I am writing this column on Sunday, April 19, which, coincidentally, is also Easter Sunday for Orthodox Christians. Last week, another Easter Sunday, did not feel festive, and nor does this one. My street, as I look out my window, is completely deserted. There are cars in the driveways, butRead More

Daily brief Dr. Robert Strang on Tuesday announced Nova Scotia’s 10th COVID-19-related death — which was also the sixth at the Northwood long-term-care facility (LTCF) in Halifax, site of the province’s worst COVID-19 outbreak. He also announced 16 new cases (one of these from Northwood), a low number likely dueRead More

Daily brief Dr. Robert Strang announced 46 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday bringing Nova Scotia’s total cases to date to 721. He also noted that 48 people have recovered from COVID-19 and there have been no additional deaths, which brings active cases in the province to 464. The majorityRead More

Daily briefing Today’s briefing began with both Premier Stephen McNeil and Dr. Robert Strang sending condolences to the those affected by today’s live-shooter incident in Portapique, NS, and I can’t believe I just had to write that sentence, but here we are. Dr. Strang then announced five deaths related toRead More

Daily briefing Nova Scotia reported a fourth COVID-19-related death — and a third for Cape Breton — on Friday, a woman in her ’80s who died as a result of “complications related to COVID-19.” The province has identified 27 new cases, 13 of which are in long-term-care facilities (LTCF), bringingRead More

Shipping views Before Albert Barbusci (remember him?) entered our lives, I hadn’t thought much about container ships. I remember that one of the few times they impinged on my consciousness was when I saw a short film about one at a film festival — I was foggy on the detailsRead...

Daily briefing Dr. Robert Strang announced 30 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, bringing Nova Scotia’s total to 579. Long-term care facilities were the subject of much discussion again today. As of April 15, there were seven licensed long-term care homes in Nova Scotia with cases of COVID-19, involving 42Read More

Daily briefing Dr. Robert Strang announced 32 new cases of COVID-19, bringing Nova Scotia’s total to 549. Nine patients are in hospital, four of whom are in ICU. Strang was asked if he was encouraged by the low hospitalization numbers and he said he was and that the “many” ofRead More

Being a pathological optimist, it didn’t occur to me to wonder, when Nova Scotia Education Minister Zach Churchill canceled international school trips on March 4, if there would be any disruptions to my own classroom. Nor did I think we wouldn’t be back after March Break. Or that we wouldn’tRead More

  “Not even the apparently enlightened principle of the ‘greatest good for the greatest number’ can excuse indifference to individual suffering.” — Aneurin Bevan, In Place of Fear   “Poor naked wretches, wheresoe’er, That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm, How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides…defend youRead More