Coming up on the CHMA daily news:
Gathering in silent solidarity
An economic recovery fund for Sackville and
Silver Donald Cameron remembered.
But first:
New Brunswick has one more case of COVID-19.
A person in their eighties tested positive for the disease in the Campbellton region.
There are now 13 active cases in the province, all in the Campbellton region.
Public Health reported another 2200 new test results yesterday.
Chief Medical Officer of Health Jennifer Russell said on Monday that 300 people in the region are currently self-isolating due to possible close contact with others carrying the virus.
The incubation period for the virus is believed to be 14 days.
Nova Scotia reported no new cases of COVID-19 yesterday.
There are now 5 active cases of the disease in the province, according to provincial officials.
Nova Scotia also announced that licensed child care centres and family daycare homes will be allowed to reopen on June 15th.
Child care centres may open beginning at a minimum 50 per cent capacity.
They can move up to full capacity if they are able to meet public health’s COVID-19 guidelines for child care settings.
Private daycare homes may open at full capacity.
Many Nova Scotia businesses, such as restaurants, bars and personal services, will be allowed to open this Friday.
Today at noon, Sackville residents are invited to take part in a silent show of solidarity for anti-racist protests happening across the country and south of the border.
Erica Butler has more:
AUDIO clip
Elsewhere in the province, people are also gathering to protest racism.
An anti-racism march on Monday in Moncton was marred by a man yelling racist slurs at marchers. At least one protester reported being pelted with eggs.
Moncton RCMP arrested and later released a 47-year-old man related to the incident.
Charges of assault and inciting hatred are pending against the man, who later issued a video apology on Facebook.
The man who shot the video which captured the yelling and racist slurs later reported that his friend’s balcony, from which he shot the video, had been pelted with eggs.
Hundreds of people gathered for the march in Moncton, and organizers are planning another event for Friday.
In Fredericton, the New Brunswick Media Co-op reports a thousand people attended an anti-racism rally on Tuesday.
Another rally is planned in front of the provincial legislature for this evening at 7pm.
Saint John organizers are planning an event for June 14th.
Sackville’s Chief Administrative Officer says he has been talking with local business owners about setting up an economic recovery fund to help them cope with the effects of COVID-19.
Jamie Burke made the comment during Monday’s Sackville Town Council Meeting.
He says town staff have been checking in with business owners every week and they’re very interested in what he called “some sort of economic recovery fund.”
Burke adds that times have been tough for local businesses forced to close or adapt to the crisis brought on by the pandemic.
Mayor John Higham told council he has been talking with the president of Mount Allison University about recruiting students.
Meantime, Sackville may hold a special council meeting soon to discuss ideas for economic recovery.
Mount Allison has announced its plan for the school year beginning this fall.
In a media release, President Jean Paul Boudreau [Boo-droh] says Mount Allison will offer online courses, but that some courses will feature in-person elements.
Residences will also be open, but with single rooms only, and measures in place to assure distancing can be maintained.
Boudreau says that courses in the sciences, music, and fine arts often require some on-campus activities, such as labs, tutorials, and studio components.
Boudreau says the university will make adjustments in classrooms, labs, and studios to meet public health guidelines and the continuing need for physical distancing.
The Library, Meighen Centre, and Experiential Learning and Career Development will continue to operate.
Boudreau says the university is working on contingency plans for what will happen if the province reverts to more strict public health guidelines.
Course registration for the fall and winter terms is now open for all students
Canadian writer and journalist Silver Donald Cameron has died.
Cameron lived in and wrote about Atlantic Canada.
Back in 1969 when he was teaching at UNB in Fredericton, Cameron helped create The Mysterious East, an independent magazine that described itself as “a product of people who are fed up, frustrated, [and] angry with rotten journalism.”
Over the past decade, he worked on the Green Interview project, where he compiled an astonishing collection of long form interviews with academics, artists and activists working on a wide array of environmental issues.
He also created the Green Rights project, including a book, film, website and even a university course looking at the subject of environmental rights, and why the concept is so foreign to settler North Americans.
CHMA journalist Erica Butler had the pleasure of speaking with Silver Donald Cameron at CKDU in Halifax back in 2014. Here he is talking about green rights, back when Stephen Harper was still Prime Minister.
AUDIO June 3 Cameron
The pressure is growing on the federal and Nova Scotia governments to call an inquiry into one of the worst mass killings in Canadian history.
The country’s leading scholar on inquiries says Ottawa and the province should do the right thing and work together on a joint inquest.
Ed Ratushny, a professor emeritus at the University of Ottawa’s law school, says that would be the course to take.
Ratushny says it would make a lot of sense for the two governments to sit down together and work out terms of reference that are complementary and cover all the issues that have to be covered.
Since the April 18-19 rampage that killed 22 people, calls for a public inquiry have come from opposition politicians, Dalhousie University law professors and victims’ relatives.
On Sunday, the family of one victim appealed to governments to call an inquiry.
So far, Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil has insisted Ottawa should take the lead and conduct a federal inquiry.
Federal Public Safety Minister Bill Blair has remained non-committal but says nothing is off the table, and all tools should be considered.
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That was the CHMA daily news.
Thanks to Bruce Wark and Geoff Degannes for their contributions.
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