What is it that people in Nova Scotia have against masks? Look around you, in the supermarkets, in Spring Garden drugstores downtown – sure, some people are wearing masks – but most aren’t. Halifax writer Barbara Elizabeth Stewart tries to find an answer to that question.
Warren (Gus) Reed: My present complaint against the Human Rights Commission and the ministries of health, environment and justice goes to the heart of government indifference to the needs of people with disabilities. Being disabled in Nova Scotia is no cakewalk. There is discrimination at every turn. Employment, health, income, education, transportation – you name it – people with disabilities face discrimination.
“From racial disparities in health care to the tragic loss of life in long term care, there are at least a dozen distinct and pressing issues that require public scrutiny. If people can go to a bar or get a tattoo, then our democratic institutions can meet, either in person or via tele-conferencing, to make decisions and provide public scrutiny of the response.”
“We were short-staffed to begin with. Now it is a disaster,” says a Halifax long term care worker employed at three separate group homes, reflecting on the first COVID-19 wave. “Of course, when someone feels sick, it is important that they stay home. But nobody is there to replace them. The care responsibilities are falling on fewer and fewer of us. Everyone calls us heroes, but we don’t have a choice. This is our job.”
Roger B. Jones: “35 years ago, I transitioned into a new stage of life. Part of my old self was left on the side of the highway near the Halifax International Airport. Further into the future was of little concern because I was more worried about the immediate possibilities of existing with a spinal cord injury. Soon after though, I could not help thinking; what next?”
Judy Haiven: The first time I learned of someone falling to their death with police looking on was six years ago, in Halifax. Mohammed Eshaq, 27, fell from the balcony of his tenth-storey apartment in February 2014. The second time was two weeks ago. Toronto resident Regis Korchinski-Paquet, 29, fell 24 storeys from her apartment balcony.
Tari Ajadi on the difficult and messy task of health promotion in the middle of a pandemic, ensuring that enhanced police surveillance and harassment does not become another indignity that Black communities face.
“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.” (Martin Luther King).
Brandon Doucet on the need for universal access to dental care. Communities where people work low wage jobs and racialized communities are more likely to struggle accessing dental care. With the current economic recession, many working class people who used to access dental care will no longer be able to. When the pain gets too much to handle, people will be forced to use their credit card to pay for it.
Nova Scotia Federation of Labour President Danny Cavanagh wants protection for all workers – particularly in the long-term care sector – to have the broadest protection possible to report to authorities or the public if the conditions in facilities or for residents are unacceptable, unhealthy, unsafe, or otherwise inhumane.
“We are all in this together” is one of those common expressions of solidarity used by governments across Canada in response to the coronavirus pandemic. However, that’s not true in practice for all kinds of people, writes María José Yax-Fraser, who takes a closer look at the cases of women who were denied health coverage here in Nova Scotia.