CBRM Council approved the appointment of Deputy Chief Robert Walsh as acting police chief last night, during its regular monthly council meeting. The Spectator reported in September 2019 that McIsaac was on medical leave but that CBRPS spokesperson Desiree Magnus had declined to say how long he’d been off. McIsaacRead More

Boys’ night out Here’s the actual social note about that Cape Breton Regional Hospital Foundation “reception” Mayor Cecil Clarke co-hosted with Cape Breton Eagles owner Irwin Simon in Toronto on Wednesday. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I feel like there’s something missing from this photo: AccordingRead More

CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke was “not in the building” on September 27 when students (and others) from his community gathered in front of the Civic Centre to demand action on climate change. (His spokesperson tells me he “had meetings scheduled” in the morning and “a funeral” in the afternoon.) ButRead More

Writing this week about CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke’s recent climate change op-ed, I had reason to go and look at his 2016 campaign platform — his “100 More Positive Changes” for the municipality. Imagine my surprise when I clicked on the link — which I’d saved as part of thisRead More

“December will likely be the decision month about the future of a subsidy preserving Cape Breton’s rail line,” Cape Breton Post, 19 September 2019   Do you get the feeling we’re being allowed to listen in on a private conversation between Nova Scotia Business Minister (and Glace Bay MLA) Geoff MacLellan,Read More

Note: On Friday June 21 I received a revised version of the travel expenses and have updated the totals accordingly — I have also attached the revised travel sheet at the end of the article. In the five months after losing his bid to become leader of the provincial ProgressiveRead More

The CBRM has posted its audited financials from fiscal year 2007-2008 to fiscal year 2017-2018 on the municipal website. From 2010-2011 on, they include travel expenses for elected officials and senior CBRM staff members. I wanted to compare Mayor Cecil Clarke’s travel expenses to those of his predecessor, Mayor JohnRead More

I was looking over some old files as I was writing the article on the fine line between reporting and enabling and I came across a list I compiled of dubious assertions by proponents of the CBRM container port project in December 2015, seven months after the CBRM signed itsRead More

I just watched last week’s CBRM general committee debate over funding for the new central library and heard Mayor Cecil Clarke declare the project “dead” because the federal government has not come through with its share of the funding (either for a programming and internal operations study or for theRead More

Acting on a tip from a reader, who seemed to think that CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke, his executive assistant Mark Bettens and (the now former) economic development manager John Phelan were doing an unusual amount of traveling on the public dime last fall, I sent a request under Section XXRead More