In a tense back and forth with NDP leader Gary Burrill, during one of the final days of the legislature’s fall sitting, premier Tim Houston explained why he’s not focused on hiking the minimum wage to $15 an hour. “What I’m focused on is the economy of this province and making sure that every Nova […]
Work
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How is the Chronicle Herald still being printed?
[Image-1] Sharp-eyed readers may have noticed a series of articles in the Chronicle Herald about the Chronicle Herald’s ongoing labour lockout. Thirteen pressroom employees belonging to the daily paper of record have now been locked out of their jobs for close to a week. “So who’s printing the papers?” you might ask ironically while reading […]
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Coburg Coffee’s move to unionize
Aunion vote at Coburg Coffee has tipped into uncertainty. Two pro-union baristas who cast ballots Monday afternoon say they’re confident the count went their way, however, of the 15 votes cast, they’re sure of only six that favour joining the Service Employees International Union. Laura Spaetzel cast her ballot on top of a laundry machine […]
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Nurses’ knuckles rapped over illegal strike
Capital Health is punishing nurses for playing hooky. Following an illegal strike April 1, some nurses who walked off the job are being suspended for two shifts without pay and have been told to write “personal reflections,” due June 5, on how their actions affected patients. On April 1, nurses left their duties to protest […]
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From Nova Scotia with love
High Arctic, 2002: A team of researchers from the United States and Greenland studies the movements of narwhals through Baffin Bay and the maze of straits and bays of northern Canada. The researchers attach Seimac SSC3 transmitters to the whales. Manufactured in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, the transmitters send signals to satellites orbiting high above, and […]
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The poverty machine
Fathom Billard, a single mother of two in her 30s, may be poor, but she’s also a fighter. “I just got tired of being pushed around,” she says, explaining her decision to defend herself in court against a high-interest loan company that claimed she owed it more than $2,000. “You can’t get blood from a […]
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Firefighter says Halifax Fire Department inventory list is inaccurate
Updated below. The master inventory list at the Halifax Fire Department includes fire gear recorded as being issued to firefighters but which was never received by them, says a formal complaint filed with the city’s auditor general. The missing gear is potentially worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, implies the complaint. The complaint was filed […]
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2010 resolution: quit and start over
That was no vacation, it was the holidays: a forced shopping mall feeding frenzy spread over end-of-year overtime and out-the-door queues, visits with family, friends, friends-of-family, family-of-friends, gift-wrap shredding, plastic chucking, meat and sugar binging, gift returns and more cut-rate shopping. No wonder come January we’re ready to swear off every earth plundering bad habit […]
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Victims of the Herald
If not for the lousy weather, Jennifer Stewart would have been in a downtown courtroom this afternoon, covering the opening arguments in a high-profile murder trial. But thanks to the slushy, slippery conditions outside, the judge sent the jury home at noon. So Stewart had returned to the Chronicle Herald newsroom to write a nothing-much-happened […]
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No deal for DHX
“We’ve all been dealing with a lot of heartache and hardship in the last 18 months, which everybody’s tried to downplay,” says Kris Gilbert. “People are losing their homes and losing their cars and losing all over the place in town, but that’s a bad news story and nobody wants to tell it.” Gilbert, manager […]
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Daily News canned by Transcontinental
Publishing juggernaut Transcontinental Media abruptly closed the Daily News Monday, February 11, leaving 92 full-time employees and hundreds of contract carriers without an income, and raising questions about the future of daily newspapers in Halifax and across Canada. The news came as a complete surprise, leaving the employees wondering how to manage mortgage payments, children […]
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Squeezing squeegeers
Meet Danielle Talbot,comic book stereotype of a squeegee kid. She’s got a black hoodie, a black shirt, dark pants and a dog. Talbot is 21. She left her New Brunswick home in her teens and has cleaned car windshields at intersections in cities across Canada off and on for seven years. She’s been in Halifax […]