NSHRC Archives - Nova Scotia Advocate

Judy Haiven: Questions remain in Halifax Fire gender discrimination human rights case

October 18, 2019 0 Comment

Last week a Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission Board of Inquiry decided that former firefighter Kathy Symington did not suffer discrimination while working at the Halifax Fire Service.

“In fact the Tessier case shows that for a woman to complain about a male-dominated workplace, such as the Fire Service, the woman has to be willing to fight for more than a dozen years, has to have an airtight complaint, witnesses, and certainly not criticize her superiors. Short of this, women are simply not believed.,” writes Judy Haiven.

In historic vote Town of Truro vows to get serious about repairing the damage of racism

October 9, 2019 2 Comments

A broad and sweeping joint effort to repair relations between the Town of Truro and the African Nova Scotian community in that town is lauded as a historical event, not just for Truro or Nova Scotia, but perhaps even for Canada.

Restorative injustice: Still waiting for accessible restaurant washrooms one year after human rights decision

July 31, 2019 0 Comment

In a decision issued a year ago a Nova Scotia Human Right Board of Inquiry ordered the Department of the Environment in no uncertain terms to enforce food safety regulations that make it mandatory for restaurants to provide wheelchair-accessible washrooms. Almost a year later plaintiffs are still waiting for actual changes.

Podcast: Fighting the institutionalization of disabled Nova Scotians

July 24, 2019 0 Comment

Scott Neigh, of the excellent Talking Radical podcast, interviews Marty Wexler and Claire McNeil about the fight against institutionalization in Nova Scotia and the appalling Human Rights tribunal decision (which is being appealed).

National groups to join human rights legal fight on behalf of people with intellectual disabilities

June 20, 2019 1 Comment

A little bit of good news for anybody wants people labelled as living with intellectual disabilities to have better access to community-based housing options in Nova Scotia.

Coalition seeks to appeal human rights decision on community living

June 18, 2019 0 Comment

The Disability Rights Coalition is seeking to appeal a Human Rights Board of Inquiry decision that found that people with intellectual disabilities face no systemic discrimination in terns of housing needs.

Human rights vs. the City’s Human Resources department—will Newspeak win in the Kathy Symington tribunal?

June 3, 2019 0 Comment

Judy Haiven attends the human rights tribunal for former firefighter Kathy Symington, and hears more corporate HR jargon in a couple of days than during her entire career teaching HR at St. Mary’s.

Robert Wright on the Wortley report: Street checks are illegal and should be banned

March 27, 2019 0 Comment

Robert Wright’s full response to the Wortley report, as delivered at this morning’s press conference at the Central library on Spring Garden Road. Robert Wright spoke on behalf of the African Nova Scotian Decade for People of African Descent Coalition (DPAD), one of the organizations that long ago demanded a moratorium on the racist practice of police street checks.

Racist street checks are a white silence problem

March 27, 2019 2 Comments

There is nothing in Wortley’s report about police street checks we didn’t know, or could not have known, or should not have known before. Sure makes you wonder…

After partial win in human rights case, coalition wants affected people to file human rights complaints

March 26, 2019 0 Comment

The Disability Rights Coalition is collecting signatures to an open letter to Premier Stephen McNeil, asking his government to stop warehousing people with disabilities and focus on investing in community living options instead. Alternatively, the group is asking people who are institutionalized and/or waiting for a community living space to file an individual human rights complaint.