Friday, 19 April 2024

Month: January 2018

The need for rural women’s marches

Applied to current events, no march on Saturday will be better than any other. However, ensuring that there are marches in rural as well as urban areas is crucial in signifying both difference in lived experience and togetherness in the struggle for female empowerment, writes Lori Oliver. She then takes a closer look at two key problems for women in rural Nova Scotia are difficulties accessing abortion services and a higher rate of domestic, intimate partner violence—both of which disastrously intersect with how women continue to earn, on average, 87 cents to men’s $1. Barriers faced by racialized groups are even more severe.

Waiting for a robocall –Life without a family doctor in Nova Scotia

Former Chronicle Herald reporter Mary Ellen MacIntyre writes about an assortment of tactics she has used to entice a new family doctor, including trying to look younger, healthier and more interesting. Late last year there was the robocall to confirm that a doctor was still needed, and even that call became a source of stress. “And so, we wait. Close to one hundred thousand-strong, we wait.”

Media release: Activists rallied against fracking at Maritimes Energy Association AGM , fracking must remain banned

Media release by the Council of Canadians on renewed industry efforts to do away with the ban on fracking in Nova Scotia. “It is as if they don’t realize that the fracking, salt cavern gas storage, and mining they are talking about  is on unceded and unsurrendered Mi’kmaq territory. Territory for which we as Mi’kmaq Peoples have the inherent Title. Instead of having entire liberty in trade to our best advantage, as is written in our treaties,: we are having our resources stolen and our land poisoned, then being blamed for our own poverty,” said Rebecca Moore.

Public housing tenants left without heat for 36 hours, blame contractor

It took contractors working for the Metropolitan Regional Housing Authority 36 hours to restore heat in a 6-unit building in the Greystone Drive area in Spryfield. The Housing Authority blames the high winds of the January “weather bomb” for causing the furnace problems. Problem with that response is that it wasn’t windy when the furnace died.

Updated: Two Fight for $15 rallies in Halifax this week

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UPDATED, now with even more rallies!!! I filed this story about a Wednesday rally at the Spring Garden Road Tim Hortons this Wednesday. Couple of hours later I received a news release issued by the Halifax-Dartmouth & District Labour Council.

Social worker burnout: I have kept quiet long enough

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Former child protection social worker Trish McCourt about high caseloads, lack of training in what can be a dangerous job, burnout, stress and other perils of the job. “Yes, child protection is challenging work. Yes, it can be dangerous, and yes, it often feels thankless. But the real hardships come from the lack of empathy, support and value that is communicated by the employer – the department of Community Services, province of Nova Scotia.”