A review of two excellent books on the horrific Shubenacadie Residential School, one, by Chris Benjamin, offering a historical overview, and the other, by elder Isabelle Knockwood, providing a moving eye witness account of the institution in all its horror. This isn’t ancient history.

Frequent contributor Alex Kronstein continues his series on the social determinants of health, all the things that can make you sick that aren’t strictly speaking medical in nature, things like poverty, bad housing, your job, and more. Today Alex looks at social exclusion.

Peggy Cameron, founding member of Friends of the Halifax Common, takes issue with a proposal now before Council to build a soccer stadium on the Wanderer’s Grounds, to remain there for at least the next three years. There are lots of issues, Cameron writes, but ” the larger issue is the private use of the public’s space for private profit of a private businessman.”