A moving story obout a four-year old little girl at the Shubenacadie Residential School and her doll, as remembered by Elder Elder Magit Sylliboy, and filmed by students of the We’koqom’a Mi’kmaw School in Waycobah, Cape Breton. A must see!
The contentious issue of twinning of the 101 near the Town of Windsor is still alive. Some folks believe it is time to get rid of the causeway and build a bridge, but they have a hard time getting heard at municipal councils, they say.
Now with a more appropriate headline, and a rectification! Recently 25 African Nova Scotian organizations called for an immediate halt of police street checks anywhere in the province. The Nova Scotia NDP continues to stop short of calling for such a moratorium.
Dancer and choreographer Rhodnie Désir, a resident of Montreal with Haïtian roots, has arrived in Nova Scotia on a mission to explore through her art the many connections between slavery, the rhytms long kept alive within African Nova Scotian, Acadian and Mi’kmaq communities and resistance. This weekend we feature a short documentary about her visits to Martinique, Brazil and Haiti. We also gave Rhodnie a call to find out more about the Nova Scotia leg of the project.
Our frequent contributor Kendall Worth was recognized at Province House earlier this week for his tireless anti-poverty activism. Way to go, Kendall!
About eight hundred Nova Scotians marched to Province House because they hate the devastation of our forests caused by clearcutting and because bureaucrats and politicians aren’t listening to them. To mark this important event we offer up a handful of photos and a transcription of the remarks by Melissa Labrador, a Mi’kmaq woman of the Wildcat community near Kejimkujik.
The state of public housing in Nova Scotia at times is terrible. There is no other way to describe it. Last week I drove to Sheet Harbour and met Brent and Donna, very nice people who deserve better than having to call and call again for somebody to deal with a backed up septic tank, or to have mould simply spray painted over. We hear these stories a lot, and we go check them out when we can.
On the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty Halifax first voice activists and their allies called for all levels of government to stop their empty tinkering and finally start addressing poverty in a meaningful way. Start by listening carefully to people with a lived experience of poverty, was the message, and put your money where your mouth is.
Six weeks without benefits is the harsh punishment meted out by Community Services to people on social assistance who don’t engage in employability activities, things like missing an appointment or not showing up for a training course. We meet Kate, who got hit with the six week cut off when she was forced to quit her job when her son got very sick. And through a Freedom of Information request we find out that it happens to hundreds of social assistance recipients each year. Some of them are innocent family members who did nothing wrong.
Yet another national survey comparing provincial poverty rates was released today. Whether it’s child poverty that is being measured, minimum wage, or the release of Statistics Canada census-based income data, somehow for Nova Scotia the news is always grim.