The Nova Scotia New Democratic Party made a freedom of information application to the Nova Scotia government last December requesting: All communication (including emails, letter and other electronic messages) briefing notes and other documents related to An Act Respecting a Teacher’s [sic] Professional Agreement. The request referred to legislation that Education MinisterRead More

 Water, water I have a confession to make: I like listening to people discussing things they know about, no matter how dry (or in this case, wet) the subject matter. It’s a trait that seems to be growing stronger over time — I suspect it may even be a response to ourRead More

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]f you happen to be a “none” (no, not a “nun”), you’re one of a growing number of people (more than a billion worldwide actually, especially in America and Europe) who identify themselves as having no religious affiliation, even if they were brought up in homes where religion was practiced,Read More

Caring for seedlings: I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that it is very important for recently planted seeds to be warm until they germinate. Once germinated, they are a little more forgiving, and can be moved to a cooler windowsill so you can use your warmest spot for theRead More

Aussie Hemp Local businessman Parker Rudderham announced last week that his hemp oil company, Highland Hemp, had signed a $14 million deal to supply an unspecified amount of hemp oil to an unnamed Brazilian pharmaceutical company. When reading local business stories, I like to ask myself, “What would the Wall StreetRead More

I have been a member of a number of ethics committees in local health care organizations for a number of years. Entering an ethics meeting at one of these institutions shortly after Christmas, I was surprised to see boxes of chocolates all over the staff room. When I asked whetherRead More

What to do this week: Now that we have seeds and soil, we need some sort of system for planting. You can use anything you want as your system — you just need containers that hold soil. You can use yogurt containers with holes in the bottom, cut-down milk cartonsRead More

Charter? What Charter? I was perusing the list of recently completed Nova Scotia Freedom of Information Protection of Privacy (FOIPOP) requests, as one does, and discovered this one: All briefing notes, analysis and correspondence regarding the development of a municipal charter for Cape Breton Regional Municipality. Oh boy, oh boy,Read More

Dear Mr. Obama, During your momentous visit to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial last May, the first by a sitting US president, you placed the quest for a nuclear-weapon-free world in the profoundest of contexts: the struggle of humanity to transcend the darkest vices of its own nature. As you leaveRead More

It’s only just begun, yet the whole world seems to be feeling the weight of Donald Trump’s presidency. Many more affected and more knowledgeable than myself have commented (boy have they commented) on where he will take the United States during the next four years, but there’s no doubt whatsoeverRead More