Welfare in Canada: Nova Scotia sucks big time
Each year Maytree releases a Welfare in Canada report, showing total incomes of people on welfare across Canada, including tax credits and other benefits. Guess how Nova Scotia measures up.
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The stakes are high: Day 2 of the wrongful institutionalization appeal
Legal arguments in the appeal of a Nova Scotia human rights board decision about the institutionalization of people with physical or intellectual disabilities continued today. Intervenors in the case argued that the systemic nature of the discrimination must be acknowledged. There is no discrimination, lawyer Kevin Kindred countered for the province.
Warmongers not welcome in Halifax!
Tony Seed; “The 12th annual Halifax International Security Forum will be convened on November 20-22 as a platform for warmongering and empire building of U.S. imperialism and the NATO bloc, in which the Trudeau Liberal Government is fully embroiled.”
Podcast: A grassroots freedom school for African Nova Scotian youth
Rachel Zellars is an African-American academic, lawyer, and community organizer who has lived in Canada for more than a decade and a half, and in Halifax for the last couple of years. Wendie Wilson is an African Nova Scotian teacher, artist, writer, and community advocate whose family has been in the province for at least eight generations. Scott Neigh interviews them about the African Nova Scotian Freedom School that they were part of organizing this past summer.
From human rights Board of Inquiry to Nova Scotia Court of Appeal, case against wrongful institutionalization continues
A Nova Scotia Human Rights Board of Inquiry was wrong when it denied the systemic causes underlying the institutionalization of people with disabilities in Nova Scotia. It was also wrong in how it determined the damages it awarded to three individual complainants. That, in a nutshell, is the case against the province being argued in front of Nova Scotia Court of Appeal judges today and tomorrow. This is what happened on day one.
Wayne Desmond: My long search for safe spaces for Black learners
Wayne Desmond: “The idea of Black spaces and the need for inclusive education have always been important to me. Why is it that it wasn’t until I went to university that I began to feel fully validated as a Black learner?”
Judy Haiven: Christmas next July
Judy Haiven suggests that we postpone this year’s Christmas holidays. That way we we can meet around a picnic table, outdoors. Dr Strang tells us that during Covid, outdoors is the safest place to socialize. In July, there could be visits, outside activities, trips to the beach or the playground, all relatively safe gatherings. Remember how Covid cases across the country dropped precipitously over the summer of 2020?
People with disabilities assert their rights in the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal
The Disability Rights Coalition, along with Beth MacLean and Joseph Delaney and others, is appealing a bad decision by the NS Human Rights Commission on institutionalization of people with disabilities. In this editorial the coalition explains the reasons for the appeal, and how you can follow the court case on line.
Judy Haiven: Crossing the street while Black
A recent human rights case, launched by Gyasi Symonds after being racially profiled by Halifax police, is a showcase for all that is wrong with the way the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission (NSHRC) deals with human rights complaints and complainants.
Chris Benjamin: “The challenge becomes to put myself in another person’s shoes and see the world through their eyes”
“”Not all these characters are nice people, but they’re all going through interesting things, and so I just want to see the world through their eyes. It often leaves me with a different point of view on things, or a different way of thinking.” An interview with Chris Benjamin about his excellent short stories collection A Boy With a Problem.