KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – I first wrote about this week’s featured video in 2013, fairly early in my new career as a reporter.
I liked it then. Now, three years older, I love it for the truth it tells.
In 2013 I was just beginning to learn about poverty in Nova Scotia. Like most Nova Scotians I had always assumed that by and large the government was there to protect poor people.
You know, to make sure that no child in Nova Scotia would ever go hungry, no mother would ever be homeless.
I thought that when a public housing neighborhood experienced a mice infestation the Housing Authority would genuinely want to fix that.
In 2013 I was beginning to realize this wasn’t true.
Now, three years of reporting later, I know it isn’t true.
The documentary, by filmmaker Kimberly Smith, puts 14 people from Kings County in front of the camera, and lets them have their say. They all struggle with poverty.
Some also struggle with addiction or mental illness, some are homeless, some live with disabilities.
Their stories are different.
The common theme is that when you’re poor in Nova Scotia, you’re on your own.
