I don’t really know the situation today, but in the 1950s, working for the church especially as a secretary, I got to know those who were referred to as “stemmers.” They were the dedicated few who every so often rang the glebe house doorbell in search of a dollar orRead More

Editor’s Note: To mark Remembrance Day, we’re republishing this 2018 article by our War and Peace columnist Sean Howard.   When you see millions of the mouthless dead Across your dreams in pale battalions go, Say not soft things as other men have said, That you’ll remember. For you needRead More

Europeans and others who arrived in North America adopted the idea of taking as much of the natural resources (lumber, minerals, fish, etc.) as they possibly could. They have continued to do exactly that for hundreds of years, thanks to individuals and corporations and the forces industrialization and capitalism. WhatRead More

Editor’s Note: Sydney’s casino turns 25 this month and to mark its quarter-century, Rob Csernyik takes an in-depth look at the promises — and realities — of casino gambling in Cape Breton. In Part II, he focuses on the casino’s record for charitable contributions and job creation and explores theRead More

The coming of October goes not unheralded. Its harbingers are glorious – yellow, orange and red. They blaze across the hillside and flame against the sky. While summer, like September, has faded with a sigh. October has a beauty and a splendor that are rare. A crayon-colored prelude to November, bleakRead More

Many things about 2020 have been disconcerting, to say the least, but here in Nova Scotia we are faced with other issues of particular social significance – the racism revolving around the fishing industry. As per the Oxford Dictionary: Racism is prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person orRead More

The New Yorker’s ‘Talk of the Town’ recently reported how, in the depths of the Big Apple’s COVID-19 lockdown, musician David Mansfield discovered a rusted hatch in his overgrown backyard. Prizing it open, he descended a ladder to a nuclear fall-out shelter, a claustrophobic capsule – or “David Bowie tinRead More

The former Sydney train station, located at 75 Dodd Street, is no stranger to controversy, by which I mean, it used to have the name of a brand of beer emblazoned on one end in letters so large, puzzled travelers thought they’d arrived in the City of Olands. I knewRead More

“It was an awesome spectacle; anyone who has ever seen an atomic explosion will never forget it. And all in compete silence; the bang came minutes later, quite loud though I had plugged my ears, and followed by a long rumble like heavy traffic very far away. I can stillRead More

Canadian naval historian Marc Milner says the need for the ships that became the HMCS Kingston-class vessels was identified in the 1970s — the Navy wanted to re-establish its minesweeping capabilities and provide training to reservists — but the order to build what would become the MCDVs didn’t materialize untilRead More