Archive for April, 2019

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

April 26, 2019 at 8:00 am

‘Many or several’ A Tuesday night CTV news report about the cruise industry in Cape Breton (opening line: “It seems their ship has come in, once again, for the cruise industry in Cape Breton”), sent me scrambling for my secondary sources. First, because it seemed to contain confirmation that theRead More

Reading the ECBC/Ben Eoin Golf Club Contract

Reading the ECBC/Ben Eoin Golf Club Contract

April 24, 2019 at 10:08 am

As part of my coverage of the ructions in Ben Eoin, I submitted an access to information request to the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) for a copy of the contract between Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation (ECBC) and Ben Eoin Golf Club Limited. I also asked for any correspondence concerningRead More

Cossitt Heights: The Power Point Presentation

Cossitt Heights: The Power Point Presentation

April 24, 2019 at 10:06 am

Since writing last week about the delayed development of Cossitt Heights — a 350-unit, site-sensitive, sustainable housing development proposed seven years ago for a former Sydney industrial park — I’ve gotten my grubby little hands on a copy of the Power Point Presentation shown to council in 2012 as partRead More

Mary Ellen MacIntyre (center). Photo and drawings by Eliza Murray.

Mary Ellen MacIntyre’s Little Island

April 24, 2019 at 10:04 am

Before I tell you about Mary Ellen MacIntyre’s blog, Innis Bheag (Little Island), you should read a bit of it. Here’s a snippet from a story called “Cow Bay Road Mud and Fire“:   Some people shouldn’t retire. If they do, they must then do other things, or they willRead More

And Now, a Word from Your Planet

And Now, a Word from Your Planet

April 24, 2019 at 10:02 am

The hook for this edition of “A Word from Your Planet” is not just weak, it’s downright imaginary — I’m hanging it on Sydney Harbour Investment Partners (SHIP)’s grand plans for our port, which I referenced this week in the Cossitt Heights article. In fact, I’m hanging it on aRead More

Spectator photo.

Gardening Tips: Advice from Springtimes Past

April 24, 2019 at 10:00 am

What to do this week Michelle Smith is away this week, but don’t worry, she’s got your back as far as early-May gardening is concerned. Back on 3 May 2017, she was urging you to get off your couch and plant some trees: The old saying about it being betterRead More

Jail is…Great?

Jail is…Great?

April 17, 2019 at 12:23 pm

When I saw the headline “Life in lockup“on the front page of Tuesday’s Cape Breton Post I was impressed — a full, front page story (and two additional pages inside) exploring life in the Cape Breton Correctional Facility? SaltWire actually doing a valuable “deep dive?” Excellent. And then I readRead More

This is the first duplex built in the Cossitt Heights subdivision. (George Mortimer/CBC)

Delayed Development

April 17, 2019 at 12:21 pm

Coverage of “developer” Jim Kehoe’s Cossitt Heights Park has made my eyes cross so firmly that typing has become a challenge, but I will persevere. It all started (the story, not the Kehoe coverage) in 1991 (pre-amalgamation) when the Cossitt Heights Industrial Park was established on Upper Prince Street inRead More

Pope Benedict XVI

No Act of Contrition: Benedict XVI on Sexual Abuse

April 17, 2019 at 12:19 pm

I wonder how Pope Francis feels about having a 92-year-old armchair quarterback living in a neat little cottage somewhere behind the Vatican who suddenly decides to “unpack” the sexual abuse crisis, its causes and solutions? Retired Pope Benedict XVI has decided to share his enlightened version of the worst scandalRead More

Artist's rendering of Cape Breton Regional Hospital expansion.

Okay, Stop: Ministerial Edition

April 17, 2019 at 12:17 pm

One thing I feel absolutely no compulsion to print is op-eds by sitting politicians. My job is not to help elected officials get their carefully crafted messages to the electorate. My job is to hold elected officials accountable. So when I received a healthcare op-ed “written” by Energy and MinesRead More