Not surprisingly, yesterday's Contrarian post on the furore over Rehtaeh Parsons' death has produced a lot of email, pro and con. Much of the angry reaction appeared on Twitter, where Contrarian tweets as @kempthead. Before sampling the reader response, two important preliminaries: What Rehtaeh's family has been through this week is about as awful as human experience gets. They have been loyal in support of their daughter, and courageous in their rejection of vigilante action against those accused of abusing her. Whatever one's views on the issues I raised, compassion for this family ought to be universal. As I said yesterday,  if you or...

12 April, 2013

Our pal Colin May will argue with anyone — even an astrophysicist. He writes: You can push on a string. Freeze it...

02 July, 2012

Former health inspector Bill Bailey writes: Kudos to Lindsay. Unfortunately, because politicians’ skin is made from elephant hide, they will probably take it as a compliment. And a Halifax reader notes that this week's Rona flyer features "eco friendly" Milorganite, at $7.79 for a 16.3 kg bag, "for better results NATURALLY." As noted previously, Milorganite is the great-granddaddy of recycled, composted municipal sludge. So it's OK to spread Milwaukee's venerable composted sludge on Halifax vegetable gardens, but heaven forfend we use Halifax's modern stuff on municipal flower beds. And one more. Colin May writes: Reminds me of the arguments against incineration  20 years ago: "Heavy...

30 May, 2011

Colin May responds to Parliamentary expert Peter Russell: My quibble with Peter Russell can be summed up as follows: "Never confuse parliamentary democracy with democracy." Apparently if a party has a majority of seats but a minority of votes: It's OK to withhold information that helps the members make a decision, if the members of the majority party vote to refuse to provide the information. And it's OK to withhold the Afghan detainee files or any information required by the minority of the members because the Russell doctrine of Parliamentary Supremacy overrides the democratic rights of the majority of the citizenry. Mr. Russell's fears...

01 May, 2011

http://contrarian.ca/2011/02/13/spirit-place-how-about-atheist-heights-instead/ Contrarian readers are sharply divided about plans to build a seven-storey old people’s apartment where St. James United Church now stands. (My own misgivings here.) First the Cons: Liz Cunningham, owner of a Charles Street creperie just down the street from the proposed apartment complex, writes: Finally somebody who sees through the smokescreen, holier than though, social justice, inclusive "nonsense." St John's United Church is a developer first and foremost. They are seeking variances on lot coverage, height, density, etc, etc, etc. That is all we should be talking about. My hat’s off though to Louisa Horne and the rest of that group. They...

26 February, 2011

A diesel-powered Pete's Frootique truck idles unattended on Doyle Street in Halifax Saturday morning, needlessly spilling volatile organic compounds into the crisp spring air. Update: Contrarian reader Colin May points out: Parked on the wrong side of the street, in a no parking zone, too close to a stop sign. Three strikes and you're...

13 March, 2010

A highly scalable map [5 meg .pdf] of offshore wind farm installations in northwestern Europe shows how far behind Canada is in exploiting this renewable energy source. The map detail at right is a static screen capture, at far less than maximum enlargement. (The map is reminiscent of various offshore petroleum maps of Nova Scotia's, an example of which can be downloaded here [400-k .pdf].Hat tip: Colin May....

28 November, 2009

Question: What's the name of the school at Dalhousie that trains lawyers? You may be surprised to learn, as I was, that it's no longer Dalhousie Law School. Following a $20-million gift from Ontario businessman Seymour Schulich, it officially became The Schulich School of Law on October 15. Haligonian Warren Reed runs the numbers: In 2004-5, the total Dal budget seems to have been around $200 million—all but $13 million coming from government grants and tuition payments. One could doubtless find more recent data on the Internet.  Schulich's gift, if added to the endowment and invested conservatively, will add about $1...

15 November, 2009
Several readers argue there's nothing wrong with the Harper Tories steering infrastructure money to their own ridings, or pushing out deputy ministers who object, because (1) the money will be spent anyway, (2) the Liberals did it too, and (3) most senior civil servants are Liberal appointees. After the jump, a spirited response from longtime gadfly and former Dartmouth City Councillor Colin May, but first, contrarian reader Wayne Fiander weighs in: 
Since you went to great trouble to note [ousted Deputy Transport Minister Louis] Ranger's expertise, you should have also informed your readers that Mr. Ranger "in the mid 90's, took a two year assignment with the Privy Council Office. He then returned to Transport Canada as Assistant Deputy Minister, Policy and was appointed Associate Deputy Minister of Transport in 2001"  and was appointed DM at Transport Canada in 2002.  His connection to the Chretien Liberals is quite deep and therefore sheds the full light on his obviously political comments.
Good point. I should have noted that. But the implication that a two-year stint in the PCO 15 years ago justifies Ranger's firing is bogus. The Harper crowd used public money for partisan purposes. That's corrupt. Full stop. Getting rid of qualified civil servants who raise objections to this corruption is of a piece with that.
19 June, 2009