Reading the threadbare Halifax Chronicle Herald is pretty much a chore these days.  The publisher uses cheaper paper and the format is neither a broadsheet nor a tabloid. The front page has a full colour photo usually—too big and too garish —  followed by a very few high end ads in colour along with the editorial cartoon. We are told no one (or few) advertise in newspapers anymore – so the paper is a skimpy eight pages in the first section and half the pages in other sections. 

But Thursday’s paper (25 January) was a specially hard slog due to bad news all round.

Above the fold there was ”Poverty: Halifax rate worst in the country”.  The United Way released its United in Poverty Action Report.  I would never have believed that we have the highest rate of poverty in the country – forget New Brunswick, or Newfoundland and Labrador, forget the north, forget the unmentionable cities with their inner cities.  In Halifax more than 10% of the central Halifax population live below the poverty line.  And a family of four needs 22% more money than in 2020.  In 2023, that family  needed at least $52,429 a year just to survive.  Not to live well.  That family’s income falls more than $40,000 short of what is called for by the living wage campaigners.   

 In fact the living wage in Halifax stands at $26.50 per hour for a working adult.  Ours is 5% higher than Toronto’s living wage of $25.05! For a Halifax family, this generates an income of more than $96,000 a year — if both adults in a family with two children work a 35-hour week.  As Christine Saulnier of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives explains, 

“The living wage is the hourly rate at which a household can meet its basic needs once government transfers are added to the family’s income (such as federal and provincial child benefits) and deductions subtracted (such as income taxes and Employment Insurance premiums.”

Living Wages in Nova Scotia 2023 Update, by Christine Saulnier here

Granola bars, juice boxes and apples…

Children come to school hungry; they become sluggish, tired and combative.  Teachers give them granola bars and drinks in boxes with little straws, but it can’t do much to alleviate the hunger from no breakfast, and not much for lunch.  Did you know Canada was the only G7 country without a national school food program?  For a look at the free school lunch program in France (it’s in the G7), watch this six- minute clip from the 2015 movie Where to Invade Next. It features filmmaker Michael Moore joining elementary school students in Brittany for a typical school lunch provided by the state. The federal Liberals promised during the run up to the 2021 election to spend $1 billion on a national school meal program within five years.  But three years later we are no closer. 

I hear it said all the time, “We’re a poor province.” Or “We Canadians can’t afford it.”  Nonsense. We are one of the richest countries in the world.  We are too busy shovelling money at the rich   to even think about ending poverty.  

During Covid, poverty rates declined by 24%

Remember Covid? Remember the $2,000 federal CERB payment that went each month to millions of Canadians who had lost their jobs (usually in restaurant, hotel and retail due to closures during the Pandemic).  The CERB money kept people afloat.  What we saw was that in just one year, the rate of poverty for children and families in NS declined by 24.3% from 2019 to 2020.  Suddenly, just about every NS family had enough money to eat, and pay the rent.  No longer. Today one in four children in NS lives in poverty. 

Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health gave NS a failing grade in every single category — the only province to sink that low

In Thursday’s Herald – below the fold – there is an article about mental health care, “NS gets F on access to services”.  A poll done by the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health (CAMIMH) polled more than 3,200 Canadians in November 2023, and Nova Scotia  was “the only province to receive a failing grade in every single category.”   Nova Scotians were not confident they would be able to find mental health care when they needed it, and in a timely manner.  Another survey done by the same agency in January 2023, and though NS again  received  a failing grade, “more than half of those who responded said they were very confident or somewhat confident in people’s access to mental health supports.”  That’s in stark contrast to today when people have all but given up. In the 2021 election, the NS Tories promised that mental health would be among its top priorities—too little too late, it seems from the Herald article. Incidentally from 2021 to 2022, the rate of suicides in Nova Scotia went up by 9.1%.  142 to 155 took their own lives in 2021 and 2022 respectively .  Experts say it is a worrying  sign things are not going well. 

Halifax councillors drink the Koolaid

On page A3, the article “‘Just say no’: Many Halifax residents speak against towers” laments (or celebrates) the fact that Dexel Developments got the go-ahead to build two 31-storey towers, which will complement the two 31-story towers to be built by developer Rouvalis’ 3088962 Nova Scotia Ltd on the same small city block at Spring Garden Rd and Robie St.  More than 110 affordable apartments over stores and in small buildings will be demolished to make room for hundreds and hundreds of spanking new apartments – though not one will offer “affordable”  rent. In addition there is the small issue of about 1,000 extra cars on the peninsula.   Only one brave councillor, Patty Cuttell, refused to drink the Koolaid; she voted no.  For more on this read my post here. 

On Page A6 you’ll see the proposal for what to do with the Wanderers grounds. Pity the HFX Wanderers who are now playing soccer in a “pop-up” stadium with uncomfortable seating, not so great toilets, and no place for refreshments.  That may be a thing of the past, as city fathers and mothers (our councillors) are steps closer to building a $40 million permanent stadium, just behind the city’s Public Gardens.  Wait—wouldn’t $40 million help with housing or poverty reduction? But HRM has been all but sold on a stadium right downtown and is not considering another location for it.  And be assured, the lion’s share of the cost would be borne by HRM.  Right now, the Wanderers pay only a $2,800 rental fee to HRM for use the stadium for each game.  The temporary stadium seats  6,000 –most tickets cost about $40.  So the privately-owned Wanderers football club is making a killing.  It rakes in up to a quarter of a million dollars per game—and pays only 1.12% or $2,800 per game in rent.  

Well on the upside we have the article about five members of Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team who are about to be charged with sexual assault, maybe threatening and forcible confinement too, for a gang rape of a young woman at a London, Ont hotel.  On page A8,  the article from Postmedia actually names the players likely involved – though some news media have so far not done that. The police dithered for years.  However, when Hockey Canada paid the woman, and got her to sign an NDA to keep it quiet – finally the police are taking it seriously.  You can read my article here to find out the backstory. 

All in all, the Herald made for pretty dismal reading. 

Overall what we see is that the powerful hang on to power, and use it as a club against the rest of us.  The few bits of sugar – a government-funded helpline for mental health, a slight increase of $300 a month for those on NS disability support  payments—won’t solve much.  The Tory government yet again in 2023 refused to raise rates for social assistance.  About 3% of Nova Scotians receive income  assistance, which includes more than 34,0725 single parent families.  Now is the time to hold the politicians’ feet to the fire and fight.  

Hot off the Press- 29 January

The Gaza government media office reported that Palestinian journalist Issam al-Lulu, along with his wife and two sons, were killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting the town of Al-Zawayda, in central Gaza.

The office also confirmed the killing of Palestinian journalist Muhammad Atallah in an Israeli bombing targeting the Al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City. This brings the number of dead journalists in Gaza to 122. (see the Palestine Chronicle here)

Featured painting: Bagel on newspaper, by Marina Oleg, credit: Etsy. Here is her site