I have now received almost all the port-related documents the Privacy Commissioner told the CBRM to release to me. All that seems to be missing are the documents the municipality has never produced, not even for the commissioner herself. On the one hand, this is great, full stop. The CBRMRead More

The feasibility of developing a terminal for the world’s largest container ships in Sydney harbor is something you’d think the proponents would probably want to determine relatively early on in the process and yet, by 2014 — after the $38 million dredging of the harbor — the port team hadRead More

For thousands of years, the diverse marine life in the southern part of the Gulf of St. Lawrence prospered as the waters of the Atlantic Ocean mixed with those of the Gulf. The ebb and flow of huge volumes of salt water brought food and myriad whales, fish, lobster, crabRead More

Editor’s Note: I spoke with Michelle Smith this week, and she says it’s time to start gardening again, so the Spectator will resume publication of timely advice from her archive.   What to do this week Most of the vegetables we grow from seed in our gardens are annuals. TheseRead More

Why are Canadian universities charging unconscionably high tuition fees for a virtual online education? It is bad enough that Canada, unlike the Western European Nations France, Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland, does not offer free tuition to her beleaguered young citizens but Canadian universities (e.g. Dalhousie) areRead More

Nothing ventured… This week, I have a question for you: Women in this province have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. You want to help them. Do you: A) invest $5 million in an early-stage venture capital fund focused on women-led startups; B) tear $5 million into tiny shreds andRead More

Yesterday’s CBRM council meeting was a relatively short (just under an hour) and swiftly moving affair. The agenda contained just six items, the first three of which were approval of minutes, approval of agenda and proclamations (CBRM will mark White Cane Week from February 7 to 13). So I willRead More

I’ve been bellyaching for years about how little information we were ever given about Mayor Cecil Clarke’s travel in support of the port project. His expense reports were notoriously shy on detail, as illustrated by this 2018 entry in which he doesn’t even reveal the city in which his “PortRead More

If you follow CBRM politics, are on social media or hold local elected office, you probably know the name Rod Gale. The South Bar resident (who has written for this publication in the past) doesn’t hesitate to share his thoughts, especially on matters about which he’s passionate — like poverty.Read More

When Allie MacInnis (that would be the CBRM Town Crier) posted a picture of the Hoople Block on Facebook last week, I was surprised at all the memories that came flooding back. It’s been years since I left that Ferry Street-Armstrong Court neighborhood where our paternal grandfather settled when heRead More