NS Federation of Labour president Danny Cavanagh on the forced ending of the postal workers rotating strikes: “I am shocked that our Liberal government has initiated back to work legislation for the workers at Canada Post. Remember that union members are your constituents.”
A Nova Scotia Human Rights enquiry reached a crucial stage last Wednesday after closing statements were delivered by the Province of Nova Scotia, the respondent in the case. If the enquiry chair finds that the way government deals with housing needs of people with disabilities is indeed discriminatory, then, and only then, will there be a second phase, to determine to what extent the Province must make changes in its policies and activities.
Uranium levels at the Harrietsfield Elementary School are seven times over the provincial guidelines, and kids aren’t supposed to drink tap water there. Understandably parents are very concerned. Rebecca Hussman, who has been covering the issue for the NS Advocate for years now, went to a public meeting to find out the latest. Scary stuff…
This is big! Together with the Nova Scotia College of Social Workers we are commissioning one in-depth story on a poverty-related topic. We want to hear from both professional writers and from people who write from lived experience. Thanks to the generous support of the NSCSW we are able to pay between $500 and $750, depending on the complexity of the topic and how experienced a writer you are. Send us your pitch!
Stacey Dlamini, mother of the young Black man shot with a high-velocity nail gun, writes about racism and complicity, “I wonder how the story might have turned out had someone on Nhlanhla’s crew said to the person who shot him, “Hey, why don’t you leave the kid alone?” What if they’d come up to Nhlanhla and said, “You know man, you don’t have to accept this kind of treatment. Let’s do something about it together.” What if someone had shown him some compassion or solidarity? Or even in the aftermath, some empathy? This experience would feel different for us.”
Community Services will pay for the cab for a person who is getting released from day surgery if the person cannot take the bus home. But finding someone to accompany you home who the hospital approves of is sometimes difficult, Kendall Worth reports.
Earlier this month anti-capitalist activist Chelsea Fougere, a member of the Campaign to Protect Offshore Nova Scotia, took part in a series of public panels on the risks of offshore drilling in Halifax and Mahone Bay. This is her powerful opening statement.
In September several MLAs from all three parties attended a screening of My Week on Welfare at the auditorium of the Nova Scotia Art Gallery in downtown Halifax. This is what Aron Spidle, who is featured in the documentary, told the MLAs. “When a friend asks me to do something with them, the first thing that occurs to me is to ‘how can I get out of this gracefully?’ because most of the time I cannot afford it.”
Kendall accompanies four friends who go shopping for Thanksgiving dinner. “I guess you can say that this story, along with my recent Thanksgiving story, show the amazing efforts people living in poverty sometimes make to keep themselves out of social isolation,” Kendall writes.
With Nova Scotia now officially the province with the lowest minimum wage in the country, some 100 folks gathered at Dalhousie University’s Killam Library this afternoon to demand a raise in the minimum wage, better working conditions altogether, as well as higher social assistance rates. Here is what community activist Lynn Jones told the protesters.