According to data gathered by journalists at the Globe and Mail, of all cases in the country, 12% of sexual assault cases were cleared as unfounded from 2010 to 2014. In Nova Scotia, in contrast, 25% of sexual assault cases were cleared as unfounded. The “Unfounded” classification means that police determined that the reported violation did not happen. Reporter Rebecca Hussman talks with the chiefs of police of the Truro, Amherst and Bridgewater detachments where the number of unfounded cases is exceptionally high. And we compiled a list with data from all police detachments in Nova Scotia.

Former Streat Feat writer Judy Deal on a great variety of topics that all have poverty in common. “We all should be treated with grace and dignity, no matter who one may seem. You can’t judge a book by its cover.”

New NS Advocate reporter Rebecca Hussman attended the opening of the Walking With Our Sisters memorial at the Mount Saint Vincent Art Gallery. “They were lights, even if their life circumstances were such, and there’s disregard for these women. But in there, that’s taken away, and they’re together, and the light shines there.”

Volunteers associated with the Ecology Action Centre and various naturalist groups conducted a “Bio Blitz” on the proposed route for the gas pipeline slated to supply the Alton Gas Storage project in Brentwood and crossing a wilderness area. It appears Alton Gas missed at least one wetland area.

Ten years after Nova Scotia enticed Triangle Petroleum to experiment with hydraulic fracturing for shale gas in Kennetcook, Hants County, the company walked away and it’s the province that is cleaning up the mess left behind. The province is unwilling to explain what deal it made.

A group of Haligonians headed out in the drizzle to Victoria Park last night to express their disapproval of the Kinder Morgan pipeline. In doing so they joined many others in similar events from coast to coast. Also very much on their mind were the water defenders of Standing Rock Sioux Reserve, where police violence seems to escalate by the day. Art Bouman reports.

Arguing in court that the Sipekne’katik Band is a conquered people and that therefore the duty to consult does not apply is exactly the wrong thing to do for the McNeil government, writes contributor Art Bouman. But he isn’t surprised, it’s all about money and fossil fuels.

Reporter Tim Blades wonders how come single parents on welfare see their child support clawed back in Nova Scotia, yet British Columbia has done away with the practice, and Ontario is soon to follow. And then there are some other policies that make the lives of single parents on welfare and their children particularly difficult, and sometimes even dangerous, Tim reports.