FOIPOP Follies For the record: I received the response to my freedom of information/protection of privacy (FOIPOP) request to the NS Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal (TIR) for an “unedited” copy of Neil MacNeil’s rail fees report. I got bupkis. There are a couple of additional emails not includedRead More
As a matter of fact… I just heard the CBC Cape Breton Information Morning “issue panel” discuss the PC leadership race — more specifically, whether Mayor Cecil Clarke should resign to run for the leadership. I was a vocal participant in that discussion, although you may not have heard me, asRead More
Nova Scotia Represent I ran across references to Nova Scotia in two unexpected places this past week, which is always fun and makes me think, “The world DOES know we exist!” The first came as I was listening to the latest episode of The Zero Hour, a TV and radioRead 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
What do the Crusades, Slavery, the Inquisition, the Holocaust, and the Sins of the Church have in common? All have been the subjects of apologies from popes on behalf of the Catholic Church. In Bolivia in July 2015, the current pope, Francis, apologized for “the grave sins committed against the nativeRead...
In the last two columns, I have been exploring Cartesian dualism and some of its consequences. This month, I want to consider an intriguing technological development that may emerge out of the marriage of Cartesian thinking and advances in computer technology. This is the claim made by some so-called “immortalists”Read More
Fifteen years ago, my first assignment for The Cape Bretoner (a magazine that unfortunately ceased publication in 2006) was a story on homelessness in Cape Breton. I don’t recall if the 2003 winter was as severe as the past few weeks have been, but there were signs of hope andRead More
(Wide) Open data I’m still trying to digest all I’ve read about the great hacking-that-wasn’t of Nova Scotia’s freedom-of-information portal. There is a lot to digest. The story has legs and has bounded all over the planet, a textbook case of — take your pick — lax data protection, policeRead...
Perhaps one of Charles Dickens’ most famous lines was Oliver Twist’s “Please sir, I want some more.” First published in monthly installments from February 1837 to April 1839, Oliver Twist was pretty much an attack on Britain’s Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834. As G.K. Chesterton wrote in an introductionRead More
In the last two columns, I have been exploring Cartesian dualism and some of its consequences. This month, I want to consider an intriguing technological development that may emerge out of the marriage of Cartesian thinking and advances in computer technology. This is the claim made by some so-called “immortalists”Read More
![Vegetable and herb seeds. (Photo by Rickproser [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons)](https://capebretonspectator.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/saved_seeds_crop-200x150.png)
What to do this week Well, perhaps you noticed that it snowed this week, so maybe we have to go back to garden planning. You can’t keep a gardener down, so we will take advantage of this time to talk about organizing your crops for seed-saving purposes. If you wantRead...
Welcome to this week’s installment of “Where’s Cecil?” my ongoing effort to keep track of Mayor Cecil Clarke’s campaign appearances to judge just how much time he’s taking from his day job to travel the province in pursuit of the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party of Nova Scotia. I’mRead...
Team Meucci I’m filing this one under, “Better Late Than Never.” It’s a Tom Ayers story that appeared in the Chronicle Herald on March 22 and about which I keep meaning to say something. On the surface, it’s a story about the descendants of Alexander Graham Bell disputing the $885,200Read More
The deadline for bids for the construction of a second cruise ship berth in Sydney harbor has been pushed back from 29 March 2018 to 26 April 2018, according to an addendum to the original tender (the fourth such addendum) posted on the Nova Scotia government website. That is just the latestRead...
![John Bolton (Photo by Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America (John Bolton) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)](https://capebretonspectator.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/John_Bolton_Crop-200x150.png)
On March 22, President Trump tweet-sacked National Security Adviser (NSA) Lieutenant-General H.R. McMaster, naming as his replacement John Bolton, one of the most hawkish, controversial and unpopular officials in the trigger-happy administration of George W. Bush. Bolton learned the news while appearing on the Fox ‘News’ Channel, his soapbox inRead More
What to do this week I took a walk in my back field this week. Now that the snow is pretty well gone, I was able to notice that my raspberry bushes need a bit of tending. This is a good week to thin out your raspberry patch. It seemsRead More
Welcome to this week’s installment of “Where’s Cecil?” my ongoing effort to keep track of Mayor Cecil Clarke’s campaign appearances to judge just how much time he’s taking from his day job to travel the province in pursuit of the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party of Nova Scotia. I’m focusingRead More
Sunday will mark the feast of Easter which, as we who call ourselves Catholic have always been taught, is the most important feast in the church calendar. Yes, more important than Christmas, since the cornerstone of the Catholic faith is the belief that Christ rose from the dead. Easter hasRead More
Former CBRM economic development officer John Whalley’s civil suit against the municipality for constructive dismissal has been postponed to August. Whalley, who is represented by Blair Mitchell of Halifax, told the Spectator they requested the delay because his only witness, former CBRM CAO Jerry Ryan, was unable to attend courtRead More
