Mary Patricia Campbell (born October 18th, 1964) died Wednesday, April 24th, 2024 at the Cape Breton Regional Hospital, seven months after being diagnosed with encephalitis. Mary was the daughter of John and Dolores Campbell. Her first address was on the Esplanade in Sydney’s North End – a stone’s throw fromRead More

This week has found me unable to focus entirely on any one story, so no deep dives. Instead, I’m going to touch briefly on some issues I’ve been following and which I hope to write about in more detail soon.   Labor relations First, give me credit, please, for notRead More

Cruise News Monday was World Oceans Day and if you put your ear to a seashell,  you could hear a chorus of voices across the globe calling on the cruise industry to clean up its act. Environmental activists living in “port communities” marked the occasion with a virtual “Rally toRead...

Gardening at home A couple of years ago, I attended some Up!Skilling gardening workshops sponsored by the Island Food Network. I learned how to build an easy bed and to compost, among other things. My gardening experiments to date have been tentative and I seem to be better at flowersRead...

Budget This week, I’m going to focus on the federal budget tabled Tuesday by Liberal Finance Minister Bill Morneau and discuss a couple of points of particular interest to Cape Bretoners. The first is the government’s decision to double (for one year only) the gas-tax revenue available for infrastructure spendingRead More

Down the lazy river Thanks to an eagle-eyed spectator who alerted me to this gem: 🔊 Announcement! The @GlobeandMail is excited to officially announce the launch of the July 2019 #GlobeNormandyCruise with participating journalists @RoyMacG, @RobertFife, @taraobrady, @Beppi_Crosariol, and Margaret Wente. 🛳 ➡ To reserve your cabin: https://t.co/m8Gd4y2EIM pic.twitter.com/8y0AP9k4Ln —Read More

FOIPOP Follies For the record: I received the response to my freedom of information/protection of privacy (FOIPOP) request to the NS Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal (TIR) for an “unedited” copy of Neil MacNeil’s rail fees report. I got bupkis. There are a couple of additional emails not includedRead 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

I’m pleased to announce a new joint-venture between The Cape Breton Spectator and Tim Bousquet’s Halifax Examiner. As of July 1, you will be able to subscribe to both The Examiner and The Cape Breton Spectator for $15 a month — a $5 savings off the regular price. (And yes,Read More

Extra! Extra!  I’m pleased to announce a new joint-venture with Tim Bousquet’s Halifax Examiner. As of July 1, you will be able to subscribe to both The Examiner and The Cape Breton Spectator for $15 a month — a $5 savings off the regular price. (And yes, you may upgradeRead More