Fr. Paul Abbass, the priest and former executive director of Talbot House Recovery Centre who was subjected to false accusations of sexual misconduct promoted behind the scenes by an official of the Department of Community Services, and whose reputation continues to suffer due to the Dexter Government's apparent determination to defend the Department's behaviour, has issued his first statement on the matter: At the end of last week I was informed by the Cape Breton Regional Police Service that they had concluded their investigation and will not be laying any criminal charges. Obviously I was pleased and relieved that this matter...

17 April, 2012

In a sign the Dexter government plans to tough out criticism of its handling of the Talbot House fiasco, the Department of Community Services (DCS) has posted the report of its controversial organizational review of the much admired Cape Breton addiction recovery centre. In response, the Talbot House Society's board of directors released a detailed, point-by-point response to the DCS report. You can read the DCS report here; the response of the Talbot House board here. I have only had a few minutes to scan both of these documents. I am struck by how much the DCS report relies on third-party hearsay that the...

16 April, 2012

The board of directors of Talbot House, the much admired addiction recovery center shut down this winter after the Nova Scotia Department of Community Services raised vague and, as we now know, false allegations of sexual misconduct against its executive director, today issued two news releases that add up to a sweeping condemnation of the department's behaviour. How the Dexter government reacts will be a major test of its integrity. Will it circle the wagons? Or will it implement real reforms? Please read the releases for yourself here and here. [Note: I have removed contact information for the board chair.] On the Cape...

15 April, 2012

A Contrarian reader who does not identify himself, but who appears to work in the provincial school system, doesn't think much of my suggestions for two painless, cost-free steps the province could take to improve schools. To refresh your memory, these were (1) force school boards to implement modern hiring practices in place of the demeaning, talent-repelling, corruption-promoting way they now teachers; and (2) remove superintendents, senior managers, education department officials seconded from school boards, and non-teaching principals from belonging to the teachers' union. [T]he [hiring practices] you suggest...

15 April, 2012

A fresh rumination on feline ennui from vido poet Will Braden. (The original is here.) H/T BT, via Jezebel....

15 April, 2012

Exactly as many of us expected, the vague, shadowy accusations of sexual impropriety against Fr. Paul Abbass have proven false. The Cape Breton Regional Police announced late Friday that the department has completed its review of information in the case — they were cagey about who was being investigated, but everyone knows it was Abbass — and they will not proceed with a criminal investigation. There was nothing to investigate. I hope Fr. Paul Abbass will have the generosity of spirit to resume his duties as Executive Director of Talbot House, the community-built recovery center that has for 53 years successfully treated...

13 April, 2012

I don't often agree with Leanne Hachey, the engaging but disturbingly right-wing Atlantic VP of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, but she scored a bullseye this week with her critique of the Dexter government's fake consultation on its much-criticized first-contract legislation. (Disclosure: Hachey and I are longtime friends and sparring partners.) Documents FOIPOPed by the CFIB demonstrated that the legislation was drafted before the consultation began, although the draft bill was never disclosed during the window-dressing sessions. The federation and other business groups spent tens of thousands of dollars opposing the bill only to discover what they suspected all along: it...

13 April, 2012

I don't mean to be overly cranky with my former colleagues in the political journalism racket, but I could do with a little less psychoanalysis and a little more content in reports from the Nova Scotia House of Assembly. CBC legislature reporter Jean Laroche's weekly debrief this morning  was long on the former and light on the latter. Premier Dexter, he explained, normally doesn't have a short fuse, but the Chignecto-Central Regional School Board's threat to decimate library staff caused him to blow his stack. The debate, opined Laroche, had an unusual, intensely personal character. Really? None of the clips Laroche played showed anything...

13 April, 2012

Yesterday, I succumbed to self-pity about a gastank fill-up that edged perilously close to a C-note. Contrarian regular Denis Falvey offers a dose of reality: We will never get off our dependance on gasoline until the cost of a gallon of the stuff is through the roof. That's what makes the alternatives affordable. I am told that Quebec is currently building the infrastructure necessary for electric cars, and has an $8,000 allowance for each person buying a Volt. Whether that is good or bad, do you think it would happen with gas at $0.50 a gallon? As long as fish caught off our coast can...

10 April, 2012

  The management of Simeon's Family Restaurant in Sydney attached a makeshift sign to the venerable but non-functioning Bell-Aliant pay phone in the restaurant's vestibule. With the explosion in cell phone ownership and use, timely maintenance of the ancient pay-per-use devices just isn't a priority any more. "Trying to find a working pay phone," wrote one friend when I posted this photo on Facebook, "is like trying to find a four-leaf clover." "I love pay phones," wrote another. "They hint at a world of possibilities."...

09 April, 2012
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