In response to this post, Stan Jones of Yarmouth writes: You said: "I truly believe Darrell Dexter and Denise Peterson-Rafuse are better people than they have shown themselves to be in the last three days." You are wrong. Actually, I think I'm right, but neither politician is giving me much ammunition to make the case for them. They should apologize to Abbass and the Talbot board, remove Lathem and her supervisors from any future involvement with the recovery centre, and name a knowledgable, skeptical authority to take a long, hard look at this badly run department....

18 April, 2012

I have a flood of reader mail on the scandal enveloping the Department of Community Service—too much to publish more than a sample for now. I do hope readers are not tiring of this subject. Officials of the department committed serious errors with terrible consequences—for the priest whose character they so carelessly assassinated; for the volunteer members of a board serving the community in good faith; and for the addicted men in treatment at Talbot House, who could be there now had the department's cavalier actions not forced the closure of this community-built institution. For decades, the Nova Scotia New Democratic Party...

18 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

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 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

I'm glad Thomas Mulcair won the leadership of the NDP Saturday. He has the best shot at retaining at least some of the party's beachhead in Quebec. He's said to be tough and politically shrewd, both of which he'll need to be when dealing with the wily Stephen Harper. He clearly plans to edge the party toward the centre, ala Darrell Dexter and other successful NDP premiers, and that's a good tactic when facing a government of right wing ideologues. But I'm not without a few qualms, including Mulcair's reputation for carrying grudges, and his occasional bone-headed statements on foreign policy,...

27 March, 2012

Citing the latest of several Corporate Research Associates polls showing Darrell Dexter's New Democrats with a comfortable lead, longtime Progressive Conservative Rob Smith has a piece in today's AllNovaScotia.com [subscription required] proposing some form of Liberal-Tory co-operation to prevent what the news service alarmingly headlines, "Socialists forever." [caption id="attachment_9599" align="alignright" width="250" caption="Beware of blue Bolsheviks!"][/caption] This argument would be more persuasive if the Dexter Government had shown any sign of being either permanent or socialist. Dexter won office less than three years ago,  and he did so by turning quietly away from the strident leftist approach of previous NDP leaders, and toward centrist policies...

19 March, 2012

This week month and next, as part of the Nova Scotia Department of Education's Early Learning Campaign, the Dexter government distributed a variety pack of learning materials  — books, a CD, construction paper, plastic animals, bubbles, clay, scissors, and sundry other education-related items — to every Grade Primary student in the province Grade Primary students in the Annapolis, Cape Breton-Victoria, South Shore, and Strait regional school boards. Best of all, the goodies all came packaged in a handy insulated orange lunch bag, suitable for use throughout the school year. Subtle, eh? Early education for today's families, you could call it. No, the lunch bags do not...

23 February, 2012

Nova Scotia's New Democratic Party is wasting no time making hay in the sunshine of its Bowater bailout with a direct-mail flyer that's sure to infuriate opposition parties. The one-page card, featuring a photo of Premier Darrell Dester and Queens MLA Vicki Conrad, will start appearing in South Shore mailboxes this week. It uses Chronicle-Herald headlines to highlight the Dexter Government's rescue of the financially shaky newsprint mill, contrasting it with a jaundiced appraisal of opposition efforts. The NDP government is protecting 2,000 jobs with an investment in the mill workers and the Bowater Mersey pulp and paper mill in Queens County...

15 December, 2011
Show more
Loading...