Mary Campbell

From Sydney to Saudi: EllisDon Gets Around

From Sydney to Saudi: EllisDon Gets Around

May 17, 2023 at 1:36 pm

I have seen the name EllisDon on signs attached to the fencing around the under-construction NSCC Sydney Waterfront Campus but I didn’t actually know anything about the company until this week, when I got interested in it as part of an entity called SHIP.ED which submitted a proposal to developRead More

Albany Calling

Albany Calling

May 17, 2023 at 1:34 pm

I am not on the Port of Sydney’s media list, so did not receive the press release headlined: Port of Sydney to Host U.S. and Atlantic Canadian Ports During Port Days I actually knew the Port of Sydney would be welcoming the North Atlantic Ports Association (NAPA) and the IndependentRead More

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

May 12, 2023 at 11:39 am

Growth Back in 2021, the CBRM went looking for a consultant to: …complete a new Municipal Planning Strategy (MPS), Economic Development Strategy, Land Use By-law (LUB), and other related enabling by-laws including the Subdivision By-law. The contract, worth $217,391.30, was awarded to Dillon Consulting which subcontracted two additional consultants—David Campbell ofRead...

Jelena Vermilion, executive director of Sex Workers’ Action Program (SWAP), Hamilton, speaking about the challenge to Canada’s anti-prostitution laws. (Source: @ButterflyCSW/Twitter)

So, How’s That ‘Nordic Model’ Working Out?

May 10, 2023 at 1:51 pm

I have read multiple local court reports recently in which the sentence included an order that the convicted person “submit a DNA sample to the national registry” and it struck me that it’s been six years almost to the day since I first wrote about Canada’s National DNA Data BankRead More

Back to the DNA Bank

Back to the DNA Bank

May 10, 2023 at 1:49 pm

Now that I’ve worked through my 2,800-word preamble in the form of this week’s history of Canada’s Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act, it’s time to focus on the subject I actually set out to cover: Canada’s National DNA Data Bank (NDDB). As I explained back in 2017, whenRead More

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

May 5, 2023 at 12:00 pm

Street sense Effective water management is crucial when paving asphalt. Poor water management has a devastating effect on asphalt. Standing water seeps through asphalt into the foundations underneath. As a result, the foundations weaken and become unstable. This disrupts the road’s surface, which results in bumps dips, and potholes appearingRead...

Cape Breton’s Invisible Coal Company

Cape Breton’s Invisible Coal Company

May 3, 2023 at 10:08 am

Media coverage of the weekend fire at the Donkin Mine may not have answered all the pertinent questions about the incident, but it revealed an interesting truth about the way Kameron Coal operates. According to the Cape Breton Post, the province was alerted to the fire around 7:00 PM onRead More

‘They’ll Wish They Had Paid Us…to Put More CO2 in the Air’

‘They’ll Wish They Had Paid Us…to Put More CO2 in the Air’

May 3, 2023 at 10:06 am

While writing this week’s admittedly not very cheerful story about how Kameron Coal has co-opted our governments as its communications department, I ran across a 2017 Forbes article about the late Chris Cline’s decision to buy the Donkin Mine and realized just what we’re missing when our coal barons won’tRead More

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

April 28, 2023 at 10:23 am

Optimism I was taken to task on Twitter for being old and pessimistic for my skeptical take on the CBRM delegation to Wind Europe 2023. The tweeter was responding to my headline without actually having read my story but I am always alive to the danger of becoming old andRead...

It’s an Ill Wind That Blows Nobody Any Good

It’s an Ill Wind That Blows Nobody Any Good

April 26, 2023 at 12:21 pm

During the first era of Albert Barbusci’s “Novaporte” scheme, one I have come to think of as the “Sino” era, China was going to be key to everything: China was going to finance, build and operate a deep-water terminal for ultra-large container vessels (ULCVs) in Sydney Harbour. This gave certainRead More