Editor’s Note: The subject line of this email was simply “Donkin Mine”   I am a retired psychiatrist who got to treat one of the men for PTSD who had brought out dead from the Westray mine disaster in ‘92. After the explosion the manager of that mine described itRead...

Peter McIsaac, chief of the Cape Breton Regional Police Service (CBRPS), revealed this week that he is leaving his post after a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). McIsaac , who has been on medical leave since July 2019, told the CBC’s Tom Ayers that he’s come to understand he’sRead More

Constance Backhouse spoke during a brunch sponsored by the Ally Centre of Cape Breton and the Cape Breton Inter-Agency on Family Violence on Friday. Backhouse is a legal scholar, historian, author, professor, activist and the sort of feminist I remember from my ’70s childhood — that is, an unabashed one.Read More

I don’t know if it’s really necessary to “disclose” that I attended journalism school with reporter and author Janice Landry but I am going to do so (and yes, I am well aware that there is a fine line between “disclosing” something  and “boasting about it;” I promise to walkRead More

Never having served in the military, I can only image what this victory must feel like. In 2014, Cape Breton vets, like veterans across Canada, lost a valued service and a much- needed lifeline, their Veterans Affairs Office (VAO). Faced with that devastating news, veterans responded to the challenge withRead More

Mike MacKinnon of Sydney Mines remembers the First Gulf War (where he served with the 1st Canadian Field Hospital) and Bosnia (where he served with Quebec’s Royale 22nd Regiment, the Van Doos) like they were yesterday. Ask him what happened last Saturday, though, and he may struggle to respond, hisRead More