When an official story doesn't ring true, a journalist with good instincts sometimes decides to tug at the loose threads—and keep tugging until the story unravels. Thank you to Bill Turpin for continuing to tug the threads of the official story about a 41-year-old Spryfield man who died in the Halifax Police lockup one year ago last Friday. Official non-story is more like it. The province's Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT) has been investigating the man's death, but neither it nor the Halifax police will say what happened—or even reveal the dead man's name. This last omission constitutes an extraordinary and protest-worthy level of secrecy. One full year after...

18 June, 2017

  In the Barrier Capital of Canada, your business can exclude customers using wheelchairs as long as it's located in a building that never accommodated wheelchairs. Take Fox Hill Farm's trendy new Halifax outlet on Robie Street. The previous tenant sold computers. Selling organic milk and cheese is deemed not to be a change of use. The law, in its wisdom, says that if a property's use has not changed, it's refusal to accommodate wheelchair users needn't change either. Here's Fox Hill's front door. Two steps. No wheelchair users need apply. But wait! A sign on the front door promises an accessible entrance to the side of the building: And here it is....

12 May, 2017

  The main complaint I hear about the Chronicle Herald's purchase of Transcontinental's Atlantic Canadian newspapers goes like this: If Herald owners Sarah Dennis and Mark Lever can find millions to buy out Transcon, why can't they cough up more money for striking workers? The answer is that those are completely different kinds of transactions, as unalike as buying a new car and buying gas to run it. If you borrow to buy a new car, there's a chance you'll pay extremely low interest—as low as 0% if the carmaker is eager to move inventory. But if you borrow to fill the gas tank, you'll pay credit card rates of 18% - 28%. Transcon,...

15 April, 2017

  Sarah Dennis and Mark Lever, co-owners of the Halifax Chronicle Herald, have been showered with abuse for their handling of a 14-month strike by the Halifax Typographical Union. Today, they stunned critics and admirers alike by purchasing all of Transcontinental's newspaper properties in Atlantic Canada. A union spokesperson was quick to denounce  the purchase, saying it put the lie to the family's claim it could ill-afford to settle with the union on less than harsh terms. On the contrary. The surprise purchase demonstrates the couple's commitment to local print news in our region, and puts the lie to addlepated, reality-averse commentary about the strike from Tim Bousquet, Steve Kimber, Graham...

13 April, 2017

  A few months ago, I went to print some now forgotten document when the HP inkjet that's been kicking around my house for a decade or more signalled that one of its cartridges was out of ink. I snapped in a replacement cartridge, purchased off the internet for modestly less than usurious price of a genuine HP cart from staples, and received an ominous message: Unauthorized cartridge detected It turned out HP had issued a firmware update that surreptitiously blocked the use of third-party or refilled cartridges. Organizations like the Electronic Freedom Foundation protested, and faced with a mounting public furore, HP eventually...

22 March, 2017

  Wednesday in Halifax, six prominent disability rights activists will ask the Supreme Court to order Nova Scotia's Human Rights Commission to do its job. The activists want the court to order the commission to hear their complaint against Environment Minister Margaret Miller and Chief Medical Officer of Health Robert Strang for selectively enforcing Nova Scotia's Food Safety Regulations in a manner that discriminates against wheelchair users—and puts their health at risk in the process. The regulations require restaurants in Nova Scotia to have "washroom facilities for the public available in a convenient location" as a condition of their license. Many Halifax restaurants have summer patios accessible to wheelchair...

28 February, 2017

  I attended the highway twinning discussion in Sydney Tuesday night, one of a dozen sessions the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal is holding around the province to gauge support for highway tolls as a way to speed up seven highway twinning projects on the department's wish list. The core question: should we finance these highway projects in the normal way, out of gasoline taxes, in which case they will take decades, or by implementing tolls on our 100-series highways to generate revenue that would support much faster construction through public-private partnerships. The department came armed with a detailed feasibility study from the engineering firm CBCL. It...

22 February, 2017

  Until this morning, I was inclined to agree with those, like Andrew Sullivan, who think Trump is a narcissist whose psychiatric competence to lead the western world is a legitimate matter for journalistic inquiry. A distinguished psychiatrist's letter to the New York Times persuades me this is wrong. Most amateur diagnosticians have mislabeled President Trump with the diagnosis of narcissistic personality disorder. I wrote the criteria that define this disorder, and Mr. Trump doesn’t meet them. He may be a world-class narcissist, but this doesn’t make him mentally ill, because he does not suffer from the distress and impairment required to diagnose mental disorder. Mr....

17 February, 2017

The Sipekne'katik Band has won its appeal against the Nova Scotia Environment Minister Margaret Miller's approval of the Alton Gas Storage Project, not on any substantive objection to the project, but due to arrogant behaviour that increasingly characterizes the provincial government's interactions with the public and the media. Frankly, the band's objections to the project are flimsy, but the government deserved what it got. The initial concerns of the band and local residents were understandable. The Shubenacadie River has been a central feature of the band's history and culture for millennia. It's an important resource for all area residents. But the scientific evidence is clear the gas...

01 February, 2017

  Based mainly on responses to his down-the-middle Facebook posts on the tentative teachers' agreement, Graham Steele predicts its probable defeat by union members. Social media tends to encourage the most extreme and aggrieved voices, but he may be right. Here's the thing: Everyone values good teachers. Good teachers are priceless.*  In reality, though, teaching is like most occupations: a few gems, many duds, most in between. As the conflict drags on, I wonder how the public will react to overwrought voices of grievance from a group of public employees whose compensation and terms of work look pretty good from the outside. Prolonged disruption that continues to...

25 January, 2017
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