2020 will be the year that the provincial department of education will see its inclusion policies challenged in practice by the pandemic. Parents fear that it will not pass the test. Brooklyn Connolly reports.
Two recent reports to Halifax Council, one on the pros and cons of right turns on red, and another an update on the Vision Zero Framework, show that motorists are like royalty in the city, and vulnerable pedestrians are mostly on their own.
Martyn Williams: Seniors rely on walking or cycling for mobility because they may no longer drive for health reasons, or because it is the only way they can enjoy much needed exercise. But the infrastructure they use is built for vehicles to move quickly and easily, not to meet the safety requirements of vulnerable road users of all ages and abilities.
After reading about the construction of a new building for children with learning disabilities or autism as young as two years old, Kathy Myketyn looks at how society deals with people with learning disabilities over the last 90 years or so. “Step-up to add your voice for those who have none, to stop this human rights travesty,” she writes.
Senator Kim Pate: “This Prisoners’ Justice Day, and every day, let us honour those who have died, including as a result of COVID-19 and other illnesses and conditions that are preventable and treatable in our communities, and as a result of systemic silence, neglect, discrimination and violence.”
“The way that we’re looking at it, regardless of whether there’s four residents or 40 or 400, you’re taking children away from their families. What the press release says is that it will house children from two to 18 years old. No two year old should be removed from their family. No parent wants to have their child sent to live somewhere else, they will only agree when there are no alternatives provided, says Patricia Neves, Acting Executive Director of the Nova Scotia Association for Community Living.
Martyn Williams writes a letter to city staff and councillors to plea for safer intersections for old people and people who live with disabilities. “This is not an issue where engineers may balance the cost to vulnerable road user lives against the benefit gained to traffic flow. It is a human rights issue that requires urgent action and intervention by leadership through appropriate policy.”
In April of 1977 about a dozen men were thrown out of the Jury Room bar, on the corner of Argyle & Prince streets, for being gay. They fought back, and Rebecca Rose tells the story.
Today’s LGBTQ2S+ landmark is Forrest House, a.k.a. a Woman’s Place. Many lesbians and bisexual women were involved, though they didn’t always feel welcome, Rebecca Rose writes.
Rebecca Rose continues her virtual tour of historic LGBTQ2S+ Halifax with a look at Citadel Hill and other popular cruising spots in the sixties and seventies. “If the action fails, there’s always the view.”