Friends of Redtail

My half-hour documentary on the Friends of Redtail is online here.

This may seem like a story you've heard before: local group bands together to try and protect forest from clear-cutting.

But there is more to it than that. The Friends of Redtail don't want to create what they call "a tree museum" -- and they are looking to create a new model of local ownership and control of resources.

There are some great characters in this piece, including Billy MacDonald, who runs the nature camp from which the Friends take their name, and who is one of the only people in Canada to have successfully fought the National Energy Board; and Bernadette Romanowsky, a retired lawyer and mother of (I believe) 10.

Christmas in Bridgewater

Bridgewater's first Community Christmas Dinner is on tomorrow. When organizers Brian Braganza and Cate Trueman started talking about it a few months back, they were hoping to have 50 people come out and celebrate Christmas dinner together.

Tomorrow, they are expecting to serve 500 people.

It's not a soup kitchen type event. Everybody is welcome, and more than 17o people are volunteering to do everything from moving tables to serving dinner. As one of the women I interviewed about the event said, "It's like the community is giving itself a big hug."

I did a small piece on the dinner for our local CBC radio morning show, and you can listen to it here.

Eating the Wild

Local food is all the rage -- and what could be more local and organic than something growing wild in your backyard or nearby?

I recently appeared on Information Morning in Cape Breton and mainland Nova Scotia to talk about edible wild plants with hosts Steve Sutherland and Bob Murphy.

Click here to listen to my conversation with Bob (mp3), featuring clips from a trio of local edible plant experts: Marian Munro, curator of botany at the Museum of Natural History in Halifax, chef Michael Howell of Tempest restaurant, and herbalist and plant walk leader Savayda Jarone.

There were some great clips I wanted to use in the piece, but wound up cutting for space. My favourite was Marian Munro talking about making porridge from the root of the invasive Japanese Knotweed and using Chickweeds in salads: "I say, if you can't get rid of it, eat it."

The piece runs about 5 minutes.

NDP victory in Nova Scotia

The NDP has finally been elected in Nova Scotia, and with a substantial majority. They take 31 seats, while the Liberals climb to 11 and the Progressive Conservatives drop to 10.

Naturally, comment boards on sites like the Globe and Mail's are full of dire warnings for us foolhardy Nova Scotians. We are in for the kind of socialist hell that Ontario suffered through in the early 1990s.

According to these folks, I guess, every provincial New Democratic Party will be forever tainted by Bob Rae's government. Bob Rae, of course, is now a Liberal.

As I recall, most media had hysterics the moment Rae was elected. In order to demonstrate that he was not a crazed left-wing radical (see above: Bob Rae is now a Liberal), he brought in Rae Days -- unpaid days off for civil servants -- thereby pissing off both right and left and ensuring his defeat.

Are we to believe that every single NDP government from now to eternity will make the same tactical mistake?

The NDP were elected because Nova Scotians are fundamentally decent people, and Darrell Dexter is a fundamentally decent person who ran a fundamentally decent campaign.

I think that's what tipped the balance in a lot of rural ridings (including my own) that many thought would never vote NDP.

The Conservatives rolled out their scary attack ads, which didn't make clear (unless you read the tiny fine print on your TV) who had paid for them. Instead, they directed viewers to their risky NDP site. They ran misleading, nasty radio ads saying the NDP had accepted illegal campaign contributions from unions, and people saw through them. They claimed the NDP would be fiscally irresponsible, when they are the ones who lied about stimulus projects not going ahead if their government fell, and who tried to fudge the fact that they were going to ignore their own balanced budget law.

The Nova Scotia NDP are hardly socialist firebrands. Their promises were modest. Take HST (that's GST plust provincial tax to most of you in the rest of the country) off electricity. Keep seniors in their homes longer. Keep emergency rooms open. Develop a plan to encourage young people to stay here.

It worked. Good luck to them.

Newsroom follies

Here's how I was going to start this post:

"A developer in Charlottetown has jumped into the Nova Scotia election fray. With a new poll out showing that the NDP may be headed for a majority, Richard Homberg has warned Nova Scotians that they businesses may leave the province if they elect an NDP government."

Now Homburg's remarks, as reported on CBC Radio, were ridiculous. He said that he had left Winnipeg on principle after an NDP victory in Manitoba, but then added that his opinion was not political.

Turns out, though, he made the comments last fall. So they were reported, newscast after radio newscast, as the word of a successful (if out-of-province) businessman warning of harm to the economy if the NDP were elected -- just as that began to seem like a possibility for the first time.

What I want to know is, how do you make a mistake like this? Where did the tape of Homburg come from? It's obviously not like a reporter just went out and interviewed him. Somebody had to dig it up from somewhere.

A big-time screw-up.

Speaking of screw-ups, it was pretty amusing last week to listen to newscasts about the guilty plea of a teenage girl on a weapons charge. In newscasts on the hour she was 18; on the half-hour she was 17. Back and forth, back and forth, all day long.

Career move hall of fame

Constable Shaylene Paul was all set to start her first job with the RCMP. She'd be working out of the small-town detachment in Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia.

So what does she do, four days before starting? Gets behind the wheel with too much alcohol in her system. Now she's pleaded guilty to impaired driving, has been fined, and has lost her licence for a year -- which should make it kind of hard to drive the cruiser, if she does ever get to start that job.

Our week of stewardship on Micou's Island

For a week in August, my family served as stewards on Micou's Island. It's a 22-acre jewel in St. Margaret's Bay -- one of the few islands in the bay that's not in private hands.

Being stewards meant living in the 1850s house on the island (cold running water, composting toilet, wood-fired cook stove), greeting visitors, and making sure people respected the island environment.

I also brought along a broadcast-quality recorder and made a radio documentary about our experiences -- which turned out to be a lot more eventful than we ever would have expected.

The documentary aired in Nova Scotia on the CBC Radio One program Mainstreet. You can listen to it here in mp3 format.

Falling needles

A CP story notes that

The Nova Scotia government is providing some funding to help researchers produce Christmas trees that hang on to their needles.

The Department of Natural Resources has given $250,000 to the Christmas Tree Council of Nova Scotia to research needle retention.

That's because consumers want trees that are low in maintenance and without a lot of needle loss.

Maybe we could save on the research money if people didn't insist on putting up their trees a month before Christmas -- and then whine about how the needles fall off. What do you think is going to happen to them? It's a dying tree in your living room!

Being in the story

When you're a freelance writer, you don't tend to see your own name in print (unless it's a byline). So I was a bit taken aback to come across this story on Reader's Digest education hero Joe Bishara, in The Yarmouth County Vanguard.

Because I wrote the RD profile of Bishara, I'm there in the lead and at various other spots in the story.

The writer from Readers Digest looked with disbelief at the 60-strong student honour guard in their bright red jackets with Canadian flags fluttering over-head last September. He turned to teacher Joe Bishara.

“This is for one veteran?” asked Philip Moscovitch.

“I told him “Yup - one or a hundred- it doesn’t matter around here,” said Bishara, who spearheaded the Maple Grove Memorial Club close to two decades ago.

The writer of the story never checked with me on what I thought, relying instead on what Bishara says I said. That, and a few factual errors in the piece drove home (once again) the lesson of how important it is to check your sources and make sure your facts are straight.

Although there are mistakes, I have to confess to feeling slightly tickled at seeing myself in the story -- even if I think it's a bit weird.

Bilcon seeks damages

A New Jersey-based company called Bilcon had plans to build a quarry on Digby Neck. This is a gorgeous, environmentally sensitive spot: a narrow arm of basalt sticking out into an ocean that is home to sensitive whale populations and a healthy lobster fishery.

The quarry would have seen tons of basalt ripped out of the ground and sent to the US for use in building roads. All-in-all, a Class A project when it comes to environmental benefits.

After much lobbying, those opposed to the quarry were able to convince the powers that be that the project merited a full panel review -- the most in-depth level of environmental assessment. The review ruled that the quarry should not proceed.

Now Bilcon is seeking $188 million in compensation for this "regulatory failure."

As Jim Meek writes in the Halifax Chronicle-Herald:

Mr. Appleton, a veteran international trade litigator who has written books on NAFTA, said Monday that the "wheels fell off" this regulatory process.

The Fournier panel "included novel, non-scientific criteria" in its decision, Mr. Appleton said.

"They used this concept of community core values, which they had no authority to invoke. Bilcon was never informed of these community core value criteria so it could address them."

Imagine! Looking at community values! Ludicrous.

I just hope my kids don't hear about this litigation. What about the time last summer they asked me for ice cream? And I said we might get some? But using the non-scientific criteria that it was getting too close to dinner time, I wound up saying no. Their expectations were shattered. I should have compensated them with brownies -- or maybe an increase in allowance -- instead.

Not entirely idiotic

Just when I was all set to post something about how the Nova Scotia government seems to have been taken over entirely by idiots, they go and do something truly praiseworthy and forward-looking.

But first, the idiocy.

1) It starts with the premier. Rodney MacDonald waits, and waits, and waits before calling the legislature back into session. Last year it sat for the fewest days in its history. This year it will sit for even fewer. Finally, the announcement comes that former cabinet minister Ernie Fage -- who was already embroiled in scandal before allegedly being involved in a hit-and-run from which he fled -- will be going to trial November 16 and 17. (Read my previous posting on the Fage saga here.) Now that we've got a trial date, MacDonald announces the legislature will reopen on November 22. How convenient -- no embarrassing questions to answer during the trial. MacDonald, of course, says there is no connection between the two dates.

2) It continues with the premier. On a tour to sell his government's proposed anti-strike legislation for health-care workers, he tells an audience that the workers have told him they want the government to take away their right to strike. Uh-huh.

3) And how about that minister of health promotion, Barry Barnet? As he's launching a strategy to get people to drink less, his colleague, environment and labour minister Mark Parent, is introducing rules loosening up alcohol advertising. Hey kids! Dollar shots at the Dome! Barnet seems taken by surprise by the announcement of the new rules in early fall. But apparently he doesn't do much else -- until he is surprised once again when the first ads actually launch.

4) And how about that education minister, Karen Casey? First, she fires the entire board of the Halifax Regional School Board. Then she threatens to bring the members of the Strait Regional School Board in line for their bickering. But she also reaffirms her commitment to democracy. It's just that the boards should stop squabbling. So.... democracy is good -- as long as you don't argue.

So what have this gang done right lately? Protection of the Blue Mountain - Birch Cove Lakes area, which would otherwise tumble to sprawl.

From a CPAWS news release:

The Blue Mountain – Birch Cove Lakes Wilderness Area will become one of Canada’s largest urban wilderness parks. It is located just west of Halifax near the Bayers Lake Industrial Park, adjacent to some of the fastest growing areas of the city, including Rockingham, Clayton Park West, and Timberlea, as well as the future Bedford West development.

...Blue Mountain – Birch Cove Lakes is ecologically-significant, containing over a dozen undeveloped lakes, numerous wetlands, old forest, rare plants, the highest point of land on the Chebucto Peninsula, and habitat for a small population of endangered mainland moose. It also boasts numerous recreational opportunities, including wilderness hiking and the only canoe loop near the city where nine lakes can be paddled without backtracking.

PC pink

My kids -- like kids across Nova Scotia -- are wearing pink to school today.

The reason? Two Grade 12 students from a rural high school who were upset about a Grade 9 boy being picked on, teased and threatened for wearing a pink shirt. The older guys went out and bought dozens of pink tank tops and t-shirts and handed them out at school in a show of solidarity. Other kids across the province picked up on the idea, and today thousands of them will be wearing pink clothes to school in a show of anti-bullying solidarity.

What's my beef? (You knew there had to be one.) It's with the media coverage. Every story I've read or heard says that the unidentified boys who teased the kid who wore pink that first day called him "a homosexual."

Now, in most contexts, it's not nice to use the words queer and fag in print. But I am pretty sure those bully boys did not say "You're wearing pink -- you're such a homosexual." In this context, using the bland word homosexual takes away from the bullying act itself. It makes it seem more benign. I understand we don't have a direct quote, but surely someone told a reporter something like, "They were calling him a fag."

Just because we don't use some words because they are pejorative or hurtful doesn't mean we should never use them at all. We may not like the words precisely because they are so powerful. Sometimes, that power is something writers should take advantage of, in order to get a story across as accurately as possible.

Excuses R Us

Do Nova Scotians lead the way when it comes to idiotic excuses told in the courtroom?

In this story, a fisherman who appears to have had illegal lobster on his boat rushes off to dump it into the water when fisheries officers arrive on the scene.

The Halifax Chronicle-Herald reports:

Mr. Herman was unloading gear from his boat on his wharf in Little Harbour, Lunenburg County, on May 28, 2006, when two helmeted fisheries officers pulled up on motorcycles.

Mr. Herman said he didn’t recognize them and assumed they were looking for his daughter. He said he suddenly remembered he had to do something on his boat, went back to it, picked up a bucket he said was filled with sand crab for bait and threw it over the side because he didn’t want the crab to die.

The fisheries officers, however, testified Mr. Herman knew them for at least 10 years and did recognize them. They said he turned and ran back to his boat when he saw them and jumped aboard.

Of course, when it comes to excuses, I still haven't found anyone to top the guy who crashed through a barricade drunk, then told the cops and the judge he had stopped -- just on the other side of the barricade -- and that the full bottle of rum in his car was proof he hadn't been drinking. If he had, the bottle would have been opened instead of sealed. The guy's story was that he felt an attack of his mystery illness (whose symptoms were remarkably similar to those of inebriation) coming on and he had to rush to his brother's house for help. Right.

Absurd Nova Scotia tourism ad

Nova Scotia has no idea how to brand itself. Or it has the wrong idea. No wonder tourism is dropping, and dropping, and dropping.

Case in point: a full-page ad in the new Reader's Digest (it's run elsewhere too) showing a hunky (I guess) guy in a kilt. He's leaning against a wall and holding a hammer.


Here is part of the copy that goes with the ad:

Tradition Doesn't Always Come with Grey Hair and a Cane

Since the kilt is rich in history and custom. you can see why many men to this day still wear one. You can also get a pretty good look at their legs.

This is a real winner, ain't it? First, it's offensive, second it's ridiculous. Maybe it's so ridiculous it's offensive.

Buddy in the ad is holding a hammer. Presumably it's not to use on the people mounting this campaign. So he must be some kind of construction worker I guess. The kind that wears a kilt to work. The kind that doesn't exist.

Just show him step-dancing or fiddling instead and get it over with.

Who is the audience for this? The ad is trying to appeal to the young hipster type, but also to emphasize tradition. Enter the URL that accompanies the ad and you don't get to the main Nova Scotia tourism page, but to the one that highlights the history of the province. It shows a dude playing a redcoat banging a drum.

To me, every single thing about this ad sends one strong message: We have no idea what the hell we are doing.

That would be some cross-cultural family jam session.

From today's Globe and Mail:

As it turns out, Jack White is a fourth cousin to Natalie MacMaster, a third cousin once removed to Buddy MacMaster, Natalie's father and "the dean of Atlantic fiddlers," and a double fourth cousin to Ashley MacIsaac. According to Daniel MacIsaac, Jack White's grandmother (and Daniel MacIsaac's aunt), Florence MacIsaac, was born in Nova Scotia in 1896 and later married a man named Frank Gillis with whom she established a home in Sydney Mines to raise a family that eventually included two girls and four sons. Times were tough in Nova Scotia, however, and in 1924 the Gillises moved to Detroit. Three years later, Florence Gillis gave birth to a boy, Gorman, who 48 years later fathered Jack White.

The MacMaster connection, in the meantime, comes courtesy of Florence's grandfather, John MacIsaac, who had a sister named Sarah "who married into the MacMaster clan." And as for Ashley MacIsaac, he is descended from Hector MacIsaac, a brother of John.

Public support? What dat?

Memo to the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union, and to its head, Joan Jessome: No matter how righteous you think your cause may be, having healthcare workers at a children's hospital -- and the IWK is the most apple-pie charity in the province, with every school and community group apparently putting on funding drives for it -- walking off the job is not a good strategy if you want to gain any public support.

The Halifax Chronicle-Herald reports:

Ms. Jessome said she regretted the impact a strike would have on children like those being discharged Friday and their families, but that the workers were fed up.

We're talking about families with sick kids, and the workers are fed up? Are the workers, getting a raw deal? I have no idea, but I wouldn't be surprised. But striking at a children's hospital? And trying to get public support?

I would hate to be a union communications officer in this case. It's the PR assignment from hell.

The big dirty

Now this sounds like something straight out of the Trailer Park Boys. Good thing these boys are in the right town. Auditions for next season are probably happening soon.

A search for a man suspected of trying to steal money from a parking meter ended with a cellphone ring, Halifax police say...

Officers spotted one suspect right away and arrested him. They found the second suspect in a garbage bin by following the ring of a cellphone.

Hockey Playoffs

Yeah sure, there's a tight playoff race in the NHL's Eastern Conference. But how about that race for first as the Halifax Table Hockey League goes into the final week of the season? And it looks like Liam Smedley will win the father-son regular-season challenge, unless he completely blows it on the last weekend of the season and his father Garth comes on strong.

Beer ads and hockey? Boring. Still the best beer ad yet? Possibly:

2014: Not here

When I posted about Halifax's Commonwealth Games bid being more or less dead last week, I was thinking that I would look pretty foolish if we wound up with the games.

I certainly never expected that come March 8 the bid would be really and truly dead, with both the provincial and municipal governments retracting their support.

I am relieved. Maybe it's partly because I grew up in Montreal during the Olympics era, and remember gathering around the TV as my parents and relatives waited for the Olympic Lotto results to come in. All that money was going to pay for the Games. Instead, the stadium was never even completed to its specs.

The local bid committee is sure to be passing around the blame, but really they need to take a long and hard look at their own ineptitude. Last week committee head Scott Logan was saying people would support the bid if they had more information. So give them more information Scott!

Yesterday, the politicians got more information -- a total cost of $1.7 billion. It was too much.

I was interested in this paragraph from the bid committee's statement, posted on its website.

CGC and the Bid Committee have been working diligently to respond to initial feedback on preliminary Games budget information from their government partners since February, providing options that reduced the budget (inflation in) from $1.6b, to $1.3b, and yesterday indicating a strong confidence in continuing this process to present a bid based on the available $1b of funding from its partners.

This is interesting. For months, we've been told that the games would cost $750 million -- no, $785 million. The $1.7 billion was a complete shocker. But, according to this, they were ready to come down to $1.3 billion. Great. Only that ignores the fact that this is still half a billion dollars more than what we were recently told the games would cost.

To me, that pretty much says it all in terms of this organization's approach to being straight with the citizens.

What do school busses and hockey games have in common?

Apparently, if you're a kid, and you get beaten up on a school bus, the people responsible for your safety don't think it's assault.

From CBC Nova Scotia:

The RCMP are investigating an allegation of an attack against a 14-year-old boy on a school bus near Bridgewater earlier this week.

The parents of the boy say he was badly bruised during the incident Monday afternoon, and that no one did anything to intervene during the assault by another student.

RCMP in Lunenburg County confirm they are investigating an assault complaint.

The South Shore Regional School Board is not calling what happened Monday afternoon an assault.

Supt. Nancy Pynch-Worthylake told the Halifax Chronicle Herald the principal of Hebbville Academy is doing his own investigation and will decide whether discipline is warranted.

Good riddance Commonwealth Games

Halifax's bid for the 2014 Commonwealth Games is in trouble. For months, people (some a little obsessively) have been raising concerns about cost overruns, and about some of the ridiculous claims the bid committee is making. The games are going to attract a million people to Halifax? More than the population of the whole province? I don't think so.

But the one issue that seems most likely to sink the bid is the inept behaviour of the bid committee, which has kept as many of the details of its proposals as possible secret -- even from the members of city council. Now, many on council are completely fed up. And the bid committee has shot itself yet again, thanks to its announcement that they are pushing back by two weeks the date at which they will finally reveal the details of the bid to council (behind closed doors, mind you).

I fervently hope that the 2014 games go to Glasgow or Abuja. Of course, neither of these cities has quite as brilliant a slogan as Halifax has come up with. Here is the gem that is going to put Halifax over the top, and convince residents of the city that they should pony up hundreds of millions in tax dollars for the games. Literally: "Here."

That's right. Here. That's the slogan. Take a look at it yourself, at the Halifax 2014 website.

For a while, it was all over the municipal buses and billboards. "Here." Yes, thank you. I am here. I hope the games will not be here.

Other than the missteps on secrecy, the bid committee came up with another brilliant PR ploy: asking shoppers at liquor stores to add a dollar to their bill, to fund the (completely secret) bid effort. Sign me up!

The sooner this thing sinks, the better. Then we can get on to better things -- though instead of doing that we're more likely to continue to squabble perenially over crucial issues such as whether or not parking should be allowed on the streets overnight in winter.

Go see the career counsellor

These guys are not cut out for a life of crime. From today's Halifax Chronicle-Herald:

Three teenage boys face criminal charges following an armed robbery in Dartmouth Monday.

Just after 9 p.m., two teens wearing ski masks and bandanas over their faces walked into the Petro-Canada station on Victoria Road.

The two ran off with an undisclosed amount of money and cigarettes.

The pair was quickly tracked down by officers who followed their footprints in the snow to a residence, which was down a nearby side street.

Inside the home, officers arrested two boys, aged 16 and 17, and recovered a shotgun, money and smokes.

So what would they need to do to get fired?

NEW GLASGOW — Two nurses who taped the mouth of an elderly New Glasgow nursing home resident and then drew a happy face on it have been disciplined but will keep their jobs.

Link.

And you thought you were in trouble before...

Kid plays in the woods where his parents have told him not to go. Falls down. Hits his head. Gets hurt. Is scared to tell his parents because he might get in trouble.

So, instead, he concocts this story.

Police launched a major investigation after the boy reported being struck in the head by a masked man who tried to get him into a white car after he was dropped off by his school bus.

The boy was treated in hospital and received stitches for the head wound.
...
However, on Tuesday, the boy changed his story. He now says he was playing in an area where he was not supposed to be when he fell and struck his head.

And the nice Nova Scotia cops give him a stern warning, but see a silver lining:

"There was a lot of resources and manpower oriented toward this investigation, but on the other side of it, it just shows you how closely knit the community of Lake Echo was, too," Cpl. Taplin said. "They rallied really quickly in order to ensure that their children were taught street safety and knew . . . to be on the lookout."