In the 1950s, the social scientist Gregor Bateson described what he called the Double Bind phenomenon: an emotionally distressing situation in which someone in authority delivers a pair of messages so conflicted that a successful response to one results in a failed response to the other, and the recipient is wrong regardless their response. It's roughly the equivalent of being asked whether you have stopped beating your spouse. Events of the last month in Ottawa show that, where allegations of sexual abuse against two Liberal MPs are concerned, Tom Mulcair's NDP caucus has mastered the double-bind. Here's the latest nugget, courtesy of the Hill Times: The Canadian Press reported last week...

25 November, 2014

The trial of the second boy charged in connection with the #YouKnowHerName case got underway in Halifax this morning. In the Halifax Examiner, Tim Bousquet correctly predicted the defendant would plead guilty, before adding: The first man tried in the case pleaded guilty and was given a light sentence that included no jail time. Since the media long ago convicted both youngsters of rape without benefit of trial, Bousquet and his fellow journocutors would likely consider anything short of a long prison term to be "light." But the boys—they were legally boys at the time of the now infamous incident— haven't been charged with rape. One was charged with making...

24 November, 2014

Here's an aerial photograph taken yesterday of the gorgeous, WSP-designed roundabout taking shape at the northeast corner of the Halifax Commons, in front of the Halifax Armoury. Construction of bike trails and pedestrian walkways on adjacent sections of the Commons will take place over the next two weeks. Construction of a companion roundabout at the right edge of this photo, where North Park St. meets Cogswell, Trollope, Ahern Ave., and Rannie Drive at the foot of Citadel Hill will begin next Spring. Once workers complete that job next year, an underground electrical system will go into service, enabling NS Power to remove utility...

19 November, 2014

In a post last week, I argued that the 24-metre* war memorial statue of "Mother Canada" proposed for Green Cove in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park flew in the face of sound public policy. Many readers weighed in, mostly against the project. Today, a passionate supporter of the monument takes the floor. Jason writes from Ingonish: Upon reading your view on the monument, it is hard to believe the joy newspapers and news broadcasts get out of, once again, stirring up controversy on a subject you really don't know about. While you make points about the project itself, and its artistry, you leave out the fact...

16 November, 2014

The gigantic statue of "Mother Canada" discussed here yesterday has many detractors and few admirers among Contrarian readers. Here's a sample from the flood of comments received: Barry (#1): Non-supporters of this project need to stand up and hopefully have this cancelled. Martha: If some people in Ingonish or elsewhere see economic benefit to this statue, perhaps the focus should be on finding a different place for it—say at Ingonish. While Ingonish is one of my favourite places on earth, I could accept a (somewhat less intrusive) statue there, because there is already a certain degree of man-made tourism in the area. The irony of Green...

12 November, 2014

In case you missed it, Cape Breton journalist Joan Weeks was on CBC's The Current Tuesday morning with an even-handed account of the controversy over plans to honour Canada's war dead with a colossal statue at Green Cove in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Like so many initiatives of the Stephen Harper government, the project offends good public policy in several ways. Accountability and Transparency: The project was conceived and designed in secret. It was presented to, and approved by, the Harper cabinet without public input or discussion. The belated exercise now underway, touted as a public consultation, has been limited to a pair of meetings in the tiny, economically depressed village of Ingonish,...

12 November, 2014

The morning after Democrats suffered humiliating defeats in midterm elections, a Massachusetts friend who is a lifelong, liberal Democrat, licked his wounds in a Facebook post: I would so like all the talking head experts to point out that this election was all about who voted and who did not. It was not a "wave election." Numbers matter. Look at three critical states: In North Carolina the Republican Tillis received 1.4M votes, [Democrat] Hagan 1.3M. In 2012 Obama received 2.1M and Romney 2.2. In Colorado, the winning Republican received 922,977, [Democrat] Udall 843,103. Two years ago Obama won with 1.2 M votes to...

05 November, 2014

Well, perfect as an ad for a right wing Republican senatorial candidate can be. Tomorrow's mid-term U.S. elections seem all but certain to produce Republican majorities in both houses Congress—even as more citizens vote Democratic than Republican. This ad is funny, pointed without being mean-spirited, and it hits hot-button emotions in a way that is like to connect with Iowa voters. I grew up in the US, and once spent most of a year travelling in a Democratic presidential candidate's campaign plane, but the hateful right-wing turn politics has taken in that country often seems bewildering and incomprehensible. Ads like this are part of what...

03 November, 2014

West End Halifax Hallowe'en statistician Dan Conlin has updated his 18-year record of ghouls, goblins, and octopi with this year's totals. The numbers continue to sneak upward from their 2012 trough. The little sugar fixers began arriving at 5:58 p.m. and peaked around 7:30 p.m., with the tardiest monster straggling in at 9:50 p.m. All these times are later than usual, probably due to the pagan ritual falling on a Friday. There were "no surly, un-constumed teenagers — once a late night constant.” Conlin’s Best-costume honours went to a Giant Eyeball with its bloody optic nerve dangling. Honourable mentions to a homemade octopus with working arms,...

03 November, 2014

In 2007, the L'Arche community in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, known as L'Arche Homefires, embarked on an expensive, long-term project to move its work programs from various ill-suited, inaccessible locations to a single, safe, fully accessible building that would also house its administrative office. As a first step, Homefires purchased the former Anglican Parish Hall on Main Street in the centre of town. Halifax architect Syd Dumaresq donated the design for the renovation. The new facility will let wheelchair users with intellectual disabilities take part in L'Arche day programs that are currently inaccessible. It will free up space in two L’Arche houses, so the community can add new Core Members. As of this September,...

02 November, 2014
Show more
Loading...