Saturday, 5 October 2024

Month: October 2018

News release: Protest rally in support of Nhlanhla Dlamini and against anti-Black racism on the job

News release: Hate Crimes against Persons of African Descent are escalating in Canada and indeed Nova Scotia while authorities are failing to take a strong public stand against these intolerant actions…Hate Crimes against young African Canadian youth are especially heinous.  Case in point, the September 19, 2018, alleged racial bullying, racist taunts and slights that culminated in Nhlanhla Dlamini being shot with a high velocity nail gun by a co-worker employed with PQ Properties Limited of New Glasgow, Nova Scotia.

Letter from a postal worker: A better Canada Post for everyone

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Whether it’s postal banking, grocery delivery, affordable broadband internet access in communities that currently lack it, and postal-worker check in on seniors so that they can live longer in their own homes, postal workers have been pushing for better postal services for everyone, writes postal worker Mike Keefe.

Danny Cavanagh: What wrong with Social Impact Bonds?

Governments are increasingly using Social Impact Bonds as a method to finance what are broadly called social services. With social impact bonds governments repay investors only if the programs improve social outcomes, for example, lower unemployment or prison recidivism. The approach has been tried in Justice and corrections, skills training, public health, child welfare, services for seniors, early childhood development, education, homelessness, supports for people with physical disabilities, and mental health to name a few. But really it’s just another flavour of privatization, writes Danny Cavanagh.

Interview: ‘We build physical ramps, but we don’t build communication ramps’ – Long term care and dementia in Nova Scotia

We talk with Dr. Ellen Hickey about how in Nova Scotia we give up way too easily on people with dementia. “When it comes to long term care, all you hear is doctors, drugs, nurses. What about the rest of the team? There is all kinds of know-how that will help keep people off these drugs, that will keep them out of the doctor’s office. Isn’t that what it is all about?”

Wela’lioq: Acadian letter to the Mi’kmaq

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Ricky RIchard reflects on the tremendous debt he and fellow Acadians owe to the Mi’kmaq for shielding them when they were chased and deported by the British. “I am alive today because of the Mi’kmaq. I want to thank them. I owe them my life and that is a debt I cannot possibly repay. … My life is theirs, but I am ashamed of the way we have treated the Mi’kmaq. We have dispossessed them of their land, their livelihood, their ways, their dignity. History teaches us that too many injustices have been brought to bear on such a generous and welcoming people,” writes Richard in this remarkable open letter.

Charter schools, an idea whose time has gone – Part 2

Part 1 of educator Molly Hurd’s post on charter schools ended with the question “Why are AIMS and its relatives still promoting charter schools in Canada?” Part 2 answers that question, as Hurd’ looks at the US and other parts of Canada to show that there is serious money to be made in the charter school business. But public money is diverted, teachers roles are minimized, and students pay a hefty price.

Ken Summers: Goldboro LNG far from a done deal

Ken Summers takes a closer look at the viability of the Goldboro LNG plant, and he finds serious obstacles to full development that the company would rather its German government investors wouldn’t know about. Not stated, but implied, this also means that it isn’t too late to resist this mega project that will jeopardize Nova Scotia’s greenhouse gas reduction targets.

Scott Domenie: Where were you radicalized? – On diversity among activists

Scott Domenie: “Maybe instead of asking each other where or when we had our moment of radicalization, we should be asking – ourselves and others – what brought us to where we are now. … By listening to our answers, we just might learn to better appreciate the diversity and similarities in our journeys.”