Editor’s Note: This started out as an article about Don Cherry getting fired and turned into an exploration of the militarization of professional sports. You can read Part II here.   It hadn’t occurred to me to write about Don Cherry’s firing — I tend to avoid issues that areRead...

Editor’s Note: This is Part II of what started out as an article about Don Cherry getting fired and turned into an exploration of the militarization of professional sports. You can read Part I here.   Back in 2015, this relationship between the military and professional sports was the subjectRead...

Like many North Americans, I recently binge-watched the Netflix show Tidying Up with Marie Kondo. For readers who have been living under a rock and are consequently unfamiliar with this show, it features the Japanese tidying guru Kondo and her (eventually) grateful clients. I found myself watching the show somewhatRead More

The Irvings The latest installment of Dynasties, the Canadaland Commons series on Canada’s wealthiest families, focuses on the Irvings and, as my sister said, “It’s the plot of Succession!” She’s right — only the Irving saga is weirder than the HBO series about an “American global-media family that is notRead More

Free the information CBRM Municipal Clerk Deborah Campbell Ryan got back to me Tuesday night about another FOIPOP I submitted back in April looking for information about a matter before council. Her original estimate of the fee I would be required to pay for this (public) information was $215 andRead More

Sister City A sharp-eyed Spectator drew my attention to an odd little fact in that terrible story of the Canadian sentenced to death in China. Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, a 36-year-old from Abbotsford, BC, was arrested in 2014 and found guilty in 2016 of participating in a drug ring that soughtRead More

Changing of the (Tourism) Guard A spectator alerted me to this job posting on Career Beacon: It appears longtime Destination Cape Breton Association (DCBA) CEO Mary Tulle will be leaving as of 1 February 2019. Destination Cape Breton is the “official Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) for Cape Breton Island,” accordingRead More

(With apologies to Joe Flaherty and any reader unfamiliar with SCTV’s Count Floyd. Or maybe any reader familiar with SCTV’s Count Floyd.) I wasn’t planning to do anything special for Halloween this year, even though I’m actually publishing ON HALLOWEEN, but then I received the latest Nova Scotia Business IncRead More

As I write this column, I am struggling to make ethical sense of current events. How can politicians like Donald Trump shamelessly tell lie after lie, and still have a significant number of people willing to support them? How can men who make or act in sensitive and enlightened filmsRead...

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