I have just finished reading, with an open mind, Mary Campbell’s article about the COVID update for this past weekend. As a former Cape Bretoner (I now live in the Annapolis Valley), I was dismayed at the very negative tone of the article. It is rife with sarcasm over anyRead More

On December 23, amidst all the busyness leading up to Christmas Day, I was privileged to hear an outstanding interview broadcast on the national radio network of the CBC. The program was the public affairs daily The Current and the guest was the president of the Cape Breton Medical StaffRead More

Where the hell are our senators during our healthcare, child and senior poverty, unemployment and out-migration crises, to name just a few? Other than Senator Dan Christmas bringing up the hot topic of the separation of Cape Breton Island from the mainland, where are our other senators? Have they forgottenRead More

Before I tell you about Mary Ellen MacIntyre’s blog, Innis Bheag (Little Island), you should read a bit of it. Here’s a snippet from a story called “Cow Bay Road Mud and Fire“:   Some people shouldn’t retire. If they do, they must then do other things, or they willRead More

About three years ago, I produced a show for CBC’s Land and Sea on Fairy Culture in Cape Breton. Fairies meaning “little people” or in Mi’kmaq culture “Wiklatmu’j.” It was so well received that I have decided to write a book about the same project. I have several publishers interested.Read More

Follow the Money Have you seen the “Follow the Money” database from Post Media? Do you have three days to spare? Because I promise you, once you start perusing its contents you will not be able to stop. It’s the work of reporter Zane Schwartz, Post Media’s annual Michelle Lang Fellow,Read More

Unlike David Johnson’s March 23rd rhetorical spin-doctoring CB Post article citing me as an ill-founded separatist, I do indeed retort with a bold vision forward for Cape Breton Island (CBI), rooted in sound legal principles and a viable political structure which, to succeed, needs to be shaped and implemented by CapeRead More

Editor’s Note: In light of Senator Dan Christmas’ recent speech re-opening the issue of Cape Breton provincehood, Spectator contributor Kenzie MacNeil re-offers material originally published in The Cape Bretoner in 1993 on the Annexation of 1820. (You can read Part I here and Part II here.)    In this, the thirdRead More

Editor’s Note: In light of Senator Dan Christmas’ recent speech re-opening the issue of Cape Breton provincehood, Spectator contributor Kenzie MacNeil re-offers material originally published in The Cape Bretoner in 1993 on the Annexation of 1820. You can read Part I here.   “[T]he annexation was not legal according to BritishRead More

“Unconstitutional and illegal” So declared 2,000 passionate and angry Cape Bretoners, in their eighth bid to get the British government to reverse its decision to annex Cape Breton to Nova Scotia in 1820. In light of Senator Dan Christmas’ recent speech re-opening the issue of Cape Breton provincehood, I thinkRead More