Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of essays by Susan Dodd on Nova Scotia’s history of blaming coal mining accidents on the miners themselves — a history that finally changed in the wake of the Westray disaster. You can read second and third and fourth essays by clicking theRead More

The CBRM has an environmental assessment of a property owned by local businessman Jerry Nickerson on which it hopes to construct a second cruise ship berth. We know the assessment exists, as Nancy King points out in the Cape Breton Post, because Mayor Cecil Clarke has referred to it, asRead More

News that the owners of the Donkin Mine have been hit with 29 safety violations and 10 compliance orders since operations began in February received markedly different coverage from the CBC and our local, pro-coal, daily newspaper. Here’s the story as it appeared on the CBC website: And here’s theRead More

“It was tragedies like that, unfortunately, that led to better health and safety regulations in the mines and made it a lot safer for generations to come,” said Bob Burchell, the United Mine Workers of America’s (UMWA) interim international representative for Canada, on the eve of a July 25 ceremonyRead More

The Mooch As brushes with celebrity go, it’s not much of one, but I almost interviewed Anthony Scaramucci. At the time, I didn’t much care when my boss decided it would be easier to do the interview herself, but in light of his meteoric political rise and fall —  IRead More

Editor’s Note: This is an article I’ve been working on for over a month now and it barely scratches the surface of the issue it deals with, namely, the housing problems faced by single, non-seniors in the CBRM. If you have information to add or angles you’d like to seeRead More

Municipal Affairs Says… I couldn’t help noticing the Cape Breton Post picked up my story about port marketer Albert Barbusci and his reports to CBRM council. The Post‘s take is very much “nothing to see here folks” — the article makes the point, not once but twice (first in a statement,Read More

In the world of the start-up digital publications, $3,000 is a lot of money. Had I $3,000 burning a hole in my pocket, I could walk into Connors Basics on Charlotte Street and come out with a new desk, a new office chair, a lifetime supply of roller ball pens,Read More

I just spent a wonderful couple of hours exploring the history of Nova Scotia’s branding policies from 1982 to the present courtesy, once again, of a completed freedom of information/access to information (FOIPOP) request. Thank you, unknown member of the public!   Helvetica It begins with a manual from 1982, whenRead More

Nova Scotia’s Workplace Innovation and Productivity Skills Incentive (WIPSI) program (which could also be called the “Let a Thousand Consultancies Bloom” program) has existed since 2010 and since 2014 has been “an initiative of the Canada-Nova Scotia Job Grant.” The program gives Nova Scotia “[b]usinesses, social enterprises and revenue-generating non-for-profitRead More