Timothy Gillespie, a journalist who covers the goings on in the Town of Shelburne is facing a Facebook death threat because of a story he wrote. The moderator, a Baptist minister, refused to take the post down. The police say they can’t do anything about it. Sure, small town politics gets heated, but this is ridiculous.
Danny Cavanagh, president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Labour, calls for an end to unpaid sick leave. “Daycare workers, food handlers in restaurants and food supply stores, no matter what your occupation, working sick is not working for Nova Scotia,” he writes.
“We need to think outside of the box and stop thinking that of making it sound like taking sick days is something bad. Let’s look at the real cost. Many employers can legally require their employees to provide a sick note, which doctors complain clogs up clinics with sick patients who could have otherwise just recovered at home.”
The Muskrat Falls power generating project is destroying the way of life of Innu and Inuit, and they’re fighting back. Very few reporters tell their story. One of those few is Justin Brake of the Independent. He needs our support.
Sometimes no news is good news, but that is not the case with the Town of Amherst’s inability to call a meeting to deal with councillor and mayoral hopeful George Baker’s racist slur.
Kendall Worth returns to the topic of paid poverty advocacy work, and how to make it a win win for everybody. It can be done. Business plan attached!
This week’s featured video is Cottonland, a 2006 documentary about recovering addict Eddie Buchanan and the damage the prescription painkiller oxycontin is doing to his friends and neighbors in Glace Bay, Cape Breton. It’s also about the shutting down of the coal mines. And it’s about a bunch of exceptional people, loving parents, funny, with big hearts. They’re also thieves who do or did terrible things.
Some excellent points were made at a well-attended press conference organized by low income people in the North End on the topic of poverty and the municipal election. It fell a bit on deaf ears, though, as just one reporter and one municipal candidate made an appearance.
George Baker, the Amherst councillor who uttered a racist slur, was in serious trouble before. That time the town weathered the storm, and doing so may well be the towns current strategy as well. That would be a bad idea, says the Amherst resident who lodged the original complaint.
The City of Halifax applies a fair wage consideration when evaluating bids for services. But it’s just fluff, as the recent awarding of a parking enforcement contract shows. HRM doesn’t really care how well third party workers are paid, as long as costs are down.
Amherst can’t manage to censure a racist councillor in its midst, who meanwhile congtinues his run for mayor. Yesterday a police board meeting scheduled to discuss a reprimand was cancelled due to lack of quorum.