’s doorbell rang. Leaving her apartment to answer it, she was surprised to find her upstairs neighbours already in the shared vestibule of their building. Just beyond them stood the Liberal MLA seeking re-election in her riding, Labi Kousoulis. Next to him, to bolster support, was federal […]
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Sinking slowly in the city
The Liberal government’s all-for-nothing budget last month promised $2.4 million to get 20 more doctors. Doctors Nova Scotia told the legislature the day before they needed at least 100 just to break even. Last week, the King’s Investigative Workshop’s “Overburdened” series found access to mental health services for rural Nova Scotians is falling short. But […]
Posted inLifestyle
The quiet crisis of mental health care in Nova Scotia
Sherry Blinkhorn has experienced the effects of mental illness most of her life. From the time she was placed in foster care at age five because her mother and grandmother had severe schizophrenia, she knew of the devastating effects it could have on families and relationships. By 12, she was absorbing issues of Psychology Today, […]
Posted inLifestyle
Solving the failures of mental health care
The woman in charge of the revamp of Nova Scotia’s mental health system says there is “absolutely no doubt” more money is going to be needed to fix it, but she’s not preparing a bill just yet. Linda Courey says a lot of other problems have to be solved first. Courey is senior director of […]
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Bayers Lake medical centre site called inaccessible
The retail wilderness of the Bayers Lake Industrial Park “severely lacks” the transit and accessible infrastructure needed for the province’s new outpatient centre, say planning advocates. On Thursday the provincial Liberal government announced it had purchased 15 acres of land in the BLIP as part of the redevelopment of the ageing QEII Health Science Centre. […]