Constance Backhouse spoke during a brunch sponsored by the Ally Centre of Cape Breton and the Cape Breton Inter-Agency on Family Violence on Friday. Backhouse is a legal scholar, historian, author, professor, activist and the sort of feminist I remember from my ’70s childhood — that is, an unabashed one.Read More

Equalization Nation Estimates put turnout for an equalization protest in front of the Provincial Building in Sydney on Wednesday at upwards of 600. Protest organizers, members of the advocacy group Nova Scotians for Equalization Fairness, have to be happy with those numbers — their message is finally starting to resonateRead More

Part I: Sham Success and Ersatz Humanitarianism   On April 14 the US, UK and France launched missile and air strikes on three suspected chemical weapons (CW) facilities in Syria. The action was taken in response to an alleged chlorine and sarin nerve gas attack by government forces on AprilRead More

Highlights of this article: • Provincial government employees who were made aware of the security failure with the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIPOP) website told Halifax police that the site had been “hacked” and that nearly 10,000 files “were taken” — which clearly overstated the nature ofRead More

Here’s how we obtained the documents. First, a quick primer on search warrants. To get a search warrant, police have to go to a judge or Justice of the Peace and submit a document called an “Information To Obtain a Search Warrant,” or ITO. The ITO lays out the policeRead More

(Wide) Open data I’m still trying to digest all I’ve read about the great hacking-that-wasn’t of Nova Scotia’s freedom-of-information portal. There is a lot to digest. The story has legs and has bounded all over the planet, a textbook case of — take your pick — lax data protection, policeRead More

Pity the poor former world leader. How do you follow up a first act like that? I mean, if you’re not former US President Jimmy Carter, who has dedicated himself to good causes (like Habitat for Humanity and world peace), making himself more popular in retirement than he ever was in office.Read...

Former CBRM economic development officer John Whalley’s civil suit against the municipality for constructive dismissal has been postponed to August. Whalley, who is represented by Blair Mitchell of Halifax, told the Spectator they requested the delay because his only witness, former CBRM CAO Jerry Ryan, was unable to attend courtRead More

Last month, I discussed Descartes’ thought experiment and its sharp separation between mind and body. This month, I want to look at a bizarre and ethically troubling proposal that arises as a consequence of this way of understanding ourselves: the head transplant operation that Italian physician Dr. Sergio Canavero claims thatRead More

Equalize this Developments on the equalization front this week must be gratifying to the stalwart members of Nova Scotians for Equalization Fairness (NSEF), a CBRM-based advocacy group that has been meeting monthly to discuss the issue of municipal financing for 15 long years. Against the backdrop of budget discussions, whichRead More