Halifax Regional Municipality has retreated, tail between legs, from its unconstitutional war on music festival posters. The lawyer who faced them down wants to make sure the tail stays put. just as the issue was going to trial, municipal prosecutors dropped charges against Evolve Festival organizer Jonas Colter, whom HRM police had  pursued with unseemly vigor for advertising the alternative music event on sidewalk utility poles. That's a relief for Colter, who was facing $4500 in fines, but a disappointment for lawyer Gordon Allen, who believed his bro bono had a strong case on free speech grounds. Allen hoped a court judgment would deter...

22 May, 2011

In response to this, Contrarian reader Corey Clamp asks: Another question, albeit more uncomfortable: Why does it seem acceptable to most that these funds have been lost? We often hear people talking about abuses of our social assistance system: EI fraud, welfare mothers collecting our hard earned tax dollars for nothing, etc., etc. I work in community and have witnessed some of these 'frauds' that others complain of (food money being used for power? Oh my!), but I also witness every day the daunting bureaucracy these individuals must face in order to get their $514 to $850 dollars/month. We seem to worry that...

23 March, 2011

Contrarian is not the Nova Scotia blog of record, but I don't want HRM Council's latest act of craven irresponsibility to pass uncommented upon. Neither does Contrarian reader Lindsay Brown, who writes: What is it about the Halifax lifestyle that produces more embarrassing stuff in just two weeks than you can put in a single opaque garbage bag? What am I missing? The facts are simple. Nova Scotia was a pioneer in trash sorting, diversion, and recycling, thanks to visionary provincial legislation. These measures were necessary to slow the pace of landfill growth,  given the horrendous obstacles to siting new...

13 March, 2011

Extreme Contrarian friend BT writes: I support execution for people who violate the parking ban. Humanely, of course. Deputize the plow drivers so they can haul the outlaws out of their beds on the spot and shoot them in the back of the head, Chinese-style. ("This ain't no feather-duster I'm packing.") Many Halifax drivers are smarter than coyotes, so after half a dozen or so shootings, the streets will be clear. Real clear, if you get my drift. More moderate Contrarian reader JS has paid three tickets for his son's lack of access to parking at night—the plates are still in Dad's...

08 March, 2011

Contrarian reader Jim Guild writes: In Montreal, which gets a shitload of snow (to use a complex meteorological term), I believe they still allow parking on one half of most residential streets. On odd-numbered days, drivers can park on the side of the street where odd-numbered houses are located; on even-numbered days they can park on the other side. This means that local residents don't have to rent parking for the winter, out-of-towners can visit overnight, Victor Syperek's buddies can still be designated drivers for their drinking friends, and the snow ploughs can still make the roads passable. Reader Gary Campbell...

06 March, 2011

Halifax's unaccountable parking czar Ken Reashor used his arbitrary powers yesterday to end the Halifax peninsula parking ban 26 days earlier than expected. The ban held sway for 84 days, from December 14 through March 4. I can't find actual snowfall data for that period, but the table below (sources here and here) shows average snow conditions in Halifax (the only data available to officials when they impose the ban). So in an average year, the 84-days period from December 14 through March 4 would include about 16 days with snowfall and about 68 without. Why not target the 16 days when a...

05 March, 2011

Another media outlet has presented admiring coverage of the campaign by Halifax restaurateur Lil MacPherson and Halifax actress Ellen Page to oppose something one might expect environmentally conscious citizens to campaign for: the productive recycling of composted human waste as a worthy alternative to dumping it, semi-treated, in the ocean. A Contrarian reader describes today's Herald story as: One-sided journalism at its worst. Lil MacPherson is not an environmental scientist. Ellen Page is not an environmental scientist. Nowhere in the entire story is there any effort to present the case in favour of biosolids. Even the headline “Rising in defence of province’s...

28 October, 2010

A group of friends was planning a social gathering Thursday evening in Halifax. One demurred, saying work required her to attend Thursday's public consultation session on the proposed new central library. "If it helps," said another member of the group, "I can pre-summarize the public meeting for you." What a waste of money this — money that could be better spent on roads and health care. I can't believe the city is being so cheap with this design. A bigger new library will draw tourists from around the world. Will it block the view from Citadel Hill? Can we attach this to a new stadium? Why does Halifax...

29 September, 2010

Felix Solomon, a blogger for Reuters, proposes a Unified Theory of New York Biking that Halifax cyclists would do well to heed: Bikes can and should behave much more like cars than pedestrians. They should ride on the road, not the sidewalk. They should stop at lights, and pedestrians should be able to trust them to do so. They should use lights at night. And — of course, duh — they should ride in the right direction on one-way streets. None of this is a question of being polite; it’s the law. But in stark contrast to motorists, nearly all of whom...

12 September, 2010

If the admirable Ellen Page* wants to contribute to the environment of her home province, she might consider pressuring the Dexter government to rethink its politically expedient decision to delay regulations to control mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants. Mercury is a dangerous element with well-known impacts on human health, especially the health of young children. The province and Nova Scotia Power have known about their obligation to clean up mercury emissions for years, if not decades. [Disclosure: both NSP and the NS Govt. have been my clients.] The government's decision to back away from that legislated commitment in the...

17 August, 2010
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