Awareness of environmental racism in Nova Scotia has changed for the better over the last five years or so. A private members bill, shaped to a large extent by Dr. Ingrid Waldron and introduced by then NDP MLA Lenore Zann in 2015, played a considerable part in that shift. Waldron and Zann, now a Liberal MP, are giving the legislation another shot, this time in Ottawa.
Moose need healthy, contiguous, and biodiverse forests to thrive. In Digby County that connectivity between the Tobeatic Wilderness Area and the Silver River Wilderness Area is being steadily eroded by even-aged harvests. Now a map,created by conservation GIS expert Shanni Bale clearly shows why so many people are raising the alarm.
It would be good to know how many African Nova Scotians are being targeted as police get more aggressive in enforcing COVID-19 regulations, and how that number compares to the white population. It was exactly to answer these questions that Dr. Wortley recommended that the police track race-based data on all interactions with citizens. However, we will never know, as work on that recommendation hasn’t even started.
Check out this powerful video by the amazing Dave Gunning as he sings the praises of the beautiful St Mary’s river in Guysborough County, and explains why plans by Atlantic Gold to construct an open pit gold mine alongside the river should be halted.
Kendall Worth: “I want to explain why I feel it is important to keep my readers updated on how people on income assistance are doing during COVID-19.”
When journalists recently asked whether the Nova Scotia government is willing to institute paid sick days in Nova Scotia, premier Stephen McNeil flat out refused. There’s a federal program that takes care of it, he said. That’s not quite how it works, NDP labour critic Kendra Coombes tells the Nova Scotia Advocate.
Danny Cavanagh: “Taxpayers need to benefit in the good times if a capitalist society expects to have the government keep them operational in bad times. Taxpayers need to become shareholders, and we need to ensure that dividends to shareholders are limited, and the CEOs have a more realistic pay cheque.”
When COVID-19 hit, Nova Scotia’s provincial prisoner population was reduced by 41 percent in just a few months. The women’s unit at Central Nova was down to just seven prisoners. Now all that work has been undone, write Ashley Avery and Emma Halpern.
Paul Wozney: “Today, just like they have done every day for the past three months, almost 150,000 Nova Scotian children and adults (up to 35 at a time) crowd into small poorly ventilated classrooms where masks are not universally required, which also lack proper handwashing stations. Nowhere else is this tolerated. If you hosted a gathering like this in your home, you’d be fined.”
Wayne Desmond takes a closer look at two occasions where Walmart security staff and Halifax police officers harassed Black shoppers, and suggests a pathway to justice. Sue the bastards!