Any port in a storm? Lisa Raitt was a guest on Canadaland’s OPPO podcast this week (OPPO is sort of like Crossfire for millennials, pitting left-of-center reporter/pundit Justin Ling against right-of-center reporter/pundit Jen Gerson to discuss Canadian politics.) You can listen to what Raitt had to say about why sheRead More

Chief Paul responds… The press release Albert Barbusci issued last week announcing his plan to establish a waste plastic-to-fuels plant in his “logistics park” in Edwardsville included the following quote from Membertou Chief Terry Paul: As active partners in SHIP, the reduced carbon footprint of our facilities is key toRead More

Picnic for the Planet News that 250+ media organizations have pledged to do a week of climate change coverage in the lead-in to the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York on September 23 has made me vow to pull up my socks and make a point of includingRead More

Sea change A spectator (you know who you are) pointed me to this item from the tender for architectural and engineering services for the new Marconi Campus on the Sydney waterfront (before, I might add, it was also picked up on by the Cape Breton Post): Climate risks include increasedRead 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

Slouching toward Green Cove? I happened to visit the Never Forgotten National Memorial website in the course of  researching another story this past week, and was fascinated (and by “fascinated” I mean “terrified”) to discover that Mother Canada is still out there like some rough beast, waiting for its hourRead More

Sydney City Hall? I will be the first to admit the name “Cape Breton Regional Municipality” does not roll mellifluously off the tongue, nor is “CBRM” any prettier. I think it would be good to have an actual name for our municipality and I would like to be able toRead More

Weapons of Math Destruction Ever since researching my stories on PowerSchool, the data gathering software used by the NS Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, I’ve been curious about the uses and abuses of Big Data. The goal is not simply to gather and store information but to mineRead More

Note: Fast & Curious will be a new weekly feature in which The Spectator will take a brief look at a number of stories that piqued its interest during the week.   Oh Readers! Oh Lovers of Books! First and foremost, Spectator contributor Sean Howard has published a new bookRead More