Thoughtful presentation by Larry Haiven to an all-party committee reviewing a proposal to eliminate capped property assessments in Nova Scotia. “Our fear is that, allowed to run free, tax assessment based on the vagaries of the market could seriously damage a wonderful, diverse and still-affordable neighbourhood,” said Haiven.
An energized Nova Scotia Federation of Labour is ready to take on the challenges of 2020. “We will take action on social issues like clean water on our First Nations Reserves, the environment and child poverty. We will vigorously oppose any anti-worker legislation that threatens free collective bargaining and will work to rid workplaces of sexual harassment and assault. We renewed our commitment to fight for a $15 minimum wage and Universal Pharmacare, and to oppose the privatization of public services,” writes president Danny Cavanagh.
A cowardly Human Rights Commission has rescinded the award Rana Zaman received last week after it was aleged that she is antisemitic. Rana is rightly critical of Israeli policies towards Palestine, but antisemitic she isn’t.
A bit of a book review, and an interview with Anne Bishop, who wrote the wonderful novel Under the Bridge, set in Halifax in the mid-nineties, one of these times in history when activism had real energy.
Within NATO countries, it is the military that is the largest institutional consumer of oil and largest emitter of greenhouse gases. And NATO countries spend billions on expensive weaponry that should be used to meet our climate change targets and help developing countries to meet theirs and adapt to climate-induced droughts, fires and flooding.
Yesterday Community Services announced its full package of changes to income assistance to be implemented on December 27. Unfortunately, inflation ensures that most people will be poorer than they were a year before even after the raise kicks in. It’s a horrible thing.
“Things move slowly, but change comes, and it comes from us,” somebody said at yesterday’s rally against the warmongering Halifax International Security Festival. Here are some photos, and a poem by El Jones.
Historian Martha Walls takes a closer look at the establishment of the Shubenacadie Residential School as an effort by the state to deflate Indigenous People’s resistance in the region.
Kendall Worth meets with Alec Stratford of the NS College of Social Workers.They talk about income assistance, Community Services, and social isolation, among other things.
Scott Neigh does such a wonderful job highlighting activist work all across Canada. Whenever his podcast Talking Radical touches upon Nova Scotia he generously allows the Advocate to share. Here is Scott talking about the Halifax Workers Action Centre with Sakura Saunders and NS Advocate writer Lisa Cameron.