Few people knew that Robert ran the Advocate as a one-person, one-cat operation out of a spare bedroom. Journalism was his labour of love. Robert’s death is a terrible loss for Simon, his son, Bonnie, his girlfriend, and all his entire family. It is also a great loss for the communities, writers, and colleagues he tirelessly supported for so long.

This marks the end of the Advocate, but we trust that it is not the end of this form of journalism. Robert showed that journalism can be accessible to anyone, regardless of training or budget. We look forward to seeing what comes next.

The work that the Nova Scotia Advocate has published is too important to lose, so the site will remain accessible as an archive. However, there will be no new articles published. Comments on old articles have been disabled.

If you were a donor using Stripe, your donations have been automatically cancelled. If you use PayPal, you need to cancel your donations manually.

There are plans for a memorial in Robert’s honour, and a way to make donations to causes he believed in. We’ll provide more information soon.

The post Robert Devet, Rest in Power appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

The grassroots effort evolved into a network of volunteers pushing for Permanent, Accessible, Dignified and Safer (PADS) housing options.

“For the past five weeks, PADS Community Network has been calling on the Municipality for a moratorium on evictions of crisis shelters and tents to allow time to find solutions, and to shelter unhoused residents from being forced to make decisions under duress,” says Vicky Levack, a PADS Community Network volunteer.

Through a massive volunteer effort, volunteers have filled the role of government, providing wrap-around services including safety, food and water to a growing community of residents. PADS worked collaboratively with residents, including discussing the alternative options available from service providers and the city as they were made available. This included assisting some residents with relocation to facilities including Gray Memorial Arena in Dartmouth, recently put forward as a temporary option by the city.

On Saturday, Erica Fleck, Assistant Chief of Emergency Management at Halifax Regional Municipality, spent several hours at the park, hearing directly from residents about their history, concerns, and plans.

“While some residents have found what they deem to be a safe short-term option at the arena, it is not appropriate for all residents for a range of reasons related to personal health and wellbeing or due to past trauma.” says Amber Zaza with PADS.

“At one point, everyone at the park was willing to move into hotel accommodations,” explained Drew Moore, another volunteer with PADS. “The alternative housing options currently on offer are a significant downgrade from the initial promises, which never materialized.”

Given the unique needs of individuals, and the limited options currently available, many residents continue to feel that People’s Park is the only safe option. They have been working with volunteers to identify areas that may continue to require off-site support, and taking leadership on areas that do not.

The park will complete its transition to resident-run leadership over the weekend, moving to off-site supports.

PADS and the residents of People’s Park received assurances from Fleck on Saturday that no one would be removed from the park without having a temporary accommodation or housing option that best met the unique needs of each individual. Fleck, who is authorized to speak on behalf of the mayor, said that there would be a press conference by Thursday formally announcing that no one would be evicted from tents anywhere in the city. This adds reassurance to the public statements from members of council and the city in recent weeks that all departures will be voluntary.

For members of PADS, the focus now turns to securing a firm moratorium on evictions from the city, and bringing the provincial and federal government to the table. “Mr. Fillmore, Mr. Houston, your invitations are in the mail—it’s time to find a sustainable solution for your constituents.”

The post Press release: People’s Park transitions to resident-run system appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – Tired of harassment by Department of Fisheries (FDO) officers and tired of both the federal and provincial governments refusal to recognize treaty rights and court decisions, some 50 Mi’kmaw fishers and their allies rallied at the entrance to the DFO offices in Dartmouth.

In August nine Mi’kmaw fishing boats had their lines cut by vigilantes, and fishers have been subjected to DFO hauling their traps and an increased surveyance by police and DFO officers altogether, clearly aiming to intimidate them. Chief Mike Sack of Sipekne’katik First Nation has been arrested, and DFO even handcuffed a 14-year old boy after it boarded a Mi’kmaw vessel. 

Matthew Cope is a fisher from Millbrook First Nation. He faces changes for fishing out of season and selling the catch. He’s confident that when all is said and done treaty rights will win the day.

“It’s insulting that I even have to stand in front of a judge.We’re being vilified and criminalized for doing something that our treaties allow us to do. We’ve been living up to our end of these treaties, but Canadian governments haven’t been living up to their end,” Cope said.

“I can’t wait for my day in the Supreme Court of Canada, there’s going to be some fireworks. And I want compensation for every single day that my traps are out of the water,” he said.

Cope is right, of course. The Mi’kmaq people have always had the right to conduct their moderate livelihood fisheries, and these rights have been recognized and protected by a variety of decisions by the Supreme Court.

In these decisions the onus is put on the federal government to prove that regulation is justified for reasons having to do with conservation. The feds have never even tried to make that case, likely because the Mi’kmaq are doing a fine job regulating themselves, and anyways, their harvest is minuscule compared to what commercial fishers pull in. A concern that soft shell lobsters are being taken has also been found to be unwarranted.

Melanie Peter-Paul, from Sipekne’katik First Nation, elaborated on the significance of treaties to the Mi’kmaq people.   

“A recently reelected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says there’s no relationship more important to Canada than the relationship with the indigenous peoples. Yet, the Mikmaq in Nova Scotia are once again, fighting for our right to fish. Last Friday, September 17, it was 22 years since the Marshal decision, 22 years since the Supreme Court affirmed the Mi’kmaw treaty right to fish. Yet this government agency, the DFO, stifles any progress in reconciliation with this province, as they continue to defy treaties, which are the very foundation of this country,”said Peter-Paul. 

“The 1752 Treaty states that we have a right not to be hindered from and have free liberty to hunt and fish as usual, and to sell the skins, feathers, fowl or fish or any other goods. This tells me that the current fish buyers licencing and enforcement regulations are in direct violation of the 1752 Treaty and the Constitution, section 35. Mi’kmaw fishers should be free to legally sell their lobster or any other goods without harassment from the DFO or vigilante fishermen,” she said.

Noah Johnson, a lobster fisher from Potlotek First Nation, offered a glimpse of what DFO prosecution at sea looks like.

“DFO and the Coast Guard are working hand in hand. They’re out there 24 hours a day, blocking our boats from being able to retrieve our gear. They work as one boarding our boats aggressively. We’re not safe from the governments of Canada and Nova Scotia, who criminalize our treaties. They make it impossible for us to hunt, to fish, or to harvest,” Johnson said.

See also: Time once again to support the Mi’kmaw fishers

The post Stop violating Mi’kmaw treaty rights, rally tells DFO appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

I never thought I would be ashamed of having my name associated with my former high school; up until today. Considering the recent events of cultural appropriation, racism, and the blatant disregard of the issue by staff I feel it is my obligation to share my story as a Black woman about what really goes on behind the closed doors of Fredericton High.

When I first started at FHS I was extremely nervous.  At the time I didn’t think my nerves would have to be for the racism and cultural appropriation I would later experience. My earliest memory was in my ninth-grade science class, we had a supply teacher that day.  Row call ensued and my name was next. Quietly I replied, “Here” to which she asked, “What are you”?  This was a question I had heard umpteen times, however it felt different particularly coming from a person of colour. On this day, I had 24 classmates anticipating my reply. Having a confused look on my face did nothing to quash her nosiness, so she inquired again, “Is your mom Black or your dad, because you certainly aren’t white, and you aren’t fully black either?”  

My heart sank.  I had never been so humiliated in my life. Naturally I came home telling my mom what had happened earlier in the day, and we decided to email the Principal and the Vice-Principal requesting that she be removed from the supply teacher list. I was thrilled to be told that she was no longer permitted to work at my school but disappointed to see her there a month later. In that moment I didn’t feel looked after or as though they “had my back” it became apparent that their actions were a short-term solution to get us to stop complaining.

When tenth grade began my English teacher chose to read To Kill a Mockingbird. As she passed the books around, she loudly and proudly announced that, “We shouldn’t feel obligated to say ‘Nigger’ as it’s consistently used throughout the novel” but that she would be saying it because its ‘just a word’. She went on to explain how ‘[her] grandmother would walk down the street, walk up to a Black man and say ‘Hey Nigger’ to get his attention simply because she could. I was appalled to hear an educated professional not only use this type of language that has generational trauma associated with it but also openly share such a disgusting story with me sitting right in front of her. After discussing the situation with my mom, she made the recommendation of emailing said teacher and sharing my upset and frustration. However, I felt differently; I was terrified of retribution and even more scared of what else she would say. To this day, I refuse to read that novel.

My last year of high school was supposed to be an exciting time, experiencing fun filled graduate activities. For me, that was not the case. I had this white boy in my class, the type of boy I could look at and know he would say something about race, unfortunately my premonitions were correct. We had multiple courses together, and our initial interactions were filled with him asking stereotypical questions such as ‘was I from the hood’, ‘if I can give him cornrows’, and asking me to show him gang hand symbols. From there he moved on to stereotypical assumptions such as me being in a gang, how my father wasn’t in my life because he was Black and so on and so forth.  

I voiced my concerns to teachers on multiple occasions but alas, nothing was done. From there, he escalated to saying “Hey ma Nigga” or “What’s up ma nigga” as an appropriate method of greeting me. When I voiced my dislike of him saying “Nigger” he informed me that because he has Black friends that means he himself is ‘basically’ Black and therefore he is permitted to say “Nigger”. 

I had finally had enough, I was tired of being called ‘Nigger’, being shown videos of Black men being shot, and listening to his stories of his hyper sexualization of Black women. So, I took matters into my own hands and spoke to the teachers. Much to my dismay they informed me that “because [they] didn’t hear him say that directly, it’s my word against his and [they] can’t be sure if he said those things or not”.

I graduated a month later and have loathed the day I will have to walk back in those doors as I don’t feel protected or safe. The vision and mission statement of Fredericton High is to “focus on leaders in academic excellence and an inclusive education [including but not limited to] diversity, respect and responsibility. Through the promotion of inclusion and collaboration, [the]celebration of diversity by recognizing [how] our differences enrich our community and by creating a safe, supportive and respectful environment.” These statements have been around for many years and will probably stick around for many more.  I like to believe in human decency and educating oneself on touchy subjects but in my opinion (based on my personal experiences) Fredericton High has and always will be a white privileged school.

See also: Chronicles of a mixed girl – Nanny edition

The post Chronicles of a mixed girl: The skeletons in the closet of Fredericton High appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – Ross Gray encountered racism once too often, and he is fully committed to seeing that there are consequences for the perpetrators. He hopes others will follow his example. 

In mid-July we reported how a condescending commissionaire falsely accused Gray, who is Black, of riding a bicycle on the pedestrian lane of the Angus L MacDonald Bridge. Gray was spoken down to and bluntly told that he was lying when he explained he walked all the way across the bridge, bicycle in hand. The commissionaire even falsely claimed they had footage of Gray cycling on tape.

Later Halifax Harbour Bridges (HHB) acknowledged that the accusation had no basis in fact, and apologized. HHB also said it would implement a policy to address a future repeat, and suggested that the commissionaire would receive counselling. HHB did not acknowledge the potential tole of racism in the incident.

“Too much of this is going on, and nobody ever does anything. They all just talk. Until the next time that it happens, and then it happens again. It just keeps going,” Gray said at the time. “This apology is worthless, as far as I’m concerned, because nobody is held accountable, ever.”

The ordeal shook Gray to the core, and left him determined to seek justice.

“What happened to me is a systemic thing. I’m a 57 year old man, and my accuser is probably in her thirties, but she was talking to me as if I was a child, I felt like a damn dog. You don’t talk to a human being like that,” Gray explains.

It’s also left him deeply shaken, so much so that it is affecting his ability to sleep. And he’s not the only one who is affected, inevitably it also touches those close to Gray.

“I can see the change in my son’s face when I’m talking to him about it. I have always taught him to treat people with respect. And now I find myself trying to build a wall around him, and he senses that,” Gray says.

Commissionaires employed by HHB as traffic officers receive limited policing powers. What if someday in the future they will be allowed to carry firearms, Gray wonders. “You’re going to see not just police shooting Black people, you’re going to see other authorities doing the same damn thing,” Gray says.

I ask Gray what he would say to white people who want to shrug off what happened to him as just a run in with a grouchy commissionaire, without the racist overtones. 

“I encounter racism all the time, I see it when I enter a grocery store,” Gray says, “just like a white person might feel uncomfortable when walking into an all-Black club. Except that the Black person may get shot, because there is a power imbalance in the mix. Just look at what happened to the young Black mother accused of shoplifting before she even left the Walmart store.”

See also: Protesters rally at Walmart in support of Santina Rao 

Meanwhile, any efforts by Gray to seek accountability have been unsuccessful.   

Questions emailed by Gray to HHB, about the process to lodge a racial profiling complaint, how many such complaints have been filed before, whether there is diversity training for staff, have not yet received a response. 

When the Nova Scotia Advocate asked similar questions earlier on we were told that “We believe this to be a matter between Mr. Gray and HHB.” 

“Things need to change in this province. I’d be happy if only one person who reads this story decides to speak up. Others will see that, and it will snowball,” Gray says. 

“The long and short of it is, if you’re a racist then you should be fired, And anyone who is condoning that atmosphere should be fired as well,” Gray says. “That would cut out all this bullshit talk about sensitivity training, counselling, and all these other stupid phrases that they use to cover up what’s actually going on.”

See also: Woman alleges racial profiling at Halifax store

The post “If you’re a racist then you should be fired” – Quest for accountability at Halifax Harbour Bridges continues appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – By way of introduction:  I was a professor at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax for 17 years. I taught in the Management Dept. of the Sobey School of Business. I have firsthand experience with the misogynist culture in the university. I’ve written this post because the rape culture, exposed at Western University last week, exists in Canadian universities. I’m looking at it in the context of Saint Mary’s University.

Y is for your sister

O is for oh so tight

U is for underage

N is for no consent

G is for grab that ass

SMU boys we like them young

This freshman chant went viral the first week of September 2013, when leaders of Frosh student week coached first year students at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax with these catchy words. Not special to Saint Mary’s University (SMU) students, this little jingle was meant to boost student spirit—despite its focus on degrading women and promoting nonconsensual sex. Four hundred 18-19 year old students (women too) sang this rape chant in the university’s gymnasium.

That same year, members of the SMU football team (the Huskies) were caught tweeting hate, racism and sexism online. Despite being “outed”, some players continued to tweet messages including this one: “That bitch bit me last night. Hope your[sic] dead in a ditch, you are scum.” As well as “Cut your face off and wear it while I’m fucking your mother” and “Bitch, get on your knees.” What about this retweet from another twitter account?  “School is like a boner, it’s long and hard unless you’re Asian”? Media reports at the time said that the university reacted by suspending between six and ten players from the Huskies team – but not from the university.

That was 8 years ago.

Just this week the media carried reports that more than 30 female students at Western University in  London, Ont. were sexually assaulted or raped in the first week of school. The student council leaders, and Western’s president don’t deny it.

It’s probably more than 30 women students now  — two weeks into the term. And we know this happens on every campus in Canada.

Farrah Khan, manager of the Office of Sexual Violence Support and Education at XX University (formerly Ryerson University in Toronto), warned that 71% of students experienced or witnessed unwanted sexualized behaviour in 2019.  Indeed, the Statistics Canada Survey on Individual Safety in Post secondary Student Population (2020) reveals a whole minefield of facts including these:

• 11% of post-secondary school women experienced at least one sexual assault during their previous year on campus
• 19% of women who were sexually assaulted said the non-consensual assault happened after they had first agreed to another form of sexual activity.
• 45% of students who identify as women, and 32% of those who identify as men experience at least one unwanted sexual behaviour in the context of their time at university or college
• 80% of women who experienced unwanted sexual behaviour said the perpetrator was a fellow student
• Only about 8% of women and 6% of men who experienced unwanted sexual behaviour ever reported it to a professor, or the university administration, or to security.

We also know that misogyny, racism, bullying and more are bound up in the culture of most universities. But why is that?

In the chapter I wrote “Rape Chant at Sant Mary’s University” in the 2017 book Sexual Violence at Canadian Universities, I state there are three phenomena that converged at Saint Mary’s to open the door to sexim and misogyny:

1. The business school culture

For the last 30 years business schools are “vanguard” faculties in many universities. By “vanguard” I mean the universities “crown” business schools as the biggest and/or the leading faculties.  This coincides with the unbridled growth of neo-liberalism and the rise of the “market” and consumerism which govern most people’s lives.

Business schools teach students how to make profits and prop up the capitalist system. Lately some business schools specialize in promoting the “entrepreneurial” culture in which there is little to no emphasis on the common good, group solutions or questioning authority.  Renowned McGill business studies professor Henry Mintzberg calls business school trained MBAs “a menace to society.” Business school education contributes to a competitive and winner takes all type of thinking, or “pedagogy of the privileged.”

The role of women in the business world is played down. In 2019, 24.5% of Financial Post top 500 corporate board seats were held by women — up from 22% in 2017. A BNN-Bloomberg report found that there were only 2 women CEOS in the top 100 most influential companies within the S&P/TSX Composite Index. 

Nowhere are there any target figures or quotas to enfranchise more womene. The fact that women are still under-representd on boards and in public appointments demonstrates that business education’s message to women students is: you probably won’t make it to the top. In fact, women are second rate.  

2. The sports culture

Many universities are known for their sports teams; to be frank, sports teams are a tool used to recruit more students.  Widespread academic research suggests that male varsity teams “may be consistent with pro-sexual violence attitudes and a culture that promotes, or at least does not discourage, sexualized violence.”  Anthropologist Peggy Reeves-Sanday echoes this when she writes that key elements of sexual assault on campus (also called rape culture are  “sex segregation, tolerance for violence and male dominance.”   The established link between varsity sport and sexual violence is concerning because many universities have a dozen or more teams. 

3. The drinking culture

Drinking is a big part of most students’ culture and socializing.  Drinking is often allowed in student residence rooms and at the student bars on campuses. Evidence is that the vast majority of sexual assault cases involve alcohol. One estimate is that almost 90% of Canadian university students drink alcohol, while 43% report drinking at least once a month.  Underage drinking is common. Binge drinking by students, and mixing alcohol with highly caffeinated energy drinks can lead to more “negative alcohol related consequences”  than using alcohol alone.

Researchers note that “When combined, the use of alcohol and/or drugs not only increases the likelihood of a sexual assault occurring but also works to decrease the perpetrator’s feelings of responsibility.” 

The prevalence of date rape drugs – drugs used to spike women’s drinks in bars and at parties– means women are left totally incapacitated and out cold.  Some women find themselves in their own or an empty hotel room when they finally wake up hours later.  One emergency room doctor at the QEII hospital in Halifax estimated he sees about two women in the ER who were subject to date rape drugs every month. He calculated that meant there were likely more than 20 cases of women who did not go to emergency. With 30 ER doctors on duty, that  figure could be as high 600 cases in a month. 

Every year the public waits to find out how serious sexual assault is in Frosh week activities. This year, the first shoe dropped at Western University with the news of sexual assaults on at least 30 young women over the first few days of classes. When will the other shoe drop? When will other universities be named – as doing little to nothing though every year women students and vulnerable students get attacked most often by male students.  Universities’ chief line of defense is that they will educate, warn  the students who live in on-campus residences, hire residence monitors and offer bystander training. But bystander training has been a “thing” for nearly a decade.  Yet we have not seen an appreciable decrease in sexual violence on campuses. Why is that? One reason could be bystander training is based on techniques to “change the channel” rather than confront the issue head-on.  For example, in by-stander training, people are taught to distract the perpetrator, or remove the person at risk.  By following the 3 D’s (Direct, Distract, Delegate) to safely intervene in a potentially violent situation, the technique is meant to de-escalate the situation.  But the situation still exists. The harasser, or the perpetrator, will just find another victim, and go after her. 

It is the culture that has to change. That change means there can be no tolerance for misogyny and devaluation of women in society as a whole.

Judy Haiven is on the steering committee of Equity Watch, an organization that fights discrimination, bullying and racism in the workplace.  Contact her at equitywatchns@gmail.com

The post Judy Haiven: University blues – this fall’s first two weeks of misogyny and sexual assault on campus… appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

Dear Premier Houston and Minister Masland,

I congratulate you both on the opportunity to serve all Nova Scotians.

I read Premier Houston’s mandate letter to Kim Masland, Minister of Public Works dated 14 September with concern. You write:

“As Minister of Public Works, you will:

Within the first 90 days of your mandate, prepare a timeline for completion of all tasks below over the next four years. The initial timelines are to be updated quarterly thereafter.

• Double the Gravel Road Reconstruction Program.
• Double the Rural impact Mitigation Fund.
• Honour road commitments made by the previous government in their five-year plan.
• Develop infrastructure to support the health system.
• Remove the tolls on the Cobequid Pass, starting the process immediately.
• Invest in new and expanded connections to HIAA from key strategic destinations and new destinations. Where possible, new cargo routes will also be extended with a primary focus on speed to market.
• Clearly enshrine in legislation a mandate that all new government buildings and any major renovation must be net-zero will help to decrease our GHGs over time.
• Ensure that new provincial buildings are net-zero and that all major provincial building retrofits will be low-carbon, reducing embodied carbon and ensuring 75% of domestic office floor space (new leases and lease renewals) will be in net-zero carbon climate resilient buildings starting in 2030.
• Within the first six months of your mandate, review the ownership of all non-essential assets by the province.”

There is no mention of:

• The need to meet the clear aims and requirements set out in the current Provincial Sustainable Transport Strategy.
• The Traffic Safety Act and associated Regulations, which remain a work in progress.
• Active Mobility.
• A current road safety crisis that disproportionately affects senior vulnerable road users.
• The need to urgently develop a provincial road safety strategy in conjunction with key road safety stakeholders.
• The need to reassess the decision to enable car travel and parking (instead of Park & Ride) for 90% of visitors to the Halifax Infirmary hospital site.
• The need to support a transition to sustainable and efficient mobility in urban areas that will address disproportionate and unsustainable levels of car use.
• How and why the current five year spending plan, likely requiring billions of dollars until 2026, should be reviewed due to a climate emergency, and emissions targets.

Transportation enables us to do the activities we need and want to do. Walking, biking, driving, and taking the bus help us get to work, to the market, to the doctor, and even out to the ocean to play. Transportation is essential to our quality of life, economic progress, and overall health. Over the last century, we have become increasingly dependent on one type of transportation: the automobile. The car has made our lives easier in many ways. It allows us to move quickly and travel much farther than was once possible. However, our current transportation system and patterns of land use development, which have been designed around the personal vehicle, need to change.

The above is not my words. This is introductory content from Nova Scotia’s current Sustainable Transportation Strategy, found on the NovaScotia website. 

I appreciate Nova Scotian travel is grounded in car use, even in urban areas where experts agree this is unsuitable and unsustainable. However, the Provincial sustainable transport strategy sets out comprehensive research-backed reasons why a shift in lifetime travel habits is needed, and how it can happen: By ensuring all infrastructure decisions and funding commitments are made using a sustainable transport lens.

It is difficult to understand how and why such a thoughtful and expertly written collaborative strategy has been sidelined. Perhaps established habits of investment and travel are too easy to maintain? The same old emphasis on highway twinning, parking lots, new roads and bridges remains the funding mainstay within the Liberal five year infrastructure plan, which you have chosen to honour.

The Sustainable Transport Strategy sets out an approach to infrastructure investment that a Government placing sustainability and fiscal responsibility at the centre of policy choices cannot afford to overlook. 

Investment that increases capacity for more cars will induce demand for more car use, creating a vastly more expensive and dangerous future for everyone. It requires the bulk of investment to be focused on creating and maintaining expanded road networks, preventing meaningful investment in an adequate network of public transport, bus and cycle lanes, sidewalks and frequent safe crosswalks. 

I fully anticipate a response outlining your limited commitments to cycle routes, a proposed new ferry route from Bedford, and multi-use trails used mainly for ATV’s or health and fitness. This is not adequate. Ireland has committed 70% of its transport funding to active mobility. Wales has announced a freeze on new road infrastructure investment due to the climate crisis. These are both countries with significant rural road networks, many which I am sure Nova Scotian traffic engineers would understand desperately require widening and improving. 

A commitment to the existing direction found within Nova Scotia’s sustainable transport strategy must be acknowledged as the appropriate orientation for transportation infrastructure that meets the needs of current and future Nova Scotians.

Opportunities to part-fund lasting change including Halifax’s bus rapid transit network cannot be overlooked or regarded as secondary in importance to Highway twinning or new roads. This is an investment with immense cost saving potential for generations of residents. With adaptations it can potentially also serve as a Park & Ride service for both downtown and the Halifax Infirmary hospital, thus preventing the need for car parking and road widening where there is least room and most expense involved.

With new governance, now is the right time to announce a fiscal review of the current spending commitments within the five year infrastructure plan. For the current budget year, the capital highway spend is expected to reach $500 million. By 2026, it will likely require billions of dollars. 

A review can be led through both a lens that acknowledges the relevance of the current sustainable transport strategy and by proposing a ground-breaking Provincial road safety strategy examining cost effective road safety strategies including alternatives to Highway twinning. I would welcome the opportunity to be involved, as I am sure would many residents, academics, experts, staff, stakeholders and professionals.

With best wishes

Martyn Williams

If you walk, cycle or use a wheelchair and are affected by road safety issues, please join HRM Safe Streets for Everyone. If your local crosswalk needs a crosswalk flag, please contact the Crosswalk Safety Society. Please remember to report issues affecting your safety to our municipal authorities using the 311 service.

The post Martyn Williams: Letter to Kim Masland, minister of Public Works, and Premier Tim Houston appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

(Halifax, NS)  Since our new government has made it clear that they are not interested in protecting tenants from unreasonable rent increases past the state of emergency, the ACORN Tenant Union is rallying to demand the government enact permanent rent control.

WHAT: Keep the Rent Cap!
WHEN: Thursday, September 23rd from 10am – ALL DAY
WHERE: Nova Scotia Legislature – 1726 Hollis St. Halifax, NS

Since the temporary rent cap was put in place, ACORN has been hearing stories and receiving rent increases from tenants whose landlords intend to raise rents after the cap lifts. “What we’re seeing is rent increases where the landlord says ‘Your rent is going up by the legal 2%, unless the state of emergency lifts in which case it will go up $100-$1000,” says Halifax-Peninsula Chair Hannah Wood. “We’ve seen rent increases like these for as much as $2000.”

Even though these rent increases are illegal, they have become common since the government made it clear they don’t intend to prosecute landlords who violate the 2% rent cap. 

Marjike Grijm, Chair of the Dartmouth chapter of ACORN, writes: “This isn’t just an issue with the downtown core, people are even getting priced out of traditionally affordable neighbourhoods like Highfield, where a one bedroom apartment can go for as much as $1200 these days.” She disputes claims that the housing crisis was caused by the pandemic, “We were in a crisis before COVID. Cost of living keeps skyrocketing, rents are skyrocketing, but our wages stay the same. Developments that go up in this city aren’t affordable units, and landlords bring up the rent knowing full well that tenants have no other option but to pay. If we don’t fight to keep a rent cap in place, tenants are going to keep getting priced out of the city and the province.”

– 30 – 

Nova Scotia ACORN is an organization of low- and moderate-income people and the largest tenant union in the province, fighting for affordable housing, a living wage, and better communities across Nova Scotia.

The post Media release: ACORN rallying to keep the rent cap appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – As we head towards a federal election, we’ll hear – as we do every 4 years or so – politicians pay lip service about access to dental care. To some of us, it may seem baffling that the bones in our mouths don’t receive the same consideration as the rest of our bones. Canadians take pride in our public health care system, so naturally we should also care about the health of our mouths.

Where we are today

Since dental care is not included in Medicare, people rely primarily on work related insurance and out of pocket payments to access care. In fact, 95% of dental spending in Canada is private and only 5% goes towards public dental programs. The share of public dental spending in Canada is even less than the US at 10% and not even close to the UK at 46%. Due to the current structure of dental care in Canada many people lack access to care.

In 2018, approximately 1 in 3 Canadians lacked any dental insurance and over 1 in 5 avoided the dentist due to financial constraints. For people who lack access to dental care, preventive and routine care is neglected in order to focus resources on dealing with pain and infection, which results in a population with poorer oral health. This has many consequences on individuals and society as a whole.

For individuals, poor oral health has been shown to cause or worsen many general health conditions including: cardiovascular disease, diabetes, having a low birth weight infant, aspiration pneumonia, erectile dysfunction, osteoporosis, metabolic syndrome and stroke. Further, having visible decay or missing front teeth can affect employability and one’s self esteem.

For society, there is increased healthcare spending for a society with poorer oral health. One reason for the increased spending on healthcare is due to the effects of poor oral health on overall health. Further, hundreds of thousands of Canadians end up in an emergency department each year seeking treatment for dental pain, a problem that is estimated to cost over $150 million per year.

Even before the pandemic, access to dental care in Canada was poor and getting worse. Due to changes in the economy, fewer people have dental insurance. Many people are retiring and losing work related dental insurance and an increasing number of people are working in the precarious ‘gig economy’ that does not provide benefits like dental insurance tied to their labour. With the financial hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, even more people are struggling to access dental care.

How we can implement it

The federal NDP has proposed a plan to provide dental insurance to uninsured families making $90,000 per year or less. The plan is desperately needed and is expected to help over 6 million Canadians with a cost of only $1.5 billion per year. Don Davies, the federal NDP health critic has stated that he sees this plan as an interim measure while we work towards integrating dental care into Canada’s universal health care system.

Ultimately Canadians need to confront the fact that dentistry is big business, with corporate ownership of dental clinics rapidly growing in Canada. Fortunately, confronting the profit motive in dental care will allow serious gains in public health.

Saskatchewan had a public dental program that ran out of schools in the 1970-80’s that  showed the benefit of taking the business end out of dentistry. The program used dental therapists which are providers that can do fillings and simple extractions at a fraction of the cost of a dentist.  Due to the easy accessibility of the clinics, the focus on prevention and cost efficient use of dental therapists the program was a huge success, lowering the need for fillings and extractions in children by half. Further dentists that worked in the program could focus on more complex procedures that only they were trained for. It is important to learn from this model and allow government funding to bring clinics like this into our communities. For example, with proper funding clinics like the North End Community Health Centre could be expanded to provide dental care to the community. Currently the clinic relies on local dentists to donate their time, but this is not enough to meet population needs. 

It is clear that the status quo for dental care is inadequate. Maintaining a minority parliament this election is an opportunity to start expanding Medicare to include services like dental care. When Medicare was originally implemented, it was with the intention of including dental care at a later date. Now, over half a century later, it is time to follow through with this vision.

Kevin Payne is the 2021 federal NDP candidate for the riding of Dartmouth-Cole Harbour. Brandon Doucet is a practicing dentist.

The post Luxury bones – Why we need universal dental care, and why it needs to be public appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

In the morning,
the police came;
although we were outside
rent was due

We were in tents
that’s one thing we had left
we weren’t on the sidewalks
it was a disquieting perspective yet
to have no roof left at all
to be homeless, hopeless.

The Halifax Police,
handed out fines:
$300 to pay, for illegal camping
when they weren’t for kicks
but for survival, these camps
we were refugees without fleeing our motherland
the weapons against us were rising costs
we were out of work, and rents unbound
had, with no foreboding, doubled or tripled.

We who had not
a family as a lifeboat
such good friends nearby
that we could have begged for a couch…
we who knew not where to go
were in the city parks.

In Peace and Friendship park
near where the cruise ships dock
or by the Waegwaltik
where the nice yacht clubs are
or in front of the empty old library
in the heart of downtown.

There, charities had placed shelters
plywood shacks, isolated against the cold
the friends who had been surviving there
for a couple of rough months
and, we too, got two days notice
they were from city hall, and barked “get outta here”
Where to go? God only knows!
We were there, not too joyous
but since we had no other solutions
and no one had any suggestions!
If the city didn’t like our resolution
they could at least give us another option!

If rents had stayed frozen
after hearing about housing crises for four or five years
if the empty buildings, numerous as they are
were turned into bunkhouses…
or if the infamous Shannon Park became
an affordable housing complex
instead of allowing for the city council
to fantasize about a football stadium…

The morning after two days of dread
the police came, told us to break camp
Our people, the more desperate ones
they were arrested
and the rest of us, where do we go?
To cardboard boxes on Spring Garden Road?

The city claims to have “tried to work with us”
we would like to work, but where’s the work at?
The city told us to leave, with no substitute to our misery
(not even a different misery, just as bleak)
no unemployment, no recruitment aid, no lodgings
“tried to work with us”, it’s the city’s way of saying
that it doesn’t stand by its actions.

Let Halifax admit “we don’t like to see bums”
the city could have kept the name “Cornwallis”
if it was all just to deport folk from the park
which is now called Peace and Friendship
pretty words, diplomatic language
Let Halifax admit that the city doesn’t give a damn
about solving social problems,
treating people with dignity
Let Halifax admit that the city’s actions
say “when you’re down, we’ll kick you down”.

In the morning of the 18th of August
Halifax police threw us out
of Peace and Friendship
and proceeded to emptying other parks
of all the “undesirable people”
who during a pandemic of lockdowns
lack of work, bills to pay
sunk
and got washed up
with a tent, and a backpack, on a public lawn
with no water, no showers, no heating, no washing, no toilets
and all that was taken from them
while in their ears they screamed :
“Go be homeless someplace else!”

Thibault Jacquot-Paratte started publishing poetry in 2010, has since published poetry, short stories, essays, and theatre in both English and French, in Canada, Europe and India. See his profile on the Writers Federation of Nova Scotia website.

Originally published in French in : Le courrier de la Nouvelle-Écosse, Aug. 27 2021. Poem translated from French by the author.

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