Human Rights

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

Nova Scotia’s Failing Grades

Nova Scotia’s Failing Grades

November 24, 2021 at 12:49 pm

I didn’t really expect the 2021 Child and Family Poverty report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) to cheer me on a grey day, but I also didn’t expect it to be quite as bleak as it is. The report, by Dr. Lesley Frank, Laura Fisher and Dr.Read More

Weighing the Worth of the Bishops’ Apology

Weighing the Worth of the Bishops’ Apology

October 13, 2021 at 11:49 am

Although the Residential Schools have come under attack over the years, the discovery of the graves of children in and around the former schools in May of 2021 resulted in a new and urgent call for apologies from the various churches involved in them. Almost immediately after the graves wereRead More

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

October 8, 2021 at 1:00 pm

Just say no The local CBC is running a multi-part series on “street drugs” and if I didn’t know better, I’d suspect it was being sponsored by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, because the stance it takes on drugs — they’re bad and people who do them die — seemsRead More

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

October 1, 2021 at 10:30 am

Housing for the People? I want to write about the recent referendum on expropriating major landlords in Berlin, but before I do, I have to take you back in time, so you’ll better understand the context in which this referendum — which passed by a vote of 56.4% to 39%Read More

Indian soldiers wander in destroyed Hiroshima, June 1946. (Unknown author, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.)

Speaking of the Unspeakable

August 11, 2021 at 1:02 pm

I could not understand why our surroundings had changed so greatly in one instant. I thought it might have been something which had nothing to do with the war, the collapse of the earth which it was said would take place at the end of the world, and which IRead More

All REIT: An Intro To Financialized Housing

All REIT: An Intro To Financialized Housing

June 30, 2021 at 12:32 pm

I’m going to start this week’s article on the financialization of housing by reproducing a graphic from the recent report from the Nova Scotia Affordable Housing Commission — a graphic I just can’t get enough of because it really does say it all:   The man on the right sideRead More

What NS Could Learn from Vienna’s ‘Red Housing’

What NS Could Learn from Vienna’s ‘Red Housing’

June 23, 2021 at 12:16 pm

When it comes to social (or “public” or “subsidized”) housing, Vienna really seems to have its act together. I am tempted to present this information as though I’ve long been an admirer of the social housing of Vienna, but the truth is, I hadn’t realized it was a claim toRead More

Sanctions Kill Code Pink logo

The Truth About Sanctions

May 5, 2021 at 1:34 pm

“There was no shortage of resources to avoid the tragedy of a Famine. … Instead, the government pursued the objective of economic, social and agrarian reform as a long-term aim, although the price paid for this ultimately elusive goal was privation, disease, emigration, mortality and an enduring legacy of disenchantment.”–Read More

Quebec's "Running Electrically" symbol

Time for Electrifying Ideas

February 3, 2021 at 11:15 am

Most people who live in a ‘free country’ like Canada believe they have the right to a healthy environment. We feel we are entitled to all that is imbedded in that philosophy — clean water, fresh air, healthy food, etc. Those of us who live in a rural setting (18%Read More