Monday, 15 July 2024

Month: October 2017

Darryl Leroux: An open letter to Dalhousie administration on its treatment of Masuma Khan

“Should I counsel students at Dalhousie not to critique social institutions or practices, or not to invite academics who may do so, for fear of reprisals on the part of Dalhousie University, lest a student file a complaint that actually affirms the analysis in question?” Saint Mary’s professor Darryl Leroux writes an open letter to Dalhousie University administration pointing out that disciplining Masuma Khan for her FB post on white fragility exemplifies precisely the type of racism that is rampant on university campuses, including at Dalhousie.

Attached to the letter is an abridged version of a keynote address on white fragility in academia that professor Leroux delivered last year to the Dalhousie Arts and Social Sciences Society. This lecture is eerily applicable to what is transpiring at Dalhousie right now.

Weekend video: DÉMO BOW’T TRAIL – 400 DAY COUNTDOWN (Martinique-Brazil-Haïti)

Dancer and choreographer Rhodnie Désir, a resident of Montreal with Haïtian roots, has arrived in Nova Scotia on a mission to explore through her art the many connections between slavery, the rhytms long kept alive within African Nova Scotian, Acadian and Mi’kmaq communities and resistance. This weekend we feature a short documentary about her visits to Martinique, Brazil and Haiti. We also gave Rhodnie a call to find out more about the Nova Scotia leg of the project.

Whose trees? Our trees! Forest funeral procession marches to Province House

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About eight hundred Nova Scotians marched to Province House because they hate the devastation of our forests caused by clearcutting and because bureaucrats and politicians aren’t listening to them. To mark this important event we offer up a handful of photos and a transcription of the remarks by Melissa Labrador, a Mi’kmaq woman of the Wildcat community near Kejimkujik.

Mould just one of many issues in Sheet Harbour public housing unit

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The state of public housing in Nova Scotia at times is terrible. There is no other way to describe it. Last week I drove to Sheet Harbour and met Brent and Donna, very nice people who deserve better than having to call and call again for somebody to deal with a backed up septic tank, or to have mould simply spray painted over. We hear these stories a lot, and we go check them out when we can.

Open letter to Minister Furey: Bill 16 takes away our right to make our own decisions

Dave Kent, president of People First Nova Scotia and Korey Earle, president of the national People First, feel devastated that the issues they raised around the Adult Capacity and Decision-making Act (Bill 16) at Law Amendments were not taken seriously at all. “The presentations ended at 10:30 am. By 12:20 pm, the first article about it was written and online stating that the Bill had passed second reading as is.”

Cruel and unusual: six weeks without welfare benefits for minor transgressions

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Six weeks without benefits is the harsh punishment meted out by Community Services to people on social assistance who don’t engage in employability activities, things like missing an appointment or not showing up for a training course. We meet Kate, who got hit with the six week cut off when she was forced to quit her job when her son got very sick. And through a Freedom of Information request we find out that it happens to hundreds of social assistance recipients each year. Some of them are innocent family members who did nothing wrong.

Nightly police check-ups not welcome, says woman recovering from surgery

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Kendall Worth follows up on his earlier stories about a woman who had to go in for day surgery but who had nobody to stay with her during the first two weeks of her eight-week recovery, even though the hospital insisted that this be the case. Turns out she has been getting nightly check-up visits from the police. No matter how well intended, she isn’t happy about it, especially since the visits were arranged by the hospital without her permission.