This weekend’s weekend video is Missing Women”, based on a stunning poem by Mad poet and filmmaker Anna Quon. The poem lists some of the ways women have gone missing from history, culture and their own lives, and names some of those women and girls to help us remember them. You really should watch this.
The NS NDP is right, it’s time to change the Labour Standards Code so that everybody gets at least six paid sick days per year. And yes, let’s get rid of doctors sick notes, a senseless practice that Doctors Nova Scotia as well would like to see the end of, writes Danny Cavanagh, president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Labour.
Evelyn C. White reports on the Big Sing event this past Tuesday at Gus’ Pub in honour of Aretha Franklin. Sadly, only a handful of people of colour attended. On the upside, The Big Sing is making efforts to increase the diversity of the pop-up choir.
Feeling the pressure of increased public scrutiny, the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board (CNSOPB) met this afternoon with municipal councillors from western Nova Scotia, hoping to convince them that offshore oil exploration is safe. Don’t be fooled, says Marion Moore, of the Campaign to Protect Offshore Nova Scotia. “I would tell them that they’re being fed a big story from an organization that is completely captured by the oil industry,” Moore tells the Nova Scotia Advocate.
News release: With the abolition of elected school boards, Nova Scotia now has the least accountable and transparent education system in Canada, says NSTU President Paul Wozney.
One of the many hard things about having to depend on social assistance is the stigma. People often assume you’re lazy, even though invisible disabilities stop you from working. The other day poverty advocate Kendall Worth talked with one such person, who got verbally attacked by her fellow passengers on the bus.
Lower speed limits, although not a panacea, mean fewer accidents, and fewer pedestrian deaths. Both City and Province agree that lowering speeds is a positive move, yet a standoff about jurisdictional authority is stopping implementation. “Not at all satisfactory for parents who need to head off to work before their children walk to school alone, or for the pedestrians regularly hit on our crosswalks,” writes Martyn Williams
Kate, a fearless mother who we have written about before, fights Community Services and gets the glasses (with warranty) her autistic son requires. It was hard and scary, and it looks like questions the NS Advocate was asking made a bit of a difference. This story has a happy ending, but you can’t help but wonder how many people would just have given up much earlier.
News release: Two proposals for four towers (16-, 20-, 23-, 29-storeys) on a single block between Carlton, Spring Garden Road, Robie and College Street will be considered at HRM’s Peninsula Advisory Committee Monday meeting and Heritage Advisory Committee’s Wednesday meeting. Friends of Halifax Common August letter to HRM Mayor Savage asking for a halt to the projects and for a Conservation District has not been responded to. FHC’s request was made when it learned that formal detailed requests made for an area Conservation District in 2012 and again in 2016 were ignored. These requests should be considered in advance of any new projects.
We need new ways of supporting autistic and other neurodivergent children in Nova Scotia, writes autism activist and frequent NS Advocate contributor Alex Kronstein. Approaches that are rooted in ideas of accommodation, articulated by actually autistic people.