The newest provincial welfare stats are in: In 2018 in Nova Scotia the very poor get poorer once again, and we continue to be the province with the lowest total incomes for people on social assistance.
This summer Premier McNeil took a stand against several recent racist incidents here in Nova Scotia. But racism is here each and every day, and it’s time for the province to take a closer look, writes Raymond Sheppard.
On Tuesday evening, news of yet another extremely serious pedestrian incident. At 7.45pm on a wet and windy evening, a 57 year old man was hit by a vehile on the 300 block of Windmill Road, Dartmouth and left with life threatening injuries. Martyn Williams has some observatons about the age of the victim, and the state of Windmill Road.
Long time trade union and anti-racism activist Dr. Lynn Jones is upset about the way she was treated by several staff members during a recent visit to the QEII emergency department in Halifax.
Scott Neigh does such a wonderful job highlighting activist work all across Canada. Whenever his podcast Talking Radical touches upon Nova Scotia he generously allows the Advocate to share. Here is Scott talking about the Halifax Workers Action Centre with Sakura Saunders and NS Advocate writer Lisa Cameron.
“I know racial prejudice persists in our time. I encounter racism often. Yet, it still shakes me. It catches me by surprise, particularly when it comes from spaces least expected.” María José Yax-Fraser describes such an encounter, and considers how colonial stereotypes continue to be invoked in the present.
Retail worker Tony Lohnes would like to see a law that makes stores close at 4 PM on Christmas Eve and New Year’s eve. Retail workers need some family time too, he says.
Some fifty people gathered at beautiful Point Pleasant Park this Remembrance Day afternoon for a moving ceremony to honour all victims of war anywhere – civilians, women, children, refugees, hospital workers, animals, and the environment.
Nothing like a good old fashioned anti-war poem on Remembrance Day, and local poet Charlie Toth delivers.
Remember the ones have fought bravely
Think hard before sending more in,
The meat grinder that is war time
Doesn’t care if you have mother or kin.
Remembrance Day is still a day of lonesomeness and social isolation for income assistance recipients, writes Kendall Worth. And worse, it’s also a reminder that Christmas is fast approaching, and the time leading up to Christmas is often not an easy time for people living in poverty.