Delighted to present this wonderful poem by South Shore poet Peggie Graham, written for a One Billion Rising event in Lunenburg on International Women’s Day, and now one of the poems selected for our one-poem-a-month poetry competition.
How many more pedestrians must be hit before our municipality acts and we reduce bloodshed on our streets? Martyn Williams offers up three simple solutions that will save lives.
NDP Justice critic Claudia Chender on solitary confinement and other prison-related issues. “Our provincial jails are a black box. We have very little idea of what goes on behind those walls at all. It’s time for some transparency in our correctional system. It’s time for an independent review of the practice of solitary confinement. It’s time for the government to start listening.”
Warren (Gus) Reed is one of the successful complainants in a recent human rights case that considered the province’s refusal to enforce accessible washrooms in restaurants. Here Reed looks back on the tribunal in all its absurdity. “It is typical of the provincial authorities not to exercise any creative economic thinking. Accessibility calls for new approaches and less whining!,” writes Reed, who pulls out a calculator himself. The money spent on government lawyers could have been spent so much wiser.
This weekend’s weekend video is Missing Women”, based on a stunning poem by Mad poet and filmmaker Anna Quon. The poem lists some of the ways women have gone missing from history, culture and their own lives, and names some of those women and girls to help us remember them. You really should watch this.
Evelyn C. White reports on the Big Sing event this past Tuesday at Gus’ Pub in honour of Aretha Franklin. Sadly, only a handful of people of colour attended. On the upside, The Big Sing is making efforts to increase the diversity of the pop-up choir.
Lower speed limits, although not a panacea, mean fewer accidents, and fewer pedestrian deaths. Both City and Province agree that lowering speeds is a positive move, yet a standoff about jurisdictional authority is stopping implementation. “Not at all satisfactory for parents who need to head off to work before their children walk to school alone, or for the pedestrians regularly hit on our crosswalks,” writes Martyn Williams
Kate, a fearless mother who we have written about before, fights Community Services and gets the glasses (with warranty) her autistic son requires. It was hard and scary, and it looks like questions the NS Advocate was asking made a bit of a difference. This story has a happy ending, but you can’t help but wonder how many people would just have given up much earlier.
We need new ways of supporting autistic and other neurodivergent children in Nova Scotia, writes autism activist and frequent NS Advocate contributor Alex Kronstein. Approaches that are rooted in ideas of accommodation, articulated by actually autistic people.
A South Shore man built a prosthetic arm for his grandson Charlie, who was born with a limb difference. How, you ask? He used the 3D-printer at the South Shore Public Library in Bridgewater, and built the arm for less than $25 in materials! Another reason why we love public libraries. Story by Understorey Magazine editor Katherine J. Barrett.