Saturday, 20 April 2024

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Quest is best place for my son, mother testifies at human rights enquiry

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The mother of a man who lives at Quest Regional Rehabilitation Centre in Lower Sackville told a human rights tribunal today that the institution is the right place for her son, who lives with cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. “Joey is happy at Quest. He has a beautiful room, a beautiful yard. It’s quiet. He goes on outings,” said Betty Rich. “Small option homes aren’t a good solution for Joey. It may well be that small options works for others, but I am the mother, and I must make my own calls.”

Joanne Bealy: White silence

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Poet and writer Joanne Bealy on moving to Nova Scotia: “Within the white community I have seen some crazy doubling down: public silence combined with a privileged kind of outspokenness, a white on white outspokenness wherein a caucasian speaker just assumes that any other caucasian agrees with them.”

Alec Stratford: Nova Scotia’s income assistance changes lack empathy

Alec Startford: “The recent changes to the Income Assistance Program are embedded in a traditional worldview that poverty is largely the result of an individual deficit, that people need to work harder to join the workforce, and for those who can’t work, we feel sympathy for their suffering and we want to relieve the pain. The grounding principle in this worldview is that the free market is the best and most efficient way to alleviate poverty. Where it can’t the social welfare system will provide remedial services to relieve suffering.”

Danny Cavanagh: Privatizing Highway 104 maintenance – A battle is brewing

Danny Cavanagh: “Snow and ice control and maintenance will be contracted out to a private company. This raises questions and concerns about the long-term cost of a new P3 highway for taxpayers. It’s essentially déjà vu, and it’s more than likely that we will be providing a hefty profit to corporate elite bank coffers and in the end will get inferior service.”

Natal Day, the holiday that isn’t

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Judy Haiven on Natal Day, unfortunately by no means a holiday for most of Nova Scotia’s workers. Our province is stingy when it comes to designating statutory holidays.

Community Services trounced once again in Nova Scotia Court of Appeal

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The Nova Scotia Court of Appeal has ruled that Community Services cannot refuse to pay a welfare recipient for suitable housing just because the rent exceeds the shelter allowance. We talk to Dalhousie Legal Aid lawyer lawyer Claire McNeil, who argued the case, and community legal aid worker Fiona Traynor, about the scope of this milestone decision.