600 people have died of drug overdoses in Nova Scotia in the last 10 years, and we only know this because of a leaked email. Imagine the uproar if these deaths didn’t affect drug addicts but nice middle class people. Instead we have two levels of governments cutting subsidies to organizations that are trying to keep such deaths to a minimum.
Meet Joanne (not her real name). Joanne lives in a mid-sized town somewhere in rural Nova Scotia with her three kids, two boys and one girl. Her teenage son has intellectual disabilities and requires special care. Several years ago she fled an abusive relationship and she has not yet been able to resume a public live, something most of us take for granted. She is on Income Assistance. “I am poor,” she says, “but I budget well.”
“To have a roof over your head and to not go hungry are fundamental human rights,” NDP leader Gary Burrill told the Nova Scotia Advocate to explain the party’s proposed amendments to the Human Rights Act. Lawyer Claire McNeil tells us why this would be a very significant change, and one that is long overdue.
The Alton Gas salt caverns have managed to escape scrutiny from the regulators, writes researcher Ken Summers. But news that two of the four drilled wells are unusable should cause some alarm bells to go off.
October 17 is International Day for the Eradication of Poverty and a group of people living in poverty and their friends descended on City Hall. The Mayor was in…
Kendall Worth tackles the stigma of disability and poverty, especially when dealing with landlords who don’t understand the first thing about the realities of income assistance.
“What do I miss most about the place? The fun and the beauty. It used to be a very beautiful place,” says elder Molly Denny of Pictou Landing First Nation. Boat Harbour, or A’sek, Mi’kmaq for the other room, is a documentary about the transformation of Boat Harbour from a beautiful body of water, great for swimming, fishing and hunting, to a poisoned dumping ground for first Scott Paper, and now Northern Pulp.
Once in a while the Nova Scotia Advocate likes to remind its readers that the Muskrat Falls development, of which Nova Scotia is a major beneficiary, is destroying the traditional ways of indigenous peoples and other marginalized people.
Alton Gas is getting plenty of press coverage. However, that the proposed gas pipeline for the Alton Gas storage project is set to cross the Stewiacke River Wilderness Area has somehow escaped attention. It appears that the current government would like to keep it that way.
Some ordinary people fighting environmental hazards in their backyards, and a bunch of students as well, showed up at the start of the fall session at Province House, and they aren’t very happy with the Liberal government.