Media release: Valent Legal recently filed two civil lawsuits with the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia against a Wendy’s restaurant (the Defendant) located in Sydney, Nova Scotia. The lawsuit alleges that Wendy’s was negligent in failing to protect female employees from repeated sexual assaults by a supervisor.
Anne Bishop reviews Through the elephant ears, by MJ Dominey, and she likes it a lot. “If you grew up in a small town, anywhere, but particularly in Cape Breton, and particularly on the wrong side of the tracks, Through the Elephant Ears will go straight to your heart. If you grew up elsewhere, it will open your heart to the scary and complicated path young women living in poverty must travel on the way to adulthood and how it sticks to them for life.”
Ian MacIntosh, a much loved resident of Sydney, Cape Breton, was struck while crossing legally on a signalized intersection crosswalk outside the Cape Breton Regional hospital on George Street by a driver turning left. He died one week later, aged 66. Martyn Williams takes a closer look at what happened and what lessons we should learn. “This accident should never have happened,” Ian’s widow Kathryn (Kathy) MacIntosh tells Martyn.
There’s a very nice little book out about the coal miners’ (and steel workers’) fight against greedy and heartless corporations in early twentieth century Cape Breton. What’s especially great about it is that author Joanne Schwartz wrote it for kids, not the really young ones I guess, but say the 10 to 15 year olds. Nimbus, the publisher, suggests children as young as 7 may go for it.
Media release: At 2pm today, the Cow Bay Environmental Coalition and their local MLA Brian Comer will meet with NS Minister of Environment and Climate Change Keith Irving to address the low frequency noise and methane pollution from the ventilation fans at the Donkin Mine. The coalition is composed of dozens of families impacted since the coal mine ceased operations in 2020.
A proposed Cape Breton clearcut within an area designated as a marten habitat management zone has been downgraded to a less impactful commercial thinning. “Nova Scotians should feel encouraged by this,” says Adam Malcolm, a Cape Breton naturalist who first raised the alarm. “Their voice really can in some cases make a difference.”
Danny CAvanagh: On Tuesday, the CEO of the J.A. Douglas McCurdy Sydney Airport said they have received notification Air Canada flights to Toronto and Halifax will be cut effective Jan. 11, 2021, and the local Jazz aviation station will be closed until further notice. This is a devastating blow to Cape Breton residents, workers and businesses.
First the mainland moose, and now the American martens. Naturalists in Cape Breton are concerned that a proposed clearcut within an area which the Department of Lands and Forestry (DLF) has designated as a marten habitat management zone will further threaten the local marten population.
“How many more children are going to be left behind before we will make it our collective priority to end child poverty,” JoAnna LaTulippe-Rochon asks in a presentation on child poverty in Cape Breton. She speaks of parents living in rat-infested homes, skipping meals in order to feed their children.
In mid-October, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) seized around 200 lobster traps from Mi’kmaq fishers in Unama’ki (Cape Breton, Nova Scotia). “It’s a struggle for them. They’re not making a lot of money, but it’s not about the money,” Bernadette Marshall told Robin Tress “It’s about the treaty right, and we’ve waited long enough.”