KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – Yesterday, I went to a local Tim Horton’s.

I wanted to find out if anything had changed since my article three years ago here.

At that time, I found out that at least one Tim’s location didn’t give the workers the requisite 3 minutes off at 11 in the morning to commemorate Remembrance Day.

The three minutes off is part of the punitive Remembrance Day Act in Nova Scotia.  The Act also demands that every shop, supermarket, service, and store close for the day.  However, businesses which are closed do not have to pay their workers a cent of pay for the holiday.  And for Tim’s and other restaurants or bars that are allowed to remain open, staff work at regular pay and are allowed off another day off with pay. But before you get too excited, know that to get another day off with pay, the employee has to have worked for pay for 15 of the last 30 days.  So employers make sure to schedule staff for Remembrance Day  who have worked less than 15 days in the last month.  Read my article here.

Well this Remembrance Day when I visited a local Tim’s, I met the manager, a pleasant and lively woman.  She assured me she had signs ready to post and planned to close the drive-thru window just before 11.

Sure enough, she taped signs to the glass doors, and one to the drive-thru window. It was particularly outrageous to see these words on the signs: “…Remember all of the men and women who sacrificed their lives for our freedom.” Really? What freedom? Somehow it’s OK to insist — as the Americans falsely do –when they claim they fought for everyone else’s freedom. The manager corralled the handful of workers to stand behind the till, hands clasped neatly in front of them.  For three minutes, a tinny version of the Last Post blared from someone’s iphone.

True no one had to serve a customer; true the employees stopped pouring hot drinks, squirting cream and grabbing donuts.  However I must have been dreaming if I thought management would allow even a second in that three minutes for a staff member to sit down and gulp a coffee.  They weren’t even allowed to stand and drink one.

Judy Haiven is on the steering committee of Equity Watch, an organization that fights discrimination, bullying and racism in the workplace.  Contact her at equitywatchns@gmail.com

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KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – Honouring all victims of war anywhere – not excluding the military, but very much including civilians, women, children, refugees, hospital workers, animals, and the environment –  members of the Nova Scotia Voice of Women for Peace placed a wreath of white poppies at the Grand Parade cenotaph in Halifax this afternoon.

“The majority of victims of any war are civilians,” said Sandy Greenberg. “And then there is the environmental destruction, the air, the water, the earth, the animals.” 

Groups who want to broaden the scope of Remembrance Day use the white poppy as a symbol to express that message.  

“We also do this to inspire people to action, to not do things like spend $19 billion on fighter jets,” Kathrin Winkler said.

Last year the group held a city-approved Remembrance Day ceremony at Point Pleasant Park.

However, this year HRM did not grant approval for the brief event, claiming it never allowed any ceremony but the one organized by the Royal Legion at 11 AM. 

In stark contrast, the City of Vancouver shows its support for an identical event in that city by waiving event permit fees and by providing a wreath of its own for the ceremony.

Please join the group for song and a virtual Peace Poppy Wreath laying ceremony. People who attend can share thoughts in conversation with speakers Dr. Afua Cooper and Dr. Maya Evans. Register here. 

See also: Photo view: Remembering all victims of war at Point Pleasant Park

With a special thanks to our generous donors who make publication of the Nova Scotia Advocate possible.

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The post News brief: Group lays white poppy wreath at Halifax cenotaph appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

In Nova Scotia Remembrance Day has its own act, because it is not a “general paid holiday” under Labour Standards and it’s not a “designated closing day.”

Then what is it – apart from the remembrance of World War I and II?  It is a punitive holiday day because many Nova Scotians must forego pay.  That week your pay cheque will be 20% lighter than it was for a 5-day week.  Also the Act stipulates that no bar can open before 12 noon on Remembrance Day.

If you work in retail or in the service sector, Wednesday, Nov. 11 will be a day off for you.  That is because the law requires shops in malls, big box stores, major grocery stores, liquor stores and other retail venues to be closed.  You get the day off – but without pay!

Who gets a day off with pay?

However if you work at a bar or a restaurant which does open, or you work in a gas station, a shop with fewer than 3 staff, or a pharmacy – you may have to work that day.  If you do work, you get paid (straight time) for the day of work plus you get an extra day off with pay.  That is — only if you work Remembrance Day AND you worked for pay 15 of the last 30 days.

Confused? You are meant to be!

Like Labour Standards in NS, the Remembrance Day Act is also full of exceptions.

Farm workers are exempt, so are those who work in bakeries, fish and meat processing plants, dairy production, logging, aquaculture and even newspaper publishing.  Of course hospital workers, police and those who work in fire services are exempt too.  But they have unions which often negotiate premium pay for their members who works Remembrance Day.

If you’re lucky enough to be in a union or covered by a collective agreement, most collective agreements designate Nov. 11 as a holiday like other statutory holidays. 

If you work at Tim’s, at 10.59 am you do get 3 minutes off with pay

There is a small reprieve for everyone who does have to work on Nov. 11—such as those who work in coffee shops like Tim Horton’s.  The Remembrance Day Act calls for your boss to “suspend operations for 3 minutes starting at 10:59 am on November 11”—that means you do get a 3 minute break.  Still it’s probably not long enough for you to drink a coffee.

Judy Haiven is on the steering committee of Equity Watch, an organization that fights discrimination, bullying and racism in the workplace.  Contact her at equitywatchns@gmail.com

With a special thanks to our generous donors who make publication of the Nova Scotia Advocate possible.

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KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – Some fifty people gathered at beautiful Point Pleasant Park this Remembrance Day afternoon for a moving ceremony to honour all victims of war anywhere – civilians, women, children, refugees, hospital workers, animals, and the environment.

The event, modeled on a similar event in Vancouver, was organized by the venerable Nova Scotia Voice of Women for Peace, a group that has been working for peace here seemingly forever.

“It’s good to remember the other victims of war. At least 80% of casualties of war are women and children, this is true for everywhere and across the board,” said Halifax poet laureate Afua Cooper, who also performed one of her stunning poems. 

“We must hold our governments accountable. It’s our tax dollars that are being used  to wage war, our own money, money that could be used for daycare, to end poverty, to give everyone in Canada and elsewhere a decent life,” said Cooper.  

Folk singer Sandy Greenberg performed some anti-war songs,and many people sang along.  

People laid wreaths featuring white poppies on behalf of forgotten victim groups, including refugees, women, medical and aid workers, children, conscientious objectors, civilian and military PTSD sufferers, child soldiers and veterans for peace.

Also very much included in today’s ceremony was the environment, or Mother Earth, another innocent victim of war and recognized as such with her own wreath.   

“The white poppy serves to recognize the victims of conflict and war that largely remain unrecognized, civilians, refugees, child soldiers, medical and aid workers. The list is endless, also because the harm frequently is intergenerational. Finally the white poppy is an expression of hope to promote and to create a culture of peace,” said Kathrin Winkler, speaking on behalf of the organizing Voice of Women. 

Maria José Yax-Fraser, an activist on behalf of refugees, spoke movingly about all these vulnerable and innocent victims of war. 

“A culture of peace can only be built by recognizing all the human suffering and losses, as well as the social, cultural and environmental devastation created by war in its many forms,” said Yax-Fraser. 

“In the so-called struggles of good against evil it is always the people who get killed. Each time a new war is started in the name of the fight of good against evil, those who get killed are the poor. Each time a war is started in the name of good against evil, it is the bodies of women and girls, and sometimes the bodies of men and boys that pay the price,” she said. 

See also: Halifax Remembers Peace: K’jipuktuk 2019 – A Remembrance Day ceremony with a difference

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Nothing like a good anti-war poem the way they used to write them, especially on Remembrance Day, and local poet Charlie Toth delivers. More about Charlie and his new book of poetry here.

See also: Halifax Remembers Peace: K’jipuktuk 2019 – A Remembrance Day ceremony with a difference

With a special thanks to our generous donors who make publication of the Nova Scotia Advocate possible.

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The post Sea of poppies, a poem by Charlie Toth appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – This Remembrance Day there will be a ceremony with a difference in Point Pleasant Park.

Halifax  Remembers Peace: K’jipuktuk 2019 commemorates refugees and other civilian casualties of war. As many as 90% of casualties in modern wars are civilians. The ceremony also serves as a reminder of the environmental damage caused by wars.

So as not to interfere with traditional Remembrance Day ceremonies the event will start at 3 PM. 

“It’s a historic event in that this will be the first time for us to have this take place in Halifax, says Kathrin Winkler, one of the organizers. 

“By highlighting war’s devastating effect on civilians and the environment, we challenge governments to count all the costs before seeking military solutions to complex human problems,” states a press release issued by the organizing Nova Scotia Voice of Women for Peace. 

“The Voice of Women for Peace has for a long time supported the White Poppy for Peace initiative. It’s our position that there are many unrecognized victims of war, and where’s the space for them? The narrative needs to be broadened,” says Winkler.

“This is about the gamut of civilian casualties that ripples outwards, refugees, children, mothers, victims of ecocide, and so on,” she says.

The Halifax Remembers Peace event will include music and a presentation by poet laureate, Dr. Afua Cooper. Wreaths will be laid to recognize often overlooked victim groups, including refugees, women, medical and aid workers, children, conscientious objectors, civilian and military PTSD sufferers, child soldiers and veterans for peace. 

This is not in competition with the traditional ceremony, but we do want to counteract the narrative of the patriarchal military complex, a narrative that does not offer space for talking about peace, Winkler explains.

“The old structures and traditions that we are clinging to have gotten us where we are today,” Winkler says. “Now we are in a climate emergency, and really everything has to change.”

Halifax  Remembers Peace: K’jipuktuk 2019, November 11, 2019, 3pm. Point Pleasant Park, at the Gazebo. Facebook event here.

With a special thanks to our generous donors who make publication of the Nova Scotia Advocate possible.

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KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – In Nova Scotia Remembrance Day has its own act, because it is not a “general paid holiday” under Labour Standards and it’s not a “designated closing day.” 

Then what is it – apart from the remembrance of World War I and II? It is a punitive holiday day because many Nova Scotians must forego pay. That week your pay cheque will be 20% lighter than it was for a 5-day week.  Also the Act stipulates that no bar can open before 12 noon on Remembrance Day. 

If you work in retail or in the service sector, Monday, Nov. 11 will be a day off for you. That is because the law requires shops in malls, big box stores, major grocery stores, liquor stores and other retail venues to be closed. You get the day off – but without pay! 

However if you work at a bar or a restaurant which does open, or you work in a gas station, a shop with fewer than 3 staff, or a pharmacy – you may have to work that day. If you do work, you get paid (straight time) for the day of work plus you get an extra day off with pay. That is only if you work Remembrance Day AND you worked for pay 15 of the last 30 days.

Confused? You are meant to be! 

Like Labour Standards in Nova Scotia, the Remembrance Day Act is also full of exceptions. 

Farm workers are exempt, so are those who work in bakeries, fish and meat processing plants, dairy production, logging, aquaculture and even newspaper publishing. Of course hospital workers, police and those who work in fire services are exempt too. But they have unions which often negotiate premium pay for their members who works Remembrance Day.

If you’re lucky enough to be in a union or covered by a collective agreement, most collective agreements designate November 11 as a holiday like other statutory holidays. For example, if you work as a clerk at Saint Mary’s University, since November 11 falls on a Monday, the university is closed that day. Thank your union for providing you the day off with pay. 

There is a small reprieve for everyone who does have to work on November 11—such as those who work in coffee shops like Tim Hortons. The act calls for your boss to “suspend operations for 3 minutes starting at 10:59 am on November 11”—that means you do get a 3 minute break. Still, it’s probably not long enough for you to drink a coffee.

Judy Haiven is on the steering committee of Equity Watch, an organization that fights discrimination, bullying and racism in the workplace.  Contact her at equitywatchns@gmail.com

With a special thanks to our generous donors who make publication of the Nova Scotia Advocate possible.

Subscribe to the Nova Scotia Advocate weekly digest and never miss an article again. It’s free!

The post Judy Haiven: Remembrance Day, the punitive holiday appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

Such was the case of Lionel Desmond, an African Nova Scotian who after two stints in Afghanistan suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and faced consistent anti-Black racism. It is important to understand that this racism has been contributing factor to his PTSD.

In 2017, Lionel Desmond, a young African Nova Scotian from the small community of Lincolnville and living in the Borden family home in Upper Big Tracadie, took his own life after he shot and killed his mother Brenda, 52, his wife Shanna, 31, and their 10-year-old daughter Aaliyah.  

Lionel was a member of the Canadian Armed Forces and served in Afghanistan in 2007 with the 2nd battalion Royal Canadian Regiment’s India company. That tour of duty was said to be the bloodiest of the Canadian Military’s combat mission with many casualties as a result of the gruesome guerrilla campaign of the Taliban.

In Lionel Desmond’s case racism has emerged as a parallel narrative in the discussion over PTSD.  Many family members, friends and others who have served in the CAF believe he also suffered from Post Traumatic Slavery Disorder (PTSD2). Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome refers to the legacy of enduring injury and pain activated and exacerbated by continuous incidents of racism and the resulting trauma.

See also: Raymond Sheppard: The role of racism in the Lionel Desmond case

As you know, PTSD is a mental health condition that is most often triggered by experiencing or witnessing a terrifying event. Symptoms may include flashbacks, nightmares, panic attacks, thought of suicide and severe anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event itself.

Most individuals suffering from PTSD have difficulty adjusting and coping, but over time and with good self-care, treatment and mental health care many will recover. Yet symptoms can become worse and last for years, interfering with daily living and affecting the quality of life. This is why immediate mental health treatment and services are so important. 

Keep in mind that mental health issues do not necessarily show on the outside of the individual like other medical conditions. Equally, when one goes overseas to fight battles on behalf of Canada with the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), they should not come back to Canada and Nova Scotia having to fight subsequent battles for justice and access to proper medical treatment.

During this Remembrance Day, let’s leave it up to the experts in PTSD and PTSD2 before we judge the actions of Lionel Desmond. Equally, let’s try to get our minds around what Lionel might have gone through in Afghanistan and within the Canadian Armed Forces.

The Government of Canada and the Canadian Constitution states that the “ The Constitution prescribes which powers – legislative, executive and judicial – may be exercised by the different organs of the state and sets limits on those powers. It also describes how powers will be distributed among the national and provincial governments. 

The Constitution Act, 1867, makes several references to Defence. Section 15 gives the command-in-chief of the land and naval militia, and of all naval and military forces of Canada to the Queen; Subsection 91(7) states that the legislative authority of Parliament extends to the militia, the military and naval service, and defence.

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms provides guarantees that are subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society. The fundamental freedoms are those of: conscience and religion; thought, belief, opinion and expression (including the press and media); peaceful assembly; and association. 

The Charter prescribes basic rights for individuals related to: democratic government; mobility in Canada; legal matters; equality regarding race, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability; and minority language education. 

Canadians who decide to join the Canadian Armed Forces do so to serve their country, and therefore in turn the Government of Canada, the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces must show their commitment to serve these brave women and men. I believe they have a duty to improve and expand the services they provide veterans and members of the Canadian Forces and their families.

When it concerns African Nova Scotians/ African Canadians it seems legal rights are not prescribed, nor is there equality regarding race or mental disability. 

The Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces are the largest federal government departments, yet their attention to mental health, pain and suffering, and the occurrence of racism is lacking.

So, on November 11, 2019, please remember all sacrifices made on behalf of Canada, lest we forget.

See also: Raymond Sheppard: Stop delaying the Lionel Desmond enquiry!

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The post Raymond Sheppard: On Remembrance Day and the gaps in supports exposed by the Lionel Desmond case appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

I’m writing this short piece not because I’m tired of being looked at like an ungrateful recipient of European enlightenment (though I am), but because I realize that for most people raised on the textbook understanding of world history, it’s not intuitive why I (and many others) aren’t interested in participating in Remembrance Day.

I have no qualms with people remembering their relatives who fell, but if we’re seriously interested in in the project of peace, we need to be more truthful about world history.

The outbreak of World War 1 is historicized as the end of a hundred years of peace, but for whom? Relative peace in Europe meant the externalization of European violence on the colonial world. The collapse of that peace with the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand represents an extension of European imperial hubris. We must ask ourselves, how many millions of Africans and Asians died for nothing more than European imperial competition in the so-called “peaceful” 19th century? And that says nothing of the millions of colonial soldiers ordered to fight in the imperial wars of the early 20th century as second-rate human beings, only to return home with their throats firmly under the boot of imperialism.

In the wake of Canada 150 and its grotesquely uncritical engagement with the fact that the last 150 years represents one of the darkest periods of Indigenous history across the continent, we must do better than remain mired in imperial nostalgia. Next year, we’re going to go through this again because it’ll be the 100th anniversary of the Treaty of Versailles — a treaty so poorly thought through that it all but set the stage for World War 2. I hope that when that happens, we also take time to remember how the Allies rewarded India’s contribution of 1.3 million soldiers that got them to Versailles by trapping innocent men, women, and children at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar for the crime of peacefully organizing for independence from colonial rule. Colonel Reginald Dyer ordered them all shot, and did not end his assault on these non-violent organizers until his troops ran out of ammunition.

I am empathetic to the noble pursuit of peace and also to the many overlapping reasons so many people choose to wear a poppy. I used to dress in black and volunteer wherever I could to play the Last Post for Remembrance Day when I was a teenager. I even tried twice to join the reserves, and they never called me back. I started thinking differently about Remembrance Day around that same time — 2003 — because in that context the poppy was being mobilized as a justification for the invasion of Iraq by a new group of Allies, a “Coalition of the Willing,” who senselessly set in motion a chain of events that could have been avoided if the anti-war message of the poppy still meant what it was supposed to.

So remember your dead with a poppy if you care to, but keep in mind that when I refuse to wear one, it’s because I’m remembering mine.

Ajay Parasram, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the Departments of International Development Studies & History, Dalhousie University, K’jipuktuk (Halifax)

The post Ajay Parasram: Lest We Forget Empire appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – I was in Uncommon Grounds on South Park St for a coffee on Remembrance Day morning. When I went to the counter, I asked the staff if they knew they had to be given another day off, with pay since they were working on Remembrance Day.  One server told me they were getting double pay for today, so that would be in lieu of another day off with pay. I didn’t quibble.

At about 10.57 am, one of the employees from behind the counter spoke out loudly, “Can I have your attention please?” Everyone in the coffee shop stopped to listen. He asked patrons to close their laptops, and not use their phones because the next three minutes were going to be silent in honour of the people who lost their lives in the two world wars. Everyone stood exactly as they were – I sat silently with a friend; another woman stood in line to get a coffee refill. No one seemed to look at a screen. One person walked into the café, and stood still when he saw everyone else was not moving. The three baristas also did not move. After the three minutes, the man behind the counter thanked everyone for their respect.

As I wrote earlier this week, the three minutes of silence around 11.00 is in the Remembrance Day Act,  as is giving working staff an extra day off with pay – if they work on Remembrance Day. I congratulate Uncommon Grounds – they did something right!!

See also: Remembrance Day in Nova Scotia – Why you might not get paid

Judy Haiven is a retired Industrial Relations Professor at St Mary’s. She is a founding member of Equity Watch, which can be found on Facebook.

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