Society

Letter to the Editor: When They Knock, Ask About the Library

Letter to the Editor: When They Knock, Ask About the Library

May 3, 2017 at 1:00 pm

Dear Editor, It seems less and less frequent that we receive knocks on the door with people on the other side who want to have face-to-face conversations. Rare is the opportunity to look someone in the eye rather than through a screen and talk about things that matter. It’s electionRead More

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

April 21, 2017 at 9:00 am

Stealth staffing I heard Kathy Bell, director of primary health care, chronic disease and family practice with the Nova Scotia Health Authority, tell the CBC’s Yvonne LeBlanc-Smith on Thursday that while she was happy to announce Cape Breton would be receiving seven nurse practitioners, she was not at liberty to sayRead More

New Dawn Centre for Social Innovation

Convent As Arts Center? It Always Was…

April 19, 2017 at 11:40 am

It definitely wasn’t yesterday, but I vividly remember my mother guiding me through the door at the back of Holy Angels Convent and down the stairs to the gymnasium (a room larger than my six-year-old self had ever seen). Grade two was just across from the gym, and down theRead More

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

April 14, 2017 at 9:34 am

Mark Lever Buys Every Paper in Atlantic Canada You know the problems unionized workers have been having with the Chronicle Herald? The strike that’s now well into its second year? Well, pretty much every paper in Atlantic Canada is going to be singing those Mark Lever blues now that theRead More

Don’t Make Assumptions About the Assumption Fund

Don’t Make Assumptions About the Assumption Fund

April 12, 2017 at 11:59 am

Last month I sent two freedom of information/access to information (FOIPOP) requests to the Port of Sydney Development Corporation. One requested a detailed account of how the Port has been spending the $2.5 million left over from the $37 million Sydney harbor dredge, completed in 2012. (You can read aboutRead More

The McConnell: Upstairs and Down

The McConnell: Upstairs and Down

April 12, 2017 at 11:57 am

Librarians, in my experience, are often bearers of good news. For example, last year, while spending a day in the country, I dropped into the local library just to have a look around. The librarian was friendly and helpful, and not only informed me that I could borrow items thereRead More

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

April 7, 2017 at 10:00 am

Like two ships that pass in the ice The port [of Sydney] has a series of natural advantages that distinguish it from other East Coast harbours. For example, it is the first port of call in North America for vessels transshipping from the Suez Canal. In addition it is aRead More

St. Peter's Square, St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican Obelisk (Photo by By Jean-Pol GRANDMONT (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons)

Justice Delayed: When Will Vatican ‘Own’ Abuse Scandal?

April 5, 2017 at 1:05 pm

Archbishop Anthony Mancini of Halifax, seems an amiable and reasonable (though serious) type of guy, who recently led the bishops of the Atlantic Canadian dioceses to the eternal city for an “ad lumina” visit with Pope Francis. The purpose of these visits—which, as Mancini told Steve Murphy of CTV AtlanticRead More

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

March 31, 2017 at 10:56 am

Editor’s note: As you may have noticed, Fast & Curious is being published on a Friday. It’s an experiment to see if it a) works for my readers and b) works for me. Feel free to send me your thoughts.   Port Hawkesbury Man Does it really make sense toRead More

Painting by Mary Riter Hamilton, (cropped), “Isolated Grave and Camouflage, Vimy Ridge,” May 20, 1919 (Source: Library and Archives Canada, CC by 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)

Vimy Ridge: Victory or Vortex?

March 29, 2017 at 12:25 pm

On 9 April 2007, after a $20 million, two-year restoration project, the Vimy Monument, the centerpiece of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France, was reopened to the public. In an elaborate ceremony also marking the 90th anniversary of the assault on Vimy Ridge, Prime Minister Stephen Harper told aRead More