Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children: Will we see justice, or just another lawyered up apology?
-
Mike Savage’s not-so-scandalous video (at least he’s not smoking crack in it)
The good news — for all concerned — is that Mike Savage is not Brad Pitt. The better news is that he isn’t Bruce Banman, either. Banman is the beleaguered mayor of Abbotsford, the currently virally — not to forget … Continue Reading
-
Stephen Harper’s master plan to abolish the Senate: appoint terrible Senators
Dear Stephen Harper, Congratulations! I never imagined in my wildest imaginings even you could be quite this Machiavellian. Appointing Mike Duffy, the longtime pretend senator from CTV, an actual senator from Prince Edward Island? Genius. Pamela Wallin, the queen of … Continue Reading
-
The Justin Trudeau mauler-mailers: Enough with gutter politics
The good news is that Nova Scotia’s four Conservative MPs say they are not going to waste taxpayer dollars sending constituents their national party’s mudroom-generated, bottom-feeding Justin Trudeau mauler-mailers. The bad news is that not one of them — Peter … Continue Reading
-
Rehtaeh Parsons: Bullying, the media, and a mob mentality. It’s complicated.
It’s complicated. The Canadian Psychiatric Society, among others, publishes guidelines for reporting on youth suicide. Don’t put the word “suicide” in the headline, it says. Don’t give such stories undue prominence. Don’t describe the method. Don’t glorify the victim. The … Continue Reading
-
Darrell Dexter’s NDP budget: Same old, same old
Did Darrell Dexter balance the budget? Is the Pope Argentinian? Depends on which pope you mean. And what you mean by balance. The perhaps more relevant pre-election questions out of last week’s legislature exercise: Would the other parties have done … Continue Reading
-
Russell MacKinnon or not, MLA pensions are in need of some serious reform
If his latest poor-me pronouncements weren’t so outrageously obnoxious — not to mention flagrantly false — we would be wise to treat disgraced, and disgraceful, former MLA Russell MacKinnon with the mocking contempt he’s richly earned. The Finance Department made … Continue Reading
-
Dear David Wallbridge, this is one time I won’t be donating to the NDP
Few will be surprised to know I’m a financial as well as philosophical supporter of the New Democratic Party. I’ve been making modest, tax-writeoff-able, publicly recorded donations since the early 1980s. Giving then seemed more act of charity than political … Continue Reading
-
Emera’s ‘donations’ don’t justify naming rights
Solidarity Halifax’s quixotic campaign to rename the Commons skating oval isn’t likely to find many takers among cash-starved city councillors, but it should give the rest of us pause. How is it that Emera, the parent company of Nova Scotia … Continue Reading
-
Why isn’t there an official day to honour Viola Desmond?
Another February. Another African Heritage Month. Another plaintive plea — from me and a few lonely others — for an official day to honour Viola Desmond’s contribution to the human-rights movement in Canada. On Nov. 8, 1946, Desmond, a pioneering … Continue Reading
-
The Michael Ryan verdict – why didn’t he testify?
In the third last paragraph of his 2010 decision finding Nicole Ryan not guilty of hiring a hit man to kill her abusive husband, Justice David Farrar notes he was “struck” by the fact the husband “did not take the … Continue Reading
-
A child charged with child pornography? We need separate laws for this
A 14-year-old Preston boy — a child by any definition — has been charged with possessing, making and distributing child pornography, crimes punishable by up to 10 years in prison. A child charged with child pornography? Is this who we … Continue Reading
-
A Percy Paris column? Sorry, I’m still at the Moosehead game
So … did Percy really pop Keith? Is the premier going to pull the plug? Can I get back to you? I’m still in the Metro Centre. A fun, frenzied Friday night. “The cup is in the house,” and the … Continue Reading
-
The Fenwick MacIntosh case: A study in incompetence
So federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson isn’t the tiniest bit curious/concerned/appalled about what went wrong, and why, and what needs to be done to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Last week, the Supreme Court of Canada threw out Fenwick … Continue Reading
-
Rehtaeh Parsons: Vengeance is not justice
On April 19, 1989, a 28-year-old woman named Trisha Meili went for a jog in New York’s Central Park. She was raped and violently assaulted. Partly because of the attack’s brutality, partly because of news reports the perpetrators were a … Continue Reading
-
Turn underused schools into community hubs before we send in the bulldozers
Richmond, the primary-to-nine school I attended in north-end Halifax, is long gone. Not quite true. The oldest section, ironically the one re-built after the 1917 Halifax Explosion, now serves as a family court building. The other two wings, hastily tacked … Continue Reading
-
Russell Mackinnon should’ve got jail time
What was he thinking? That he could baffle, buffalo, bamboozle past way too many inconvenient contradictions from too many witnesses with too little to gain to lie about what he’d done? That the law wouldn’t apply to him because he’d … Continue Reading
-
It’ll just be more of the same if Stephen McNeil becomes premier
Do you remember back in the dying days of the Rodney MacDonald regime when then-NDP finance critic Graham Steele threatened the then-deputy finance minister with contempt of a legislative committee for refusing to be forthcoming about the province’s finances? Remember … Continue Reading
-
Whatever happened to the old Mike Duffy? So long, senator.
The old Young Mike Duffy would have been all over it. A senator playing fast and loose with parliamentary rules of residence, claiming as his full-time home a modest bungalow of a summer cottage that hasn’t seen a snowplow in … Continue Reading
-
The Nicole Ryan case is about more than gender politics
“You obviously have something against Nicole Ryan,” declared a reader of my column last week. In it, I’d questioned the Supreme Court’s decision not to retry Ryan on charges she’d hired a hitman to kill her husband. “I’m not sure … Continue Reading
-
Nova Scotia Power’s Rob Bennett: Proof the private sector rewards failure
One of the enduring myths among those who bow down to the gods of the marketplace is that someone who screws up in the private sector — unlike the cosseted public sphere — will suffer inevitably dire consequences for failure. … Continue Reading
