Johnny ‘No Comment’ During the 2021 provincial election, when he was running as the (ultimately successful) Progressive Conservative candidate in the riding of Glace Bay, John White (aka Johnny White aka Johnny Bubba) declined to answer the Spectator‘s questions. I had forgotten that until yesterday, when I read about WhiteRead More

Editor’s Note: I’ve added new items to the timeline below, but my real update can be found in this new article, for which I’ve written a new introduction. Rather than repeat myself, I thought I’d let the old intro stand because it still serves a purpose: it explains why IRead More

  Sometimes it seems we are living in different worlds — Vladimir Putin, 23 December 2021 There is another world, and it is this one — French poet Paul Éluard   The curtain was raised on 2022 with the stage set for not one, not two, but three major regional conflicts,Read More

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

Two things. First, I have been so busy these past two weeks I forgot to tell you that Rob Csernyik’s Casino series, in addition to winning the Excellence in Digital Journalism: Enterprise/Longform Atlantic Journalism gold award won a Digital Publishing gold award for Best News Coverage (Community Publication).   ThisRead More

Mary Makes a Meme How it started:     How it’s going:   On the bright side, having let it it sit empty for two years (and catch fire once), the entrepreneurs who bought the building for $225,000 are hoping to sell it for $399,000.   Mary Makes Another MemeRead More

The Atlantic Journalism Awards for 2021 were announced yesterday and the names of the gold winners in the Excellence in Digital Journalism: Enterprise/Longform category may sound familiar to you: Rob Csernyik/Mary Campbell – The Cape Breton Spectator – Sydney, NS – Sydney’s casino at 25. Yes, the Cape Breton Spectator,Read More

Awards season (I) I first met Rob Csernyik in April 2019. We had coffee at Dr. Luke’s and he interviewed me for a J-Source article he was writing about the Cape Breton journalism scene. We went back and forth by email for months afterward because J-Source is serious to theRead More

ob Csernyik, the Cape Breton-born/New Brunswick-based journalist behind the Spectator‘s casino series, is waiting (patiently) for responses from the Nova Scotia Health Authority (NSHA) so he can complete Part III of the series. In the interim, I thought I’d take the opportunity to introduce him to my readers, so IRead More

Voting season CBRM council has cleared the way for online and telephone voting in October’s municipal elections, which the provincial government has declared will take place despite fears of a second wave of COVID-19 this fall. No particular concerns were raised during the council debate on the issue — havingRead More