An African Nova Scotian wish list for 2019
Raymond Sheppard on what would make 2019 a better year than 2018.
Raymond Sheppard on what would make 2019 a better year than 2018.
This morning the Halifax Board of Police Commissioners got a preview of a report and recommendations about police checks and race, and it’s all super secret. Not good, I say.
Congrats to Louise Delisle and the South End Environmental Injustice Society (SEED)! I learned a lot about activism and rural Nova Scotia from listening to them. We posted this same news release yesterday, but with a photo that is no longer current. We are reposting with a current photo of Louise and her fellow SEED members, with apologies.
Nova Scotia landlords openly flout the law and families with children suffer the consequences. And nobody within the provincial bureaucracy seems to give a damn.
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.
Paul Vienneau is one of the accessibility advocates who successfully challenged the government’s refusal to enforce health and safety regulations when it comes to accessible washrooms. After a long battle with the Human Rights Commission there finally was a human rights tribunal, and in September they won their case. Just this Friday the government announced that it accepts the decision. Paul is NOT impressed.
Warren (Gus) Reed is one of the successful complainants in a recent human rights case that considered the province’s refusal to enforce accessible washrooms in restaurants. Here Reed looks back on the tribunal in all its absurdity. “It is typical of the provincial authorities not to exercise any creative economic thinking. Accessibility calls for new approaches and less whining!,” writes Reed, who pulls out a calculator himself. The money spent on government lawyers could have been spent so much wiser.
News release: Barely 24 hours after her Media Conference yesterday, Kathy Symington received an email from the NS Human Rights Commission (NSHRC). The NSHRC has decided to refer her entire complaint as it relates to Gender, Disability and Retaliation to a Board of Inquiry.
Judy Haiven reports on the case of Kathy Symington, a former Halifax firefighter whose quest for justice has been denied by the NS Human Rights Commission. “I’ve waited 16 years for justice,” Symington said. “The Commission is not accountable and not listening. I deserve to have my case properly investigated.”
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.