The NDP continues to push its Bill 36, a private members bill that would stop the racist practice of police checks in Nova Scotia. The proposed legislation is now in second reading, but will need Liberal support to proceed any further.
We cannot count on management or Council to deal with workplace racism, misogyny, ableism and sexism at Halifax City Hall. Matt Whitman says, let’s get the city’s Auditor General involved, and that’s a good idea.
This is the heart wrenching story of a young Mi’kmaw woman we’ll call Angela, about the police officer who harassed her, her struggle to recover from an arrest and curfew for the possession of one single hydromorphone pill, the loss of her young son, and much more.
News release: “Finally, it is important to understand that the over-representation of BIPOC folks in prisons is by design. The prison system in Canada is a part of the settler-colonial project and therefore, entrenched in colonialism and racism and it is up to us to challenge and dismantle these institutions.”
Didn’t hear much about the police check study over the summer, but the NS Human Rights Commission recently launched an online survey asking all HRM residents about their encounters with police. We have long argued that what is needed is not yet another study, but an immediate stop to the racist practice, but maybe the survey has some redeeming qualities.
A Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge has turned down an application to create a class-action lawsuit on behalf of former Africville residents and their descendants. That’s as good an opportunity as any to get Halifax Councillors to step up and do the right thing. Compensation for former Africville residents and their descendants is not an issue that should be decided based on legal subtleties.
We talked with El Jones to better understand what is driving the protest inside the Burnside jail, and how people on the outside can support the prisoners. “The prisoners are not saying anything that is in the least contentious. The demands are all very basic, we have known of these issues for a very long time.”
Prisoners in the U.S. have called a strike from August 21st-September 9th. The prisoners from Burnside have joined the protest. Here is their statement.
Poet and author Guyleigh Johnson on anxiety, depression, and being Black. ” I thought I was so strong, I could never break, until I reached my breaking point, and then I broke.”
I keep thinking we need a public enquiry into racism and bullying at the city’s workplaces. Council and city management had years to fix the widespread malaise. They were awful at it.