Opinionated

What is the biggest determinant of achievement in education?

Think bigger than teachers. It’s economics.

by Wendie L. Poitras on June 26, 2019 at 4:58PM

What is the biggest determinate of a quality education? Is it teachers, or is it something far beyond the reach of teachers?

Ramadan supports unavailable for prisoners in Burnside

“These people don’t care about my religion.”

by Masuma Khan on May 15, 2019 at 3:04PM

," he says. Our call ended soon after that, how they always end.

Are there really any Shannon Park stadium stans out there?

Halifax’s true favourite sport: stadium bashing

by Martyn Williams on April 11, 2019 at 1:00AM

Why the scurrying at our expense to justify and deliver a stadium-cum-aquarium? Isn't taxpayer cash for essential services?

Cogswell’s flyovers and flyby consulting

“Not a travesty, but an opportunity missed.”

by Martyn Williams on March 27, 2019 at 5:24PM

As soon as early fall, those much-loathed suspended highways could come crashing down amid applauding crowds. God knows where all the traffic will go whilst we await Cogswell to be reborn from the rubble, but with all those great new public spaces and viewpoints this is a story about people winning over traffic, right?

Making the case for Black spaces

Survival-mode shouldn't be the status-quo.

by Vaughn Stafford Gray on February 28, 2019 at 1:00AM

No, it’s not segregation. Neither is it reverse racism which, by the way, is not a thing.

Racism persists amidst Nova Scotia's school systems

African Nova Scotian educator and writer Maxine Tynes's poetry is a tool for teaching

by Evelyn C. White on February 21, 2019 at 1:00AM

far inferior in morality, intelligence and cleanliness, to the very lowest among the white population.” Fast-forward to the infamous 1989 snowball fight at Cole Harbour High School that drew international attention to the bigotry in Canada’s Ocean Playground.

No more booty smooshing: A vow of celibacy in 2019

Undertaking a year of no sex in the name of self-love.

by Leslie Greening on February 14, 2019 at 11:36AM

Declaring a year of celibacy feels ominous. Like I am punishing myself for not tidying up my life so I took away my toys...except I still have my toys.

When will Dalhousie learn?

The appointment of Peter MacKinnon is just one more way the university is ignoring its goal to foster inclusion.

by Masuma Khan on January 31, 2019 at 4:01AM

Furthermore, how has Dalhousie not learned from the very public mistakes it has been making? How many more Dal dentistry scandals will it take?

Doing less means more for city streets

The focus of HRM’s complete street plan should be places where we can feel complete as a community.

by Martyn Williams on January 24, 2019 at 3:59AM

I caught up with Frank Palermo, planning professor at Dalhousie, who expressed his concerns at the Spring Garden Road public meeting that such proposals “miss the point” of what a main street is really about. “A real main street has a social function—it is a marketplace for people to enjoy, shop and linger.

Nova Scotia’s approach to data protection remains stuck in the past

The government’s blasé attitude to securing sensitive data is pretty galling, even by provincial standards.

by Michael Karanicolas on January 16, 2019 at 11:37AM

On Tuesday, Catherine Tully, Nova Scotia’s information and privacy commissioner, released her report into the massive data breach of the province’s Freedom of Information web portal, which revealed that the leak was far more damaging than first reported, and included not just social insurance numbers, but also “extremely sensitive personal information” such as medical information and reports of child abuse. The government’s blasé attitude to securing this sensitive data was pretty galling, even by Nova Scotian standards.

The Coast Halifax