Land protectors in Labrador continue their resistance against Muskrat Falls. Just because the national and Nova Scotia press stopped reporting doesn’t mean all is quiet. We talk with Ossie Michelin about the Nova Scotia connection. Ossie’s 96-year old aunt was just served with a court order for visiting a protest site.
A year ago contributor Tim Blades sent a letter to the Minister of Community Services with some pointers on what needs fixing in her department from the perspective of somebody on social assistance. It’s as relevant today as it was a year ago.
A group of Haligonians headed out in the drizzle to Victoria Park last night to express their disapproval of the Kinder Morgan pipeline. In doing so they joined many others in similar events from coast to coast. Also very much on their mind were the water defenders of Standing Rock Sioux Reserve, where police violence seems to escalate by the day. Art Bouman reports.
Seven years after Andrella David, a Black resident of Upper Hammonds Plains, was falsely accused of shoplifting at the Tantallon Sobeys store, the company finally made the commitments the community had been asking for. All it took was for the Sobeys’ lawyers to step aside, says an overjoyed Rev. Lennett Anderson.
Premier McNeil has said he didn’t know that a government lawyer was calling the Mi’kmaq a conquered people in court, and the duty to consult non-existent. The language may have been more subdued, but that same lawyer made the same argument in June, and that he held these controversial views was widely known.
Halifax Council recently awarded a cleaning contract for the Sackville Sports Stadium to the lowest bidder, raising questions about wages paid to the outsourced janitorial staff . Prior to the municipal elections several successful candidates declared that they supported a living wage. That issue was not raised during the discussions, however.
This afternoon protesters rallied against the eighth International Security Conference held in the Westin in Halifax. When you hear the word security you better duck, said Billy Lewis, because they’re talking about you.
“I think it’s because my heart is so stressed, you know. From not being seen. Like I actually think it’s kind of broken.” Map of me is a wonderful dramatized documentary about Jamie, a young woman who lives with mental health problems and ends up in jail, and Sarah, her twin sister who tries to understand how it happened and wonders how they drifted apart. Check it out!
A private member’s Bill in Ontario wants welfare rates to be set by an independent entity, based only on the cost of living. Nova Scotia would benefit from a similar approach.
Arguing in court that the Sipekne’katik Band is a conquered people and that therefore the duty to consult does not apply is exactly the wrong thing to do for the McNeil government, writes contributor Art Bouman. But he isn’t surprised, it’s all about money and fossil fuels.