Editor’s Note: I had to read the book, conduct and transcribe an interview and write the story about Maxwell Hartt’s Quietly Shrinking Cities this week, which left me very little time for other reporting but I would like to note a couple of interesting items that popped up in myRead More
Free Seeds! The Cape Breton Regional Library’s Seed Library is back by popular demand. The program offers free vegetable seeds to “encourage community members to start their own vegetable gardens and provide fresh, healthy food for their families and neighbours.” It was launched in 2020 to great success: within two-and-a-halfRead...
Hail to the chief Robert Walsh, erstwhile acting chief of the Cape Breton Regional Police Service (CBRPS) has been named chief. I’m filing that under “O” for “Of course.” On the plus side, if they ever launch a Family Feud: Municipal Edition, we’re ready. Something’s brewing We’re getting ourRead More
In a decision released Tuesday, Nova Scotia’s Information and Privacy Commissioner Tricia Ralph says the CBRM did not fairly calculate the fee it proposed to charge a citizen for a port-related access to information request and recommends the municipality waive the fee and release the documents. This story began inRead More
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
The mayor of the CBRM is, on the one hand, just one vote out of 13 on all matters that come before council, and as I’ve noted before in these pages, the position is barely defined in the province’s Municipal Government Act (MGA) which states: “mayor” means the council memberRead More
NSP Someone (you know who you are) recently got me to thinking about the history of policing in Nova Scotia, which led me to this 1990 article by Greg Marquis (the author, more recently, of a book about the murder of Richard Oland). The piece, entitled “The History of PolicingRead...
First of all, thank you to the candidates who took the time to respond to our questions — Michelle Dockrill, Lois Foster, Jodi McDavid and Kenzie MacNeil. As promised, we extended the deadline to Thursday at 5:00 PM for those candidates who had not yet replied, and here are theRead More
During last night’s regular monthly meeting of the Cape Breton Regional Council, District 5 Councilor Eldon MacDonald moved that the week of September 23 to 29 be declared “Right to Know” Week in the CBRM. I laughed. I cried. And I thought of all the things I would like toRead More
Free the information CBRM Municipal Clerk Deborah Campbell Ryan got back to me Tuesday night about another FOIPOP I submitted back in April looking for information about a matter before council. Her original estimate of the fee I would be required to pay for this (public) information was $215 andRead More
