I have more reader mail on the furore around Rehtaeh Parsons' death and the factors that led to it. Once again, a few preliminary points. Rehtaeh's family and friends are going through an unimaginably horrible experience, one they have handled with grace and courage. The one point that united everyone in this case is sympathy for their ordeal. It bears repeating that, if you or anyone you know are having suicidal thoughts, please call the toll-free Kid’s Help Line at 1-800-668-6868 or the toll-free Suicide Prevention Line at 1-888-429-8167. Also please check out this website, and this list of warning signs. In a post on April 11, I raised...

14 April, 2013

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

Is there anything in all of news and current affairs less edifying and more hypocritical than morning-after analysis of provincial budgets? No matter who is in power, the response of the self-serving talking heads who pop up in the media is always the same: Shame! You decreased (or failed to sufficiently increase) funding for the industry or interest group I represent. Shame! You increased (or failed to sufficiently decrease) taxes on the taxpayer cohort I represent. [caption id="attachment_11587" align="alignright" width="200"] Erjavec[/caption] Spend more (on me)! Lower taxes (on me)! And don't you dare run a deficit! The finger-waggers never acknowledge the tradeoffs required for a...

05 April, 2013

At Salon, Mary Elizabeth Williams reviews the week's celebrity apologies, and finds most wanting. Then she highlights this example of how to apologize with grace: [L]est you think nobody knows how to own up to bad behavior, there have this week also been some fine examples of how to do it correctly. David Petraeus, the former head of the CIA/ladykiller appeared at a Los Angeles ROTC dinner and got the awkward part out of the way early. “I join you, keenly aware that I am regarded in a different light now than I was a year ago,” Petraeus said. ”I am also keenly aware...

29 March, 2013

In response to last night's post about the surprising drugs-and-arms bust on Boularderie, John Percy, leader of the Green Party of Nova Scotia, writes: [T]he war on drugs...

20 December, 2012

A couple of deft touches in Monday night's swearing-in ceremony for CBRM's new mayor and council hint at Cecil Clarke's potential to be a transformative mayor for the island's predominant municipality. [See update below.] [caption id="attachment_11065" align="alignleft" width="150"] Clarke[/caption] The first is a small thing: the musicians Clarke has chosen for the event are (1) young and (2) non-Celtic. This marks a departure from the cliched tartanism that usually dominates such affairs. Check out headliner Kyle Mischiek's rap-remix of "We are an Island" on YouTube and iTunes. The freshening up of a slightly dowdy Cape Breton chestnut will bring welcome symbolic value...

04 November, 2012

The Nova Scotia Department of Community Services, which was unceremoniously stripped of responsibility for addiction recovery centres earlier this month, has quietly removed from its website its much criticized review of Cape Breton's Talbot House Recovery Centre. An electronic search failed to turn up a copy of the "report" — hatchet job would be a more accurate descriptor — anywhere on the gov.ns.ca website. Removal of the error-riddled document, and publication of the Talbot Board's point-by-point refutation, had been persistently sought by the beleaguered recovery center. As recently as July, Minister Denise Peterson-Rafuse insisted she stood by the review, saying it  it...

30 October, 2012

The award for the stupidest idea to emerge in the hotly contested CBRM mayoralty campaign goes to Rankin MacSween. At a debate sponsored by the Cape Breton University Student Union, candidates were asked how, if elected, they will improve student prospects for living and working in Cape Breton after graduation. Here's the Cape Breton Post's description of candidate MacSween's response: MacSween talked about creating a community investment fund that would allow the municipality to invest in small businesses each year. “We’re talking about a minimum of five to 10 investments in small businesses a year,” he said. CBRM is $96 million in debt* by...

20 October, 2012

In a tacit acknowledgement that Community Services bolloxed the crisis it brought on at Cape Breton's Talbot House Recovery Centre, the province has stripped the department of responsibility for all five addiction recovery centres in Nova Scotia. From now on, provincial funding, service agreements, and oversight will fall under the Department of Health and Wellness. [caption id="attachment_11009" align="alignleft" width="200"] Peterson-Rafuse[/caption] The decision comes just in time for Health to assume responsibility for evaluating a proposal from Talbot House to restore provincial funding it received as Cape Breton's only addiction recovery centre. That avoids the sticky problem of having Community Services officials, with...

19 October, 2012

An astonishing number of Nova Scotians have snapped up the chance to vote electronically in the municipal elections that will wrap up Saturday. In the Halifax Regional Municipality, 22.5 percent of eligible voters cast ballots on line or by phone-—not all that surprising until you realize that only 36.2 percent of eligible voters bothered going to the polls in the 2008 election. You might expect HRM, home to the best educated, most affluent voters in the region, to embrace e-voting. But then what are we to make of working class CBRM, where 32.8 percent of the 82,223 eligible voters cast ballots on...

19 October, 2012
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