Archive for June, 2020

Change to Library Funding Formula Overdue

Change to Library Funding Formula Overdue

June 17, 2020 at 12:59 pm

To the patrons and friends of the CBRL network, Recently the board of the Cape Breton Regional Library has been encouraged to review the discussion regarding the new central library. We have also been happy to see discussion around what steps are currently underway to ensure progress is, in fact,Read More

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

June 11, 2020 at 12:47 pm

Cruise News Monday was World Oceans Day and if you put your ear to a seashell,  you could hear a chorus of voices across the globe calling on the cruise industry to clean up its act. Environmental activists living in “port communities” marked the occasion with a virtual “Rally toRead...

Stephen McNeil and Dr. Robert Strang, NS COVID-19 Update for 13 May 2020

NS COVID-19 Update for 10 June 2020

June 10, 2020 at 4:36 pm

Daily briefing Today’s briefing ended with Dr. Robert Strang announcing that he has to go to New Brunswick for a minor surgical procedure that is not performed in Nova Scotia (he has a form of skin cancer that “develops locally” but does not spread). He will be following the rulesRead More

CBRM Council: Tow the Line

CBRM Council: Tow the Line

June 10, 2020 at 1:08 pm

Donkin During the Proclamations & Resolutions portion of Tuesday’s virtual CBRM council meeting, District 8 Councilor Amanda McDougall presented a resolution outlining South Head residents’ environmental concerns about the Donkin coal mine, which is described as having ceased operations “permanently.” McDougall’s resolution asked council to make these concerns known toRead More

Protestors run from tear gas, Denver. (YouTube screen grab)

Letter from Denver: ‘Less-than-Lethal’ Force

June 10, 2020 at 1:06 pm

Hello friends of the Spectator! My neighborhood in Denver, Colorado, USA is called Capitol Hill, and the golden dome of its namesake sits imperiously three blocks from my lovely 1918 building, with three stories of balconies overlooking Pennsylvania Street, next to the home of Molly Brown, Denver’s notable from theRead More

Impossible Whopper. (Photo by Sarah Stierch, CC BY 4.0 Missvain / CC BY https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)

Can You Have Your Meat and Eat It Too?

June 10, 2020 at 1:04 pm

When I was young, there was a saying that was often used to describe someone who wanted to do two incompatible things simultaneously: “She wants to have her cake and eat it too!” The moral of the saying was that we often have to make difficult choices: we can’t preserveRead More

Letter to the Editor: COVID ‘What Ifs?’

Letter to the Editor: COVID ‘What Ifs?’

June 10, 2020 at 1:02 pm

Historians will tell us that major social change is often the result of tragedy or catastrophe. As we struggle to overcome the ravages of the COVID virus and the resulting adjustments to our normal social interaction, what if it all could result in some real long-term benefit? Social media andRead More

Premier Stephen McNeil and Dr. Robert Strang, NS COVID-19 Update for 9 June 2020.

NS COVID-19 Update for 9 June 20

June 9, 2020 at 4:44 pm

Daily briefing Today’s briefing began with both Premier Stephen McNeil and Dr. Robert Strang offering their condolences to the family and friends of the most recently announced victim of COVID-19, a woman in her ’70s in the Central Zone who was not a resident of a long-term-care facility (LTCF) andRead More

Premier Stephen McNeil, NS COVID-19 Update for 5 June 2020

NS COVID-19 Update for 5 June 2020

June 5, 2020 at 5:16 pm

Daily briefing Dr. Robert Strang and Premier Stephen McNeil began by offering their sympathy to the family and friends of the man in his ’70s who died of COVID-19 in the Central Zone since the last briefing on Wednesday. Strang announced there were no new cases of COVID-19 in theRead More

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

June 5, 2020 at 9:27 am

Police (de)funding Wednesday’s night’s “Take a knee to make a stand” demonstration in front of CBRM’s Central Police Station on Grand Lake Road attracted an estimated 1,500 people, despite the drizzle and cold. I didn’t attend (the people in my household bubble are both over 80 and I am –perhapsRead...