On 3 July 2015, over a year before I launched the Cape Breton Spectator, I made a Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIPOP) application to the clerk of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, Deborah Campbell — now Deborah Campbell-Ryan — requesting: Any communications between Mayor Cecil Clarke orRead More

A complaint has been filed with the Labour Standards Division of Nova Scotia against the Sydney Call Centre for breaching provincial labor laws. I should know. I filed it. I sent my four-page complaint with more than 40 supporting documents on October 2, alleging the center, which employs over 600Read More

I have recently been working on a bioethics textbook. Bioethics is a discipline largely driven by case studies – short narratives intended to make the ethical issues under discussion clear, real and urgent. Consequently, many bioethics textbooks include case studies. I want to do something different in this month’s column,Read More

If writing about poverty, homelessness, food banks and the need for a guaranteed annual income (GAI) could solve any of the problems associated with such matters, I would surely have solved a few over lo! these many years I’ve been contributing to the Spectator. The battle cry at the momentRead More

Editor’s Note: To mark Remembrance Day, we’re republishing this 2018 article by our War and Peace columnist Sean Howard.   When you see millions of the mouthless dead Across your dreams in pale battalions go, Say not soft things as other men have said, That you’ll remember. For you needRead More

Briefing Premier Stephen McNeil announced that since the last update on November 3, the province has identified 15 new cases of COVID-19, including the one announced today. The province has 16 active cases, and McNeil said they are “very concerned” about the number creeping up and the potential exposure thatRead More

I Swear I discovered the CBRM was planning an in-person swearing-in ceremony for mayor and council not from CBRM communications but from a reporter for another news outlet I happened to bump into in front of Sobeys on Tuesday night. Honestly, as a form of communication, it’s not ineffective. TheRead More

I’ve been thinking about what constitutes “journalism” lately and I’ve decided it all boils down to asking one question — and asking it repeatedly — and that question is: “Is it true?” In no area is that question more appropriate right now than that of proposed “developments” for downtown Sydney.Read More

Thirty Novembers ago, leaders of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) met in Paris to inaugurate a post-Cold War order of peace and prosperity. The Conference – encompassing North America and Soviet Asia as well as Europe – had convened at Summit level only once before, inRead More

I, having predicted as late as 5PM on election day that Joe Biden would win “by a landslide,” have had my political analyst’s license (which was only a learner’s permit to begin with) revoked. Consider this me, staying in my lane.