Ever since the Wortley report came out almost all the discussion has focused on street checks and whether to ban or regulate them.
What about rampant racism among the force as reported in Wortley’s community meetings? What about classism, sexism and ableism we continue to hear about? And why do we think the same old and tired recommendations are going to work this time?
Here is a short video, recently released by the Disability Rights Coalition, that presents the case for community living in Nova Scotia in a powerful way. The video contains strong language and some violence.
In 2019 all income assistance recipients in Nova Scotia stand to lose a good chunk of buying power to inflation. In 2020, when people on income assistance finally get a raise, that raise in most cases gets eaten up by inflation, and then some.
In other news, Community Services spent millions less on welfare payments last year than it anticipated.
Here is something I wrote in my Halifax Media Co-op days, about an interactive map exploring the deep connection between the Mi’kmaq people and the landscape of Mi’kma’ki, the place the Mi’kmaq never ceded and have called home since time began.
Young people speaking truth to power, is there anything more uplifting than that?
Many Nova Scotians with intellectual and physical disabilities continue to live in large institutions against their will, while others are being taken care of by ageing and senior parents. Affected people are saying enough is enough. We went to today’s press conference at Province House, and transcribed in full the powerful statements by Jeannie Whidden of People First Nova Scotia, and Jen Powley, of No More Warehousing.
Earlier we wrote about a woman on income assistance who lost her special needs allowance. She fought back, she made noise, and now the allowance has been reinstated. There’s a lesson in that.
I ask why it was journalists who revealed the racist bias of police street checks rather than the Board of Police Commissioners, whose job it is to oversee the Halifax police. Then I speculate on the answer. They’re worried that it will expose how powerless they really are.
Today some 70 people gathered on the steps of the Maritime Centre in downtown Halifax for a Fight for 15 rally. Among others, Marleigh Smith, a member of the IWW, and a minimum wage earner herself, spoke at the event. She made some excellent points. This is what she said.
Some 80 people attended a powerful community meeting, and several hundreds marched through downtown Halifax this afternoon, calling for an immediate and unconditional ban on the racist practice of police street checks.