T here is a revolution happening in Lebanon that’s resulted in the resignation of the country’s prime minister. On October 17, what started as a protest of just a few thousand people, quickly grew into millions worldwide—including Halifax— standing in solidarity. The Lebanese are taking to the streets to protest years of corruption, unbridled nepotism and […]
Voice of the City
Posted inNews + Opinion
Making more resources for fathers in Halifax who need them
In 2016, I was a lost father. I had no idea what was to come, it was uncharted territory. I was a male victim of domestic abuse. I quit my job of seven years to try and give my son stability when his mother went back to work after her maternity leave ended. I thought I was doing […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Where strategic voting in Halifax will get you in the federal election
Canada is not having just one election on October 21. We’re having 338 elections. In order to decipher all the bullshit coming at you this election season you need to: first, understand how your vote elects a parliament; second, know how that parliament becomes government and; third, make a stiff drink or cry or both. […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
A water protector and teenager, targeted and trolled
For several years me and my Indigenous community have been fighting Alton Gas and the pulp mill to keep our waters clean. My intention at the Extinction Rebellion protest on Monday morning was to try to get the government and Trudeau to make decisions and changes. The group was only supposed to march the bridge from […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
An investment company bought my building
Though I’m reluctant to “air my dirty laundry in public,” to quote my grandmother, I do so in hopes it may help in some way to ameliorate others’ circumstances. The facts are brief and similar across the board. Much of my backstory is in the documentary My Week on Welfare by Jackie Torrens and Jessica […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
When sexual violence keeps making headlines, how can we support each other?
In September 2017 I gave birth to my son. In October #metoo went viral and was all over social media feeds and news reports after a decade in the making—since Tarana Burke, a Bronx-based civil rights activist, coined the phrase in 2006. It made for a difficult October. I was postpartum, breastfeeding around the clock […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
What Halifax can learn from shootings in El Paso
Since last month’s mass shooting in El Paso, Latinxs throughout the US say they no longer feel safe. The shooting, which killed 22 people and injured another 24, was driven by racism and xenophobia against the Latinx community. The shooting speaks to a troubling resurgence of white supremacist violence in the US, fueled by Trump. […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Young people are fired up for the federal election
T his year, for the first time since the baby boomers, youth and students are the largest voting block in Canada. All over the country young people are pushing back against the narrative that we are apolitical. Many young people like myself are becoming increasingly involved in politics and are actively organizing around issues that […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
OPS opposition and government inaction in Halifax’s addiction services
I am a white, privileged, female physician who has never injected drugs. I serve some of the most vulnerable people in our city. I care deeply about their safety, dignity and well-being. Before medicine, I worked in the downtown east side of Vancouver, and in my early years of practice I served Calgary’s inner-city as the […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Apartment hunting in Halifax is the worst
When I moved to Halifax in 2007, the first apartment I went to see was a $750 bachelor in the south end with no windows. The landlord told me he could put a window in “if I really needed one.” My friends and I joked about that experience for ages; it seemed ludicrous at the […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
What Canada can do to help the Hong Kong protesters
In a little while it will be over. We may fail. But the rights for which we contend will not die. –Louis Riel To love our neighbour as ourselves is such a truth for regulating human society, that by that alone one might determine all the cases in social morality.–John Locke This is an open […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Lisa Cameron tells us how to get ahead of our bad bosses
With low-wage and precarious work on the rise, many workers in Halifax are struggling to maintain decent employment while sustaining themselves and their families. For those without adequate wages and legal protection, addressing workplace inequality can be exhausting, risky and costly with little reward. During university, I monkey-barred from job to job and, while each […]