“It is time to insist on our caring wisdom—our choice to become a province focused on eliminating decades—no centuries—of relational misogyny and misogyny within our institutions,” write Jeanne Sarson and Linda MacDonald.
Media release: In the past few years, the public mental health system has stopped offering counselling to people who have survived sexual violence unless they meet specific criteria for Mental Health and Addictions. In return, the public system often refers victims to non-profit services—which are now overworked and unable to meet the increased demand because there has not been a meaningful increase in funds to provide these services.
We talk with an early childhood educator who is concerned about going back to work maybe as soon as early June. “Right now there’s a lot of talk going into the plan to reopen about PPEs, there’s a lot of talk about ratios. And those are good things that we need to talk about, but I don’t see enough talk about sick time, or wages. And those are two things that we know were part of the spread of COVID-19 in nursing homes,” she says.
NS Federation of Labour pres Danny Cavanagh: The province needs to ensure that all workers have access to paid sick leave, paid emergency days, and be paid a fair and decent wage. If workers contract the virus, they need a guarantee that they will automatically be entitled to workers’ compensation
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You can clean up graffiti, but to rid Nova Scotia of the racism that inspired it will be a lot more difficult, says Vanessa Hartley, the young Shelburne woman who first posted a photo of a hateful slogan spray-painted on a rock on Facebook.
A 3-year construction-related closure of a Robie Street sidewalk will require either a long detour along Agricola, a very dangerous unmarked crosswalk crossing of Robie, or a one-kilometre detour along signalized crosswalks. That’s too hard for many people who are older or who live with disabilities, writes Martyn Williams.
Open letter; While our province is in the depths of a deadly pandemic with orders to “Stay the BLAZES home”, our Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Hon. Keith Colwell’s department deems it business as usual for this company and grants them this unprecedented 20-year lease renewal.
Barbara Elizabeth Stewart chronicles life in Halifax during the first 66 days of the pandemic. “At first it was a novelty. There was a whiff of World War II on the home front, the sacrifice and solidarity: front line soldiers in protective gear trudging off to do the most essential and dangerous work, while civilians stayed home and did a lot with little.”
Kate MacDonald on a city without Menz and Mollyz: “So what queer space can we dream into existence now? Without holding back, how big do we dare to dream and how can we get there? I have no answers to these questions. But trust me, I am dreaming. I am playing loud music in my headphones. I am dancing like I am still there.”
Richard Starr looks at premier Stephen McNeil’s governing style and sees a pattern: “McNeil needs a new raison d’être, and with remarkable dexterity he has found one with COVID-19, moving smartly from the manufactured fiscal crisis to the real crisis presented by the pandemic.”