Shots! I’m betting when you read that you knew I was talking about COVID vaccine and not tequila. That is a sad but I hope not enduring effect of the ongoing pandemic. I got my first AstraZeneca shot on Monday. On Tuesday, I had a sore arm and fatigue seriousRead...

Ever since reading Linda McQuaig on Connaught Labs — the “public” lab that McQuaig argues, convincingly, could have helped Canada fight the COVID-19 pandemic had it not been privatized by the Mulroney government in the ’80s — I’ve been thinking about the value of publicly owned businesses and looking atRead More

It took public pressure to get the Lahey Report (“An Independent Review of Forest Practices in Nova Scotia“) off the ground but once completed, it contained summaries like this one: My conclusion is that ecological forestry must be pursued on Crown and private lands with a combination of tools thatRead...

Editor’s Note: I had to make a trip to the Annapolis Valley on short notice yesterday and thought I’d simply be able to post Fast & Curious — which I’d written on Thursday — from the road. But time and circumstance worked against me, which is why you are seeingRead More

Enquête, Radio-Canada’s investigative news show — think, Fifth Estate in French — on Friday dedicated part of its last episode of the season to a story involving a familiar face: It seems “Montreal businessman” Albert Barbusci, in addition to working tirelessly to promote the Port of Sydney (and his FloridaRead More

I’ve been meaning to discuss District 1 Councilor Gordon MacDonald’s attempt to get CBRM council to pass a motion in support of paid sick days since he first made it at the February 23 council meeting but I haven’t been able to do the necessary research until this week. MacDonaldRead More

While our community contemplates the merits of replacing the aging McConnell Library, perhaps an appreciation of the existing institution is not unwarranted.  Certainly a 70-year-old structure whose principal purpose, as an educational avenue, is the availability and accessibility of books, is still up to the job?  What defects exist, noRead More

Here are the important takeaways from this morning’s CBRM special council meeting on the proposed new CBRM Central Library:   Aurevoir, HRDL? Council took a major step toward ending the agreement that has given a private developer, Martin Chernin’s Harbour Royale Development Limited, control over the proposed new library. AtRead More

I lost track of how many times participants in Tuesday’s “CBRM Forward” discussion used the words “excited” or “exciting.” Literally everyone who spoke was either excited to be there or excited at the prospect of overhauling the municipality’s planning strategy and land-use by-law or excited to be drafting an economicRead More

Honey, I shrunk the groceries My mother, who pays better attention to these things than I do, has been pointing out to me for some time now how many of the products she buys have shrunk in size — although not in price. Curious, I did some reading and discoveredRead More