In praise of Kendall Worth, citizen journalist
Journalist and poverty activist Kendall Worth is the subject of a recent letter of appreciation written by NDP leader Gary Burrill. Great time to add our own praise for this wonderful man!
Month: May 2020
Lessons not learned: Justice minister Mark Furey shrugs off suggestions of police racism once again
Legal Aid lawyers suggest police disproportionately fined members of marginalized and racialized communities while enforcing the COVID-19 emergency acts. Where’s the evidence, asks Justice minister Mark Furey. Well, the minister is the reason that evidence has not been collected.
Lawren Harris’ “Miners’ houses, Glace Bay”
Canada Post recently issued a stamp of Lawren Harris’ painting ‘Miners houses, Glace Bay’. Fiona McQuarrie writes about her personal connection and the painting’s significance in terms of Cape Breton labour history.
Media release: Emergency housing project launched for people exiting jail during COVID-19
Three community-based organizations serving criminalized people in Nova Scotia have developed and launched a pilot housing project to support people exiting jail during the global pandemic Covid-19.
Media release: Environmental groups taking legal action against federal government over flawed environmental impact assessment
“This regulation and rush to drill takes us completely in the opposite direction from the government’s stated commitments on climate change. Given the recent history of spills and accidents off Newfoundland, the risk of spills and even a blowout is simply too high to roll the dice for the over a hundred new wells on the books right now. Seismic blasting and noise from drilling threatens rich habitat for whales and other ocean life. The stakes were simply too high to let this regulation and the incomplete assessment upon which it relies to stand.
Press release: Poll finds Halifax residents want a federal bailout for transit – Halifax Transit Union
Press release: An overwhelming majority of Halifax residents believe that the Federal Government should provide $5 billion in emergency funding to public transit agencies. A poll conducted by Probe Research on behalf of Amalgamated Transit Union Canada found that 78% of people in Halifax strongly support or somewhat support federal funding for public transit operations.
Gary Burrill: Cracks and chasms – On long term care and the pandemic
Gary Burrill: We stand in admiration before the steadfast and herculean efforts which continue to be made at Northwood in the battle against the virus. And we call, when the clouds clear and the time is fitting, for an inquiry into long-term care and the pandemic–an inquiry not in search of culpability or accusation, but of understanding and improvement.
More than food banks are needed to feed the hungry during the coronavirus pandemic
Food banks are often stigmatizing, difficult to access and offer little choice, no wonder only about a quarter of those who meet the objective criteria of food insecurity ever went to a food bank. Struggling Canadians need sufficient income to feed themselves now and in the post-pandemic future, write Elaine Power, Jennifer Black and Halifax’s Jennifer Brady.
An act of discrimination brought on by government, condoned by the NS Human Rights Commission, and minimized by the inquiry chair
Joey Delaney, the Nova Scotia citizen who suffered terribly as a consequence of being inappropriately warehoused at the NS Hospital, was awarded a mere $100,000 by NS Human Rights inquiry chair J. Walter Thompson. After all, he found Joey Delaney “so disabled that payment to him of a very large sum will not have a greater impact on his life than a moderate sum.” Such ableist reasoning makes Warren (Gus) Reed very angry.
Danny Cavanagh: After COVID-19, a better world
Economic recovery cannot mean listening to the same old voices, the voices that led us to an economy with a widening income and gender gap, heightening rates of poverty and homelessness, increasing violence and inequality, poorly underfunded and inadequate public and community services, writes NS Federation of Labour president Danny Cavanagh.