I began my mining career in 1977 and have been an eye witness to the Donkin saga since the day Pierre Elliot Trudeau announced his National Energy Program (NEP) in the 1980s. The NEP earmarked $2 billion dollars for expansion of the Cape Breton coal industry and Donkin Mine wasRead More

Adding to the general feeling that the world as we know it is coming to an end — and that that’s not necessarily a bad thing — the owners of the Donkin Mine announced on Tuesday they were ending production permanently and putting the mine on “care and maintenance” dueRead More

During the CBRM’s first virtual council meeting on Friday, March 27, council discussed some big infrastructure projects for which federal and provincial funding has been secured. The first project is a wastewater treatment infrastructure project under the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP) worth a strangely precise $97,895,574. The projectRead...

“…it is hard to say who is sick and who is well…” — Daniel Defoe, Journal of the Plague Year   The coronavirus pandemic poses a clear and present danger to the most elderly and vulnerable segments of the global population, those already most prone to perish from influenza and other infectiousRead More

To all Cape Breton Students and Teachers: I am grateful to have this opportunity to contact you about the book called Great Cape Breton Storytelling. Great Cape Breton Storytelling has been approved for use in all Strait Area, Cape Breton-Victoria and Mi’kmaw schools. This digital eBook is available at noRead More

Travel-related Dr. Robert Strang, Nova Scotia’s chief medical officer of health confirmed, 20 new cases of COVID-19 in the province on Tuesday, bringing our total to 147. Although community spread has been concluded as the cause of one case, most of the confirmed cases — 96%, according to Strang —Read More

Community Spread Nova Scotia’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Robert Strang announced on Monday that, having been unable to trace a case of COVID-19 to travel or a known source, they have concluded that transmission has occurred within the community or “community spread.” Strang has been warning for daysRead More

Editor’s Note: A story unfolding as rapidly as the COVID-19 pandemic doesn’t lend itself to weekly coverage so the Spectator is going to experiment with a daily COVID-19 update. This content will not be paywalled, so if you find it useful, feel free to share it. I intend to continueRead More

Timeline update I have realized that there is a better source for Canadian COVID-19 confirmed case totals than the one I used in compiling my initial COVID-19 timeline (I used the Wayback Machine to consult the page each day when I should have simply consulted the cumulative total tables maintainedRead More

Sometimes during a pandemic a good place to be is down a rabbit hole — like the one I went down trying to understand how testing for the virus that causes COVID-19 is done and how it’s being handled here in our province. Let’s start with the basics, which youRead More