Sometimes it seems we are living in different worlds — Vladimir Putin, 23 December 2021 There is another world, and it is this one — French poet Paul Éluard   The curtain was raised on 2022 with the stage set for not one, not two, but three major regional conflicts,Read More

Remember CBRM’s sister city, the Chinese port city of Dalian? I don’t blame you if you’ve forgotten, the relationship never really amounted to much and we basically stopped talking about it after our sister city (population: 6 million) sentenced a Canadian to death in 2019. But back in December 2015,Read More

Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil is on yet another pilgrimage to China as I write, “engaging” with the Chinese rather than isolating them because, according to what he told reporters just prior to his departure, that’s how you show non-democracies “what democracies have to offer.” At first I thought heRead More

The hook for this edition of “A Word from Your Planet” is not just weak, it’s downright imaginary — I’m hanging it on Sydney Harbour Investment Partners (SHIP)’s grand plans for our port, which I referenced this week in the Cossitt Heights article. In fact, I’m hanging it on aRead More

ServiCom There is absolutely no humor to be found in the announcement that 600 Cape Bretoners have lost their jobs  three weeks before Christmas with the closure of the ServiCom call center. Even Mayor Cecil Clarke’s mixing of metaphors (he’s hoping the potential sale of the local ServiCom branch willRead More

“No leasing land to China even for one day” I heard this story on Democracy Now as I was drifting off to sleep the other night and woke up the next morning thinking I’d dreamt it, but I looked it up and it was real. Here’s the Voice of AmericaRead More

One of the (many) messed up aspects of our access to information system here in Nova Scotia is that responses to municipal FOIPOP inquiries are not made public, unlike federal and provincial responses, which are published online. Fortunately, some civic-minded Cape Bretoners share the results of their municipal FOIPOPs withRead More

Here’s the most damning line from the CBRM’s response to a FOIPOP request for information about a recent trip to China by Mayor Cecil Clarke and three CBRM staffers. Municipal Clerk Deborah Campbell Ryan told the applicant: I have been advised that CBRM does not have any records relating toRead More

Eyking (and Clarke!) in China As reported in last week’s Fast & Curious, I requested a copy of Sydney-Victoria MP Mark Eyking’s itinerary from his recent trip to China. I received a response from his office which I am pleased to share with you today. Eyking’s assistant Elizabeth Arsenault sentRead More

Chinese itineraries CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke has yet to publish an itinerary for his November 30-December 6 trip to China on which he was accompanied by CAO Marie Walsh, Economic Development Manager John Phalen and his executive assistant Mark Bettens. As it happens, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was inRead More