COVID-19

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

April 1, 2022 at 12:30 pm

Bridging burning There’s a big update this week on Bridging Finance, the private debt lender that extended Membertou a $6.8 million loan in January 2020 to invest in Novaporte, promoter Albert Barbusci’s proposed Sydney harbor container terminal project (and that took what Barbusci termed a small equity stake of itsRead More

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

March 25, 2022 at 10:51 am

Pennsylvania Pain I decided to write about the first thing that popped into my head this morning (that wasn’t war in Ukraine) and it was the TV series I just watched, Mare of Easttown, starring Kate Winslet. (Warning: there will be spoilers. If you haven’t watched it and plan to,Read More

Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash

Dear Editor: Coming Together to Heal

March 16, 2022 at 11:47 am

Over the last two years, Nova Scotians of all ages have been impacted by unprecedented grief and loss. The COVID-19 pandemic and public health restrictions have prevented people from coming together, supporting one another, or participating in many traditional rituals of mourning and celebration. Individuals have suffered physical, emotional, orRead More

Showing the Flag?

Showing the Flag?

March 2, 2022 at 10:50 am

I mentioned in last week’s edition that I’d seen a video of Cape Breton Regional Police Services (CBRPS) officer distributing Canadian flags to a group of local “Freedom” protesters in front of MP Mike Kelloway’s office in Dominion. I asked CBRPS spokesperson Desiree Magnus about the incident last Wednesday morningRead More

Inheriting the Earth: Promise or Threat?

Inheriting the Earth: Promise or Threat?

March 2, 2022 at 10:49 am

I assumed my first 2022 contribution to the Spectator would be pretty upbeat, especially since New Year’s Eve was spent in a hilarious re-watching of various episodes of Father Ted that included a few I hadn’t seen before. And thanks to YouTube documentary introducing the actors, I got to seeRead More

About Those Protests…

About Those Protests…

February 23, 2022 at 12:19 pm

I spent the bulk of my time this week thinking about property taxes, but as this short month draws to an end, it’s time to address a subject I’ve been actively avoiding: the so-called “Truckers’ Convoy.” Not having been in Ottawa or on the Coutts, Alberta border in person, I’veRead More

Change and the Rural Resident

Change and the Rural Resident

January 26, 2022 at 12:15 pm

Re-reading my recap of Episode 10 of Annette Verschuren’s Bet On Me podcast, I realized I’d forgotten a couple of things I’d meant to cover, so I’m going to devote a little more ink to her conversation with Cabot Cape Breton owner Ben Cowan-Dewar. At one point, the two discussRead More

Q2 2021: COVID, Tattoos and Affordable Housing

Q2 2021: COVID, Tattoos and Affordable Housing

December 15, 2021 at 11:54 am

The Spectator‘s coverage this spring was varied, to say the least. From Albert Barbusci’s nuclear waste deal, to the workings of the Verschuren Centre to the province’s third wave of COVID with a variety of stops in between, including a feature I count among my all-time favorites — the oneRead More

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

November 18, 2021 at 11:35 am

Cruise news And now, from the “counterintuitive” department, I’d like to suggest that there are ways in which COVID may actually prove a boon to the cruise industry. It’s a theory I developed watching a “recovery of cruise” presentation from a November 2020 conference on “post-COVID” tourism in Cape BretonRead More

Banking on Food Banks?

Banking on Food Banks?

October 27, 2021 at 12:51 pm

Does anyone go shopping for groceries these days without having at least one conversation with another shopper about the rising cost of what we are putting in our carts? Assuming, that is, we are among those who can continue to purchase the same items we have been using for years.Read More