In four decades as a journalist, I saw many people do brave things, but I can't offhand think of anything more courageous than the letter I received last night from Sean McSween, a pharmacist and former resident of Talbot House, the addiction recovery centre now closed due to false allegations of sexual misconduct against its former executive director, Fr. Paul Abbass. To whom it may concern: I am a professional (pharmacist) married (since 1999) man. I had some difficulty in life, partly due to an abusive home life while growing up and partly due to poor choices of my own. I spent nearly...

15 May, 2012

Golly, tons of reaction — on all sides — to cyber-libertarian Jeff Shallit's nomination of South Shore District School Superintendent Pynch-Worthylake as "Authoritarian High School Superintendent of the Month." (Apologies for the delayed posting; it's been a busy week.) Chris McCormick writes: I figure someone's right to express their opinion is balanced by my right to ignore them; the principal's reaction just valorizes the 'victim society' where we want to whitewash all differences and offending symbols...

13 May, 2012

Our friend in Fredericton writes: This morning my street was  crawling with Jehovah’s Witnesses: at least a half dozen pairs of women, making their way from house to house, all neatly attired in skirts of a certain style. Before long, two Witnesses landed on my doorstep, introduced themselves as Queenie and Muriel, and handed over copies of The Watchtower and Awake! I’m well-known as a magazine addict, so after getting through the most pressing work of the day, I paused to flip through these publications. I was shocked to notice the circulation numbers: 42,182,000 copies in 194 languages for each issue of...

24 April, 2012

Liberal MLA Kelly Regan put two questions to Community Services Minister Denise Peterson-Rafuse in the House of Assembly yesterday: MS. KELLY REGAN:  Mr. Speaker, for 53 years Talbot House provided residential addiction treatment for men in Cape Breton. Talbot House recently, abruptly closed its doors and left the people of Cape Breton with a whole lot of questions. Will the Minister of Community Services lift the shroud of secrecy and tell the men and their families who rely on these services why the minister closed the doors and removed this vital service from this community? HON. DENISE PETERSON-RAFUSE:  Mr. Speaker, we know...

04 April, 2012

On Sunday, I questioned the sudden closure of the Talbot House Recovery Centre, and the treatment accorded it's executive director, Fr. Paul Abbass, after a victim's rights activist apparently passed along an unspecified third- or fourth-party complaint about Abbass to the Department of Community Services. A sample of the responses follows, but please also see this clarification of my original post. A reader writes: I am a former resident of Talbot house and I am convinced the experience saved my life. At no time during my therapy did I witness any impropriety on the part of Paul Abbass or any staff member. Talbot...

03 April, 2012

In my post about the Queen-of-Hearts treatment accorded Fr. Paul Abbass—sentence first, trial later—I wrote that the  Cape Breton Regional Police "said it had begun investigating allegations concerning a Talbot House employee." In fact, police spokesperson Desiree Vassallo chose her words more carefully than that. "We are looking further into [information received from the Talbot House Board] and will determine whether there’s anything that needs a criminal investigation," she said. While Vassallo didn't identify Abbass, everyone knew who she was talking about. Almost seven weeks have passed since Vassallo made that statement. If the police have determined that the information does not warrant a criminal investigation, then...

03 April, 2012

[caption id="attachment_9552" align="alignright" width="250" caption="Too damned many."][/caption] In response to my note about the 40-something Norwegian who had never seen a snow day until he came to Nova Scotia, Contrarian reader Joyce Rankin of Mabou Westmount blames consolidation of schools and secularization of society for the proliferation of snow days. Her response sparked a lively email debate. I remember we never used to have snow days either. But then again, we were close enough to school that we could walk. The questions to ask, for a proper comparison, would be how far children in Norway travel to school, and how far people drive to...

12 March, 2012

Lauren Oostveen, Nova Scotia's tweeting archivist, today unearthed a clipping from The 4th Estate, Halifax's one-time alternative weekly, about a vampire conflab that took place at Dalhouse 39 years ago this month. The 4th Estate story is good, but the yarn Oostveen dug up to go with it is even better. Organized by English Professor Devendra P. Varma, a renowned Dracula-lit buff, the goth-before-its-time conference boasted "the largest gathering of vampire experts ever presented in Canada," and featured a screening of the classic 1931 movie Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi. The Himalayan-born Varma, who died in 1994, was apparently quite a character. According to Oostveen,...

11 January, 2012

Hint: It's closer than you think. Jon Stewart reveals that Halifax is the real promised land. Best quote: What's wrong with you two? You can't even get along in Nova Scotia. It's the most polite part of Canada. Watch it quick before the Comedy Channel yanks it from YouTube. H/T: Andy Weissman...

06 October, 2011