With Nova Scotia now officially the province with the lowest minimum wage in the country, some 100 folks gathered at Dalhousie University’s Killam Library this afternoon to demand a raise in the minimum wage, better working conditions altogether, as well as higher social assistance rates. Here is what community activist Lynn Jones told the protesters.
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.
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.
Weekend video: Meet Dave, a resident of Nova Scotia’s South Shore, as he talks about the PTSD that he lives with, and his inability to find proper help. “And yet I sit here, through no fault of my own, in a position I can’t control. And when I ask for help, there is nobody listening.”
The NDP continues to push its Bill 36, a private members bill that would stop the racist practice of police checks in Nova Scotia. The proposed legislation is now in second reading, but will need Liberal support to proceed any further.
We cannot count on management or Council to deal with workplace racism, misogyny, ableism and sexism at Halifax City Hall. Matt Whitman says, let’s get the city’s Auditor General involved, and that’s a good idea.
The news of the death of Joshua Evans, a young man who lived with developmental disabilities and committed suicide while on remand in the Burnside Jail, is devastating. The CBC reports that Nova Scotia Justice Minister Mark Furey now wants an investigation into Joshua’s death, including “whether he should have been there in the first place.” That’s quite the statement, given that In Nova Scotia we lock up people like Joshua all the time. Often in prison, where health care and mental health care needs are not sufficiently addressed. Even more frequently in prison-like institutions. And the province is just fine with that.
This is the heart wrenching story of a young Mi’kmaw woman we’ll call Angela, about the police officer who harassed her, her struggle to recover from an arrest and curfew for the possession of one single hydromorphone pill, the loss of her young son, and much more.
On the evening of September 9 police forcefully removed some thirty protesters attending a rally outside of the Burnside jail in support of the non-violent prisoners’ protest taking place inside. Rather than making an effort to resolve the matter in a civilized fashion, police threatened protesters with a dog, used pepper spray, and threw one protester violently to the ground and then arrested him. All this without a warning, according to the protesters, and while they were just about ready to call it a day.
Protesters who rallied at the Burnside Jail last night in support of demands issued by protesting prisoners were pepper sprayed and violently thrown down by officers of the Halifax Regional Police (HRP). One protester was arrested and will face charges. Updated.