Thinking Out Loud with Sheldon MacLeod

For months, volunteers have been helping collect and distribute food and water to people living in tents in Meagher Park in Halifax. Over the past few weeks, Halifax Regional Police have come in to dismantle platforms that were being constructed for a food tent for the site. And Laura Patterson has been documenting a lot of the happenings on her twitter account. She says they've been working to he...

After initially refusing to participate, the woman described as the first survivor and a key witness to the events of April 2020 will testify at the inquiry. Members of the Mass Casualty Commission (MCC) have announced Lisa Banfield will be interviewed and will be questioned under oath to fill in some of the missing pieces of the story that ended with the deaths of 22 people and an unborn child. H...

Fabian W Francis says he's been getting a lot of support from friends, family and community. But more than anything, he wants to hear from his daughter. Marley Alicia Morris is 24-years-old and no one has been in contact with her since February 20th, 2022. Francis says she has struggled with addictions in the past and he's worried she's hanging around with the wrong crowd. He's pleading for her, o...

A week after removing the proof of vaccination requirement, businesses in Nova Scotia are opening up to have additional customers. The easing of health guidelines and restrictions continues as we adjust to "living with COVID" as Premier Tim Houston described it. Tourism Nova Scotia announced it is launching a campaign to try and get more visitors to come to our province this spring, summer and fal...

Nova Scotians were fully in support of the families of the victims who called for a Public Inquiry rather than a review of the 22 murders in 2020. The Mass Casualty Commission was struck and has now started presenting evidence and hearing arguments about who should be called as witnesses. With so many questions still unanswered, some are describing a crisis of confidence in this process if some pe...

There are times when we might be saying something else when we ask a question about racialized communities. Robert Wright is no stranger to speaking up about issues of systemic racism in Nova Scotia. He is a social worker and a consultant and a member of the group known as the African Nova Scotian Decade for People of African Descent Coalition. He says recently he's heard several people ask if Nov...

There was a time when it was difficult to get information from a conflict zone and it was at risk of being clouded by "the fog of war". The images of the fighting in Ukraine have been easy to find on tradition sources like television and newspapers. And you can even see people sharing information on sites like twitter and TikTok. Scott Taylor is a former Canadian soldier and is the editor of Espri...

As pandemic restrictions and precautions are starting to ease, Nova Scotians are showing different reactions to the idea of "living with COVID". And there are also other stresses with the situation in Ukraine and the information coming out of the Mass Casualty Commission. Dr. Dayna Lee-Baggley is a clinical psychologist in Nova Scotia. She's been helping people work through pandemic burnout, inclu...

Monday was the first day of testimony and the presentation of evidence in the Nova Scotia Mass Casualty Commission (MCC). A foundation document including a timeline of the murderous events of April 2020 was released to the public. And as promised, the details were graphic and upsetting as they outlined the first 13 murders during a grisly 45 minute rampage before the killer escaped. Adam Rodgers i...

It was quite the headline at SaltWire.com: ‘Exhilarating and slightly discombobulating’: Removal of COVID-19 restrictions gets mixed reaction As The Chronicle Herald's Stephen Cooke wrote, "After Premier Tim Houston declared that “COVID zero is not a reality” and mapped out Nova Scotia’s long journey down “the road to normalcy” opinions voiced online ranged from “too much, too soon” to “it’s about...

Canada's Prime Minister issued a statement early on Thursday morning condemning "Russia's egregious attack on Ukraine" and calling on them to "immediately cease all hostile and provocative actions." The United Nations (UN) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have taken steps to address the military actions that are underway. Dr. Ruben Zaiotti is an associate professor in Dalhousie Un...

He was 26 years old when he first ran in a bye-election in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia in 2010. He's been in opposition and then in government and has served as both Education and Health Minister. And now Zach Churchill is looking to become the next leader of the Nova Scotia Liberal Party. He discusses his decision to enter this race and not the one a year ago that saw the candidate he supported, Iain R...

Since January, a group of Dartmouth residents have been amping up efforts to bring attention to an area of wetland near a proposed housing development. Bill Zebedee says the Protect Eisner Cove Wetland Society is reacting to a private sale of the 15 hectares of forested wetland earlier this year. The developer has proposed a walking trail through the wetland, but the group says that's not the best...

Nova Scotia Health is hosting an event later this month called the Health Innovation Showcase. It will happen on Feb. 22 (from Halifax) and Feb. 25 (from New Glasgow) to officially launch the Nova Scotia Health Innovation Hub. And they say it's to deliver high-impact solutions for patients and providers by using technology like the Virtual Care program that connects orphaned patients with medical...

For the past few years, the Union representing Nova Scotia paramedics has been sounding the alarm over the shortage of available ambulances. It's something they call Code Critical and it's becoming even more acute says the business manager of the International Union of Operating Engineers. Kevin MacMullin told the Legislature's Public Accounts Committee this week that paramedicine is a system in f...

Vicky Levack is with the Disability Rights Coalition. They are the among sixty groups and individuals who have written an open letter asking the Premier to end discrimination against persons with disabilities. It is also calling for him to implement the Court of Appeal October 6 ruling as well as abandoning an application to the Supreme Court of Canada to dismiss the ruling. They want the governme...

Dr. Lori Turnbull is an associate professor of political science at Dalhousie University and the director of the School of Public Administration. She also spends a great deal of time in Ottawa where she lectures remotely. And she's being very clear about what she's been seeing since the trucks rolled in a few weeks ago. This is not a protest -- it's an occupation. And with the announcement that Ju...

There's a renewed interest in talking about affordability with Nova Scotia Power's proposed ten percent rate hike over the next three years. And the Affordable Energy Coalition is offering up three solutions to help low-income households afford their monthly bills. Brian Gifford is the group's chair and he has submitted that plan so that SaltWire readers could see what they are proposing. We discu...

What started out as a break from the pandemic has turned into a social enterprise with an environmental agenda. Angel Riley started visiting the beaches around her home in Eastern Passage and noticed all of the debris along the coast. So she started picking it up. That has evolved into the Scotian Shores Clean Up group and more than 100-thousand pounds of debris being removed from the coastline of...

It's been a stormy start to the new year with several blizzard and freezing rain storms. And the ongoing love-hate relationship continues with the province's power provider. People love to hate Nova Scotia Power, especially when the lights go out. The company has applied to increase its rates by ten percent over the next three years. And that has once again ignited the debate about how the utility...

As a law student, Angela Simmonds started work on helping people in her community gain legal title to land their families had lived on for generations. That continued as she was given the opportunity and funding from the Province to help right the historical wrong dating back to the 1700's. And last year, she decided to continue to support her home community from inside of Province House. She ran...

Nova Scotia's government has taken steps in the past to deal with potential protests over public health measures. An injunction was granted by the courts at the direction of former Premier Iain Rankin last year to head off a protest on Citadel Hill. Last week, Premier Tim Houston announced an order prohibiting protesters from blockading or disrupting traffic on any road, street or highway in Nova...

It was described as a slow-rolling convoy protest in downtown Halifax over the weekend. And there were also counter-protests happening at the same time with some people choosing to make clear their support of the public health mandates and rules. The owner of a popular website and Facebook group ended up with a lot of comments over a stand he took. Ralph Pickart wrote: "For those who want to follo...

In the end, they backed off on making people with solar panels pay to access the grid. But Nova Scotia Power is still looking for a ten percent increase in rates over the next three years as they transition away from reliance on coal-fired power generation. But the greening of the grid doesn't have to be adversarial. Gurprasad Gurumurthy is an Energy Coordinator with the Ecology Action Centre. And...

Erin O'Toole's ride as leader of the Conservative Party of Canada has come to an abrupt end. And some of the blame might come down to the same sentiment that's fuelling the trucker's protest in Ottawa. How does this affect the Conservatism movement in Canada? And what is the likelihood that the next leader will be even more "right" of the political centre? Dr. Robert Huish is an associate professo...