A Contrarian friend was waiting for a cab to take her to a meeting in Halifax this morning when her cell phone rang. It was the cab driver, who was being pulled over for running a stop sign. He kept her on the line as the officer approached the window, then held the phone up to the cop. "Pllleeeeasssse," yelled my friend. "I'm in a hurry!" Cabby got off with a warning....
A wave of sentimentality swept over Halifax City Hall last night, and when the tide receded, Council had rejected a staff recommendation to build four new hockey rinks for $15.8 million, in favour of a "community" proposal to build just three rinks for $39.0 million—nearly two-and-a-half times as much money for 25 percent less rink. It was all in the name of saving TUBCED, The Ugliest Building Cobb Ever Designed, also known as the Halifax Forum. It's not just an eyesore we're preserving here. The Forum is a repository of Halifax history and culture. Mohammed Ali fought there once. (Well, actually, he "sparred" there....
What did the Book Room, The Coast, The NDP, the Toronto Star, and the law firm McInnes Cooper have in common with tattoo parlours and travel agencies? At one time or another, they all occupied offices in the Roy Building, a storied Halifax edifice that's meeting the wrecking high hoe this week. Each office had "its own frosted glass and oak door, like in an old Bogart movie," wrote the Globe and Mail's Jane Taber, whose eulogy quoted documentary filmmaker Geoff D'Eon: Everybody felt like a private dick...
In two recent posts, here and here, I expressed doubt about a Herald columnist's contention that Pictou has the highest cancer rates in NS, and the noxious Northern Pulp mill might be responsible. Several readers pointed out that recent figures on cancer rates by county and by district health authority are available at Cancer Care Nova Scotia's website. The results do not support the claim that Pictou residents suffer from "the highest cancer rates in Nova Scotia." Here is the 2010 incidence of all cancers per 100,000 people for Nova Scotia's 18 counties: Women in Pictou had the sixth highest overall cancer rate out...
On Saturday, I questioned Herald columnist Gail Lethbridge's contention that Pictou County has some of Canada's highest cancer rates, and these may be attributable to noisome emissions from the Northern Pulp mill. Among other things, I faulted Lethbridge for not citing a source for her claims about cancer rates in Pictou, for not indicating which of the 200+ cancers are higher there, and for drawing conclusions about public health based on anecdotal evidence. A Contrarian reader who worked at the "Cancer Lodge in Halifax" (which I take to mean the Canadian Cancer Society's Daffodil Place) takes up the cause: Many patients staying at the Lodge discussed how the number of cancer patients from...
A Gail Lethbridge column in today's Herald claims the noxious Northern Pulp plant on the south side of Pictou Harbour is harming the health of Pictou County residents. Specifically, causing cancer. Pictou County has the highest cancer rates in Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia has some of the highest cancer rates in Canada. Studies have not established consistent and conclusive links between mill emissions and cancer, but chemicals in mill production and pollution are identified as carcinogenic by the International Agency for Cancer Research. And anecdotal evidence of respiratory problems, skin conditions, cardiovascular disease and cancers suffered by residents near the mill have led local...
James Fallows has a couple of great pieces, here and here, on why the world should not blame Malaysia Airlines for flying over the eastern Ukraine while hostilities were underway 33,000 feet below. The nub of his argument is that restrictions on flight routes are rightly and necessarily the province of governments not airlines, and Flight 17 rigorously observed the limited restrictions governments had laid down—the equivalent of driving 63 mph in a 65 mph zone. Equally important, "[A]ir transportation, like most other modern systems, could not operate if it fortified itself against every conceivable peril." This is a lesson we forgot in the wake of...
Yesterday I published two maps showing impressive efforts by nations large and small to establish massive marine protected areas (MPAs) in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. A third map revealed Canada's contrastingly anemic effort. Because this is not my field, I added this caution: This is a complicated topic. It’s possible the comparisons above, in terms of the level and type of protection, do not present a fair picture. I don’t have the knowledge or background to evaluate that. But plenty of people in Halifax do, and I’d love to hear from them. Hear from them I did. Chris Miller of Halifax, National Conservation Biologist with the Canadian...
Back in April, when most of the ground was still deep in snow, and migrating birds had to concentrate their foraging on the few open patches, an enormous swarm of dark-eyed juncos stormed through Boularderie Island. Driving between Kempt Head and Ross Ferry, I estimate I saw more than 1,000 in separate flocks of 20-50. A similar nature spectacular unfolded this week along harbours and inlets where northern gannets gathered in great numbers to feed on schooling mackerel, and perhaps the smaller fish the mackerel themselves were chasing. Marty MacDougall captured the spectacle and posted it to YouTube: Because gannets spend most of their lives...
National Geographic just posted a story on evolving plans to place large parts of the Pacific Ocean into protected marine reserves. Writer Monica Medina stresses the importance of size in establishing these protected zones. When it comes to getting the greatest benefit out of no-take marine reserves, according to leading scientists, the bigger, the better. Large ocean reserves allow for an entire ecosystem to be protected—which is particularly important for species in the Pacific with long migration routes and widely dispersed feeding patterns like the endangered blue whale and the black-footed albatross. I was surprised at the scope of existing and planned protected areas in the...