CBC newsmen Rob Gordon and Craig Paisley left Halifax for Haiti aboard HMCS Athabaskan January 14, but returned home Friday without setting foot on the island. It seems the journalists were confined to the warship because their required training for operating in dangerous environments was not up to date. Both men had received the five-day course, provided by U.K.-based AKE Integrated Risk Solutions, before traveling to Afghanistan several years ago, but their accreditation has expired. As a result, CBC brass ordered the men not to leave the ship. "It's analogous to a driver's licence," said CBC's Atlantic Regional Director Andrew Cochran. "If you...

31 January, 2010

O'Reilly, the world's largest publisher of tech books, decided in 2008 to remove digital rights management — copy prevention software — from its ebooks. The result? In the 18 months since, ebook sales are up 103%. Long Island's Newsday, the 11th-largest-circulation newspaper in the US, is one of the first non-business newspapers to put its website behind a pay wall — a step The New York Times and all of Rupert Murdoch's papers are said to be considering. The result? In three months, Newsday's $5-a-week website has attracted 35 paying subscribers. Hat tip: SP....

31 January, 2010

An apparently random swab test of Contrarian's new MacBook Pro at the Stanfield International Airport screening area this morning detected traces of nitroglycerin. The CATSA agent who conducted the test summoned a supervisor who explained, pleasantly, that the machine had triggered an alarm. She proceeded to check my identification and ask a series of questions about medication, chemicals, and hand creams. My negative answers turned up no obvious source of nitro, resulting in a further swab test of my iPhone, a complete physical check of every item in my carry-on bag, and a rigorous, 90% pat-down.* In all, my case drew upon...

30 January, 2010

Theresa Malenfant takes another little piece of Halifax's heart at Bearly's Friday night. ...

30 January, 2010

A former Parks Canada employee sends this comment on the prospects for Sable if Harper Environment Minister Jim Prentice succeeds in making it a National Park: I continue to have a great affection for this institution and its objectives...

28 January, 2010
For the on-line record, and thanks to Joey Schwartz's OCR magic, here is the start of the Sable MOU signed Monday, with the remainder after the jump. To download the official PDF version, click here and the unofficial Word version here.

MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING (hereinafter referred to as "MOU)

BETWEEN

HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN IN RIGHT OF CANADA AS REPRESENTED BY THE MINISTER OF THE ENVIRONMENT (hereinafter referred to as "CANADA")

AND

HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN IN RIGHT OF NOVA SCOTIA AS REPRESENTED BY THE MINISTER OF NATURAL RESOURCES (hereinafter referred to as "NOVA SCOTIA")

RESPECTING

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A FEDERAL PROTECTED AREA ON SABLE ISLAND IN THE PROVINCE OF NOVA SCOTIA WHEREAS Sable Island is a remote island located about 160 kilometres from mainland Nova Scotia near the edge of the continental shelf;

27 January, 2010

Canada and Nova Scotia signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the future of Sable Island Monday amidst considerable fanfare and media coverage.  Surprisingly, and unusually, the actual text of the agreement was not made public at the time. Normally such agreements are posted on government websites at the time of such announcements. Thanks to the communications folks at the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources, Contrarian has posted a copy which you can download here. [PDF file].* The MOU confirms that the process annouced Monday will unfold in two stages, only the second of which will involve the public. First, provincial and federal...

27 January, 2010

University of Wisconsin Journalism Professor Stephen J. A. Ward, who was founding chair of the Canadian Association of Journalists' ethics advisory committee, offers sensible guidelines for coverage of emotional stories like the Haitian earthquake [previous discussion here, here, and here]: The best disaster journalism is engaged and objectively tested journalism. Journalism based only on emotion can be incorrect or manipulated. Journalism based only on a studied neutrality is not only an inhuman attitude toward a disaster. It fails to tell the full story. A journalism of disasters is not a journalism of Olympian detachment. It is not a journalism fixated on stimulating...

27 January, 2010

Lots of developments in what promises to be a continuing thread here. The ineffable Zoe Lucas has started a discussion forum on the question of a National Park vs. National Wildlife Area on her wonderful Green Horse Society website, your definitive source for news and information about Sable. Discussions also continue on the Hands Off Sable Island Facebook Page, now approaching exceeding 500 members. At the department's initiative, I spoke this morning with Harold Carroll, Director of Parks for Nova Scotia Natural Resources, who explained that the consultation process announced Monday will unfold in two phases: First, federal and provincial authorities will review...

27 January, 2010
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