The friendship I can’t remember exactly when I met Georgie Fagan, but for some time we organized together for prisoners. Georgie had been in and out of prison for most of his life, and has years of experience in the prison system. At Prisoner Justice Day a few years ago, he spoke movingly about his […]
Racists are yelling at teens playing hockey
Morning File, Tuesday, December 10, 2019
News 1. Climate Emergency We’ve taken Part 4 of Linda Pannozzo’s “Climate Emergency” series out from behind the paywall. “It’s not often that I root for the anti-hero in a book,” writes Pannozzo, but it seems that as I neared the end of Jeremy Lent’s latest book, The Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity’s […]
Calvin Lawrence: Black Panther Party’s “unlikely cub”
His hiring as a Halifax police officer in 1969 happened only because the city feared what might happen if it didn't at least pay lip service to inclusion. But over the course of his 36-year policing career, Calvin Lawrence proved a more than worthy fighter against racism.
Calvin Lawrence remembers the life-altering moment well. It was an early summer day in 1968 and Calvin, then 19 and still a student, was hanging out at Creighton and Gerrish Streets, “one of my favourite corners,” with his good friend Ricky Smith. A big Lincoln car filled with three senior members of the black community,...
So much McNeil, so few answers
Morning File, Friday, July 26, 2019
News 1. Furey on Assoun Justice Minister Mark Furey continues to not really weigh in on Glen Assoun’s wrongful conviction. Jennifer Henderson reports that the Minister of Justice thinks an apology is premature: “An apology would be premature at this time until I have an opportunity to review the full scope of the file,” said […]
Afua Cooper: “We need to smash those [racist] stereotypes and see the humanity in each and every one of us”
Morning File, Wednesday, May 22, 2019
News 1. Bank of Canada acknowledges that climate change will impact the economy “For the first time ever, the Bank of Canada has released a report examining the threat climate change poses to the country’s financial system,” reports Karina Roman for the CBC. The report in question is the Bank’s annual Fiscal System Review, which […]
“Do right by me”: by not addressing the systematic racism of street checks, the white power structure is doubling down on Nova Scotia’s well-earned reputation for ignorance, stigma, and stench
“Until you do right by me, everything you think about is gonna crumble.” Voiced by Whoopi Goldberg in her role as Celie in the film adaptation of The Color Purple, the line has recently wafted, repeatedly, through my mind. To be sure, the thought has been prompted by the magnificent production of The Color Purple […]
The authoritarian state starts with oppression of minorities today
Morning File, Thursday, May 16, 2019
News 1. Racism costs City Hall $600,000 The Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission issued this press release yesterday: The chair of an independent human rights board of inquiry into the matter of Y.Z. v. Halifax Regional Municipality issued her decision on remedy today, May 15. Lynn Connors found discrimination had occurred and issued her decision […]
“This is North Preston”: a story that “needs to be heard”
"This is North Preston" is a film about the stereotype of North Preston that allows the young men who’ve been stereotyped for so long to speak for themselves.
Jaren Hayman is from Toronto. He’s 32 years old, a white man. He began his professional career as a drummer, touring North America, but eventually morphed into a self-taught filmmaker. His first feature documentary, 2016’s Bodyguards: Secret Lives from the Watchtower, hit number one on the iTunes charts and earned a worldwide audience on Netflix. […]
Street checks: Who’s sorry now? Not the premier, not the justice minister, not the police
No one in authority seems willing to apologize for the decades of "disproportionate and negative" impact street checks have had on Nova Scotia's black community. Worse, no one seems to be committed to finally ending them once and for all.
Our question for today: why is it so hard for the people in charge of policing in Nova Scotia to say, I’m sorry? Last week… nearly three weeks after a damning 180-page report by an independent outside consultant confirmed that black males are nine times more likely than whites to be stopped in “random” police...
Journalmalism 101: This week, Halifax lost four very good Canadian Press reporters; in return we got… Christie Blatchford
Morning File, Friday, March 29, 2019
News 1. Street checks Yesterday, I wrote: This is how it goes. Every now and then something happens — a Black man with the resources and gumption to do something about it stands up to the harassment, the results of a CBC Freedom of Information request are published — that make it temporarily impossible for […]