Reasonable Self-Esteem by Richard Keshen, an emeritus professor of philosophy at Cape Breton University (CBU), was published by McGill-Queen’s University Press in 1996 to critical acclaim, including laudatory reviews in major academic journals like Ethics and Mind. The book sold out, not a frequent occurrence with academic works, and thisRead More
Twenty-three years, almost half my life, I’ve been involved in the Gobblefest music festival in one capacity or another. A lot of people give me credit as founder of the festival but I don’t see myself that way – the festival happened and continues to happen because there was aRead More
Farewell, Pastor Mansbridge Peter Mansbridge is retiring as anchor of The National and I…really don’t care. I don’t watch The National. In fact, I don’t watch CBC television. I’m an enthusiastic CBC radio listener but I probably won’t be able to tune in again until Mansbridge is gone because I’ve alreadyRead More
Editor’s Note: This is the fourth (and final) in a series of essays by Susan Dodd on Nova Scotia’s history of blaming coal mining accidents on the miners themselves — a history that finally changed in the wake of the Westray disaster. You can read the first and second andRead More
Earlier this year, the idea of a guaranteed annual income (GAI) was in the news, including in The Cape Breton Spectator where yours truly wrote about Ontario’s plan to “launch a pilot project to assess whether a basic income can better support vulnerable workers, improve health and education outcomes forRead...
I recently attended an ethics conference which addressed the question of how healthcare organizations and other social institutions should respond to cultural, religious, and sexual diversity in their patients, students and staff. One of the speakers was particularly interesting for me, because her talk was focused on ways in whichRead More
Editor’s Note: This is an article I’ve been working on for over a month now and it barely scratches the surface of the issue it deals with, namely, the housing problems faced by single, non-seniors in the CBRM. If you have information to add or angles you’d like to seeRead More
Back in August, I read that Point Edward Marine — a company majority owned by McKeil Marine — was subletting its land in the Sydport Industrial Park to Heddle Marine (another Point Edward Marine partner, in the news lately for its spot of bother with the federal government over theRead...
Earlier this year, the idea of a guaranteed annual income (GAI) was in the news, including in The Cape Breton Spectator where yours truly wrote about Ontario’s plan to “launch a pilot project to assess whether a basic income can better support vulnerable workers, improve health and education outcomes forRead...
Has anyone else wondered why our political leaders at every level of government give lip service to representing the constituents they seek support from only when they are campaigning for office or forming the political opposition in the legislature? Ritually, leaders of political parties promise and promise and promise someRead More
No Cape Bretoners, please Halifax regional council has created an eight-member committee to consider the commemoration of Edward Cornwallis in the municipality. I can’t tell you who the members are because council has yet to make the names public, but if it heeded the advice of Councilor David Hendsbee ofRead More
This three-story brick building at 90 Esplanade was built to house the Federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) in 1976. The DFO sailed away in 1999 and the building found a new owner, JIJ Holdings, in 2001. It has been tenanted for most of the past 16 years, butRead More
Okay, I’m exaggerating — but only slightly. The projects the federal government turned down for Canada 150 funding were not a mystery to the government, they’re just a mystery to me — and by extension, you — because their details have been redacted from the response to an access toRead More
The recent dramatic spike in tensions on the Korean Peninsula has sparked fresh calls for Canada to join the American Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system. Proponents of the system claim it can either intercept and destroy a nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of striking North America – a dreadRead More
What to do this week Eat! You’ve put 38 weeks’ worth of hard and noble labor into your fall harvest, now it’s time to enjoy it. Michelle Smith and Madeline Yakimchuk are taking a well-deserved week off, so the Spectator decided to ask some of the people involved with theRead More
Twenty-three years, almost half my life, I’ve been involved in the Gobblefest music festival in one capacity or another. A lot of people give me credit as founder of the festival but I don’t see myself that way – the festival happened and continues to happen because there was aRead More
How to Spend $160 The September 27 edition of the Cape Breton Post was an exciting one for me. The front page featured a Canadian Press story about the provincial budget (prompting me once again to wonder why, if Saltwire is such a heavyweight Atlantic Canadian news presence, it can’tRead...
If there was one issue that dominated the 2017 provincial election in Cape Breton, it was healthcare. And it’s not like there was any one healthcare issue that stood out — poke the system just about anywhere and you’ll hit a sore spot, whether it’s lack of access to primaryRead...
I (finally) received an answer from the CBRM in response to my wastewater questions. You can read my original story here, but the gist is that when Canada’s new Water System Effluent Regulations (WSER) came into effect on 1 January 2015, municipalities operating water treatment systems that didn’t meet themRead...
