[Video link] Twitter, Facebook, and the comment link have brought many responses to my post contesting Tim Bousquet's claim that contemporary society has simply accepted "high rates of road slaughter...
In 2000, my nephew Ingram Barss and I helped Ralph Coates of New Perlican, NL, build a scaled down version of a traditional Newfoundland trap skiff at the community-run Wooden Boat Museum in Winterton, a few kilometres down the Trinity Bay shore from Ralph's home. Like tens of thousands of Newfoundlanders before him, Coates went into the woods, found trunks and limbs with just the right shape to form the complex curves of the skiff's graceful hull, and created a sturdy vessel a fishermen could trust with his life—and his family's livelihood. In keeping with local tradition, the boat Coates built had no name. As folklorist David...
Canadian highway fatalities 1991 - 2010 Tim Bousquet, city-dwelling publisher of the lively Halifax Examiner, has let his hatred of the demon automobile get the better of him. In his latest anti-car screed, he writes: ...
[caption id="attachment_14681" align="alignnone" width="600"] Spot the Violations[/caption] CBC has a revealing report this morning about how the Department of Community Services and Minister Joanne Bernard conspired to violate several parts of Nova Scotia's Freedom of Information Act, so they could appear to be taking action on reports of violations at day care centres in the province. DCS's behaviour is of a piece with the way it responded to my FOIPOP requests for information about its highhanded treatment of Cape Breton's Talbot House, the addiction treatment centre forced to close for a year after DCS promoted false allegations of abuse on the part of the centre's director, Fr....
Buried in the U.S. Senate's scathing report on CIA torture—in footnote 32 on page 43 of the heavily redacted 528-page "summary"—is this chilling detail: Twenty-six of the 119 people subjected to torture by the CIA turned out to be guilty of nothing. These were cases of mistaken identity, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, etc. One such wrongfully held prisoner was Nazar Ali, an intellectually challenged man who was never even suspected of involvement in terrorism. He was imprisoned and tortured only so his "taped crying" could be "used as leverage against a family member." I'm at a loss to know what to...
Over the last two days, I've posted letters (here and here) from residents of Isle Madame who complain that media accounts of lobster poacher Philip Boudreau's disappearance tell less than half the story. They portrayed Boudreau, who had a long but mostly non-violent criminal record, as a menacing figure in Petit-de-Grat, travelling the community by night, stealing lobster from licensed fishermen, and threatening violence against any who objected. While not condoning the actions of Twin Maggies' crewmen, they say the fishermen snapped after suffering years of abuse at Boudreau's hands. But Boudreau also has friends and family in Petit-de-Grat, devastated at his killing, determined to defend him. Today...
Yesterday's post by a letter writer from Petit-de-Grat touched off a record day for Contrarian, with more than 60,000 hits, along with thousands of shares on Facebook. My mailbox is full of comments on the tragic events on Isle Madame. I'll post a representative sample over the next few days. (Previous posts on the killing here, here, here, here, and here.) Most of what I have received about this situation arrived anonymously. Many of those who support James Landry, the fisherman convicted of manslaughter last week, say they fear reprisals. Those who do business in the divided community feel especially vulnerable. A reporter I admire who...
Several readers from Isle Madame share my disdain for those who falsely depict lobster stealer Philip Boudreau's death as a case of "murder for lobster." Here's a letter from one of them, a life-long Petit-de-Grat resident who withheld his name for obvious reasons. If all you know about Philip Boudreau's death is what you've seen on TV or read in the papers, prepare for an eye opener: I have written this letter to dispute the title of "A Murder for Lobsters." As I reflect on the hundreds of media stories that I've read since this incident on June 1, 2013, I can now see the power of the media and...
Today is the United Nations International Day of Persons with Disabilities. The international L'Arche organization is celebrating with an online exhibit of art created by L'Arche core members from 25 of the 38 countries with L'Arche communities. As Jenn Power,* Atlantic Regional Coordinator for L'Arche, noted on Facebook, it's a chance to experience "some of what our folks have to say about life." "Woman," the watercolour at the top of this post, was created by Andrea Frizon, a resident of Mortimer House at L'Arche Toronto. The painting below, "Look at yourself in the mirror," is a collective work by 13 artists from the...
You've got to hand it to Steve Drake, prosecutor in the trial of a man charged with killing Isle Madame lobster stealer Philip Boudreau: He knows how to frame a problematic case in a way headline writers will find irresistible. Drake's problem was to persuade a local jury to convict 67-year-old lobster fisherman James Joseph Landry of murdering a man who evoked little sympathy outside his own family. Boudreau had terrorized the tight-knit community for years: stealing lobster at will, taunting the fishermen he stole from, openly selling his ill-gotten wares from a pickup truck parked on the Isle Madame Causeway, routinely threatening mayhem and arson against the families of anyone brave enough to...