General Updates and News

[Hali87]

I remember there was an explanation for the new format in the Coast a couple weeks ago. Most of the entertainment listings are online and the print edition's focus is to be on articles. It seems like they are trying to gradually shift content onto their website and they mentioned some issue with their newsprint supplier. The articles I've read lately are actually a lot less slanted and remind me of the pre-Bousquet Coast.

[counterfactual]

Originally Posted by Hali87

I remember there was an explanation for the new format in the Coast a couple weeks ago. Most of the entertainment listings are online and the print edition's focus is to be on articles. It seems like they are trying to gradually shift content onto their website and they mentioned some issue with their newsprint supplier. The articles I've read lately are actually a lot less slanted and remind me of the pre-Bousquet Coast.

I do like the writing in the new format too, and yes, I've read their explanations, but I wouldn't take them (or at least all of them) at face value. Wondering if Drybrain had any further insights into the changes.

[Colin May]

Originally Posted by Hali87

I remember there was an explanation for the new format in the Coast a couple weeks ago. Most of the entertainment listings are online and the print edition's focus is to be on articles. It seems like they are trying to gradually shift content onto their website and they mentioned some issue with their newsprint supplier. The articles I've read lately are actually a lot less slanted and remind me of the pre-Bousquet Coast.

Were the articles about Kelly slanted ? He'd still be mayor but for Bousquet.
Were the articles about concerts slanted ?
Most journalists add slant to their reports, they toss in their opinion/prediction and the TV is the most egregious. Facts matter, but the press don't like to just lay out facts.

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by Colin May

Were the articles about Kelly slanted ? He'd still be mayor but for Bousquet.
Were the articles about concerts slanted ?
Most journalists add slant to their reports, they toss in their opinion/prediction and the TV is the most egregious. Facts matter, but the press don't like to just lay out facts.

Everything Bousquet writes is slanted. It's not just the facts, it's how they are spun and presented.

[pblaauw]

First Nation band votes for development in Hammonds Plains (Chronicle Herald)

[counterfactual]

Everything being said, we should be very thankful to Bousquet for his investigative journalism on Peter Kelly.

But for Bousquet, we'd still have the Mayor of Bedford pretending to be the Mayor for Halifax.

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by counterfactual

Everything being said, we should be very thankful to Bousquet for his investigative journalism on Peter Kelly.

But for Bousquet, we'd still have the Mayor of Bedford pretending to be the Mayor for Halifax.

Don't give Bousquet credit for Kelly not being mayor. IIRC Savage announced his candidacy before Kelly said he would not run. Do you think Kelly would have defeated Savage? We'll never know but I suspect not. Kelly never had to face a legitimate candidate in any of his prior re-election runs. I mean, Victor Syperek? Really?

No, I believe Savage would have destroyed Kelly at the polls and we would be in the same position as we are now. Bousquet had little to do with that. To claim otherwise is giving him far too much credit.

[counterfactual]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

Don't give Bousquet credit for Kelly not being mayor. IIRC Savage announced his candidacy before Kelly said he would not run. Do you think Kelly would have defeated Savage? We'll never know but I suspect not. Kelly never had to face a legitimate candidate in any of his prior re-election runs. I mean, Victor Syperek? Really?

No, I believe Savage would have destroyed Kelly at the polls and we would be in the same position as we are now. Bousquet had little to do with that. To claim otherwise is giving him far too much credit.

Yeah, I think it's hard to argue-- wait for it-- counterfactuals.

I think you're probably right that Savage would have defeated Kelly, but we also have to look at his record-- he didn't lose a single election his entire political career. So it's not a slam dunk, but on balance probably maybe right. But then, wouldn't you say that Bousquet's work makes the possibility of Kelly *returning* to politics less likely? If Kelly had lost, but in a close race, he may be much more likely to re-run for Mayor in the next election. He may do that anyways, but he would then have to answer, publicly, some uncomfortable questions about Bousquet's reporting. I'm not sure he's prepared to do that.

[Keith P.]

I will not give Bousquet credit for anything positive during his time at the Coast. He is the most negative, biased, snide excuse for a journalist I have ever seen.

[Colin May]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

Don't give Bousquet credit for Kelly not being mayor. IIRC Savage announced his candidacy before Kelly said he would not run. Do you think Kelly would have defeated Savage? We'll never know but I suspect not. Kelly never had to face a legitimate candidate in any of his prior re-election runs. I mean, Victor Syperek? Really?

No, I believe Savage would have destroyed Kelly at the polls and we would be in the same position as we are now. Bousquet had little to do with that. To claim otherwise is giving him far too much credit.

The public turned against Kelly long before Savage was mooted as a potential candidate for Mayor.
The downfall of Kelly started in March 24 2011 when Bousquet dealt the first of many serious blows to Kelly with his first article about the Mary Thibeault estate scandal. In what I would call the most detailed article of any journalist in Nova Scotia in the previous decade he laid out sufficient details to seriously question the judgement of the Halifax Mayor. see here

http://www.thecoast.ca/RealityBites/archives/2011/03/23/peter-kellys-failure-of-will


and then in June 2011 the HRM Auditor General reported on the Kelly participation in hiding the transfer of money to a concert promoter, see this Globe article of June 11 2011 :
" Municipal rules were broken amid an "overwhelming desire" to hold concerts in Halifax, the city's Auditor-General said after probing a funding scandal.

In a report released Tuesday, Halifax Auditor Larry Munroe blamed "many people" for a mess that left the city on the hook for more than $350,000. He said Mayor Peter Kelly and a former senior bureaucrat should have been more diligent. " see here : http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/poli...candal/article585030/#dashboard/follows/

Then there was the November 11 2011 Remembrance Day clear out of a protest mob at Victoria Park. and the role of Kelly in that action.

Then there was the February 6 2012 announcement by Savage that he would run for Mayor and 10 days later Bousquet delivered the coup de grace with another extensive and detailed article " A Trust betrayed " see here :
http://www.thecoast.ca/RealityBites/archives/2011/03/23/peter-kellys-failure-of-will

Six days later Kelly announced he would not re-offer.
Savage had no competition in his run for office, the others were less qualified than Syperek.
To deny the role of Bousquet in the downfall of Kelly is childish, churlish and is to ignore facts.

[portapetey]

I'd have to agree that Bousquet probably did play a significant role in Kelly's downfall. He broke the stories. Of course, no one took them seriously until they were picked up by more respectable journalists at more respected newspapers, because people would likely assume that it just was more of Bousquet's usual anti-authority mewling.

So Bousquet had one, single, brag-worthy career success at the Coast due to to his single-minded, obsessive, and seemingly very personal vendetta against powerful men. And wasn't satisfied with that success but continued to try to pursue Kelly well past the victory line, seemingly not happy until he drives the man to his grave.

I loathe Kelly as much as anyone, but Bousquet at some point became less journalist and more stalker.

He couldn't get anywhere with Fred MacGillivray, Scott Ferguson, or now Joe Ramia - all perceived to be powerful men, which Bousquet hates with all the blinding rage of a second year philosophy major who deeply, deeply resents her wealthy, powerful daddy - and so he keeps on trying to find something else to say about Kelly, or to find some other powerful man to turn his crosshairs on.

But despite his one big victory, he's still a failed journalist with nowhere to go but to his own private blog which he keeps locked up away from people who aren't like-minded, lest they criticize his sophomoric drivel for the juvenile hate-rag that it is.

Speaking of childish and churlish.

"...exposed corruption..." indeed.

[Ziobrop]

I cant find the Post, but there was a proposal put forth for the St Mary's church parking lot at the corner of grafton and SPG. Apparently that land, as well as the front yard of the memorial library were the old pour house burial grounds. I knew about the library, but not that it extended right to the church.

See the Daily Plug on the Morning File

Update:
This is the one i was referring to:


https://www.facebook.com/DevelopmentDuff....487040377973605/767755359902104/?type=1

[portapetey]

Originally Posted by Ziobrop

I cant find the Post, but there was a proposal put forth for the St Mary's church parking lot at the corner of grafton and SPG. Apparently that land, as well as the front yard of the memorial library were the old pour house burial grounds. I knew about the library, but not that it extended right to the church.

See the Daily Plug on the Morning File

Update:
This is the one i was referring to:


https://www.facebook.com/DevelopmentDuff....487040377973605/767755359902104/?type=1

Soooooo, I think I'm going to have to contradict myself. I just posted in another comment that i like a blend of old and new...but not this time. I think this looks awful. The building itself is fine, nothing special but not terrible, but the contrast with the neighbouring buildings is terrible!

[hokus83]

Originally Posted by Ziobrop

I cant find the Post, but there was a proposal put forth for the St Mary's church parking lot at the corner of grafton and SPG. Apparently that land, as well as the front yard of the memorial library were the old pour house burial grounds. I knew about the library, but not that it extended right to the church.

I'm not sure I'm reading you right, are you saying there is a proposal for the front yard of the memorial library? Because I think that would be a great spot for some shops with the walk way staying in-between them and the old memorial library. Though I would really miss the trees in that section a lot

[Ziobrop]

Originally Posted by hokus83

I'm not sure I'm reading you right, are you saying there is a proposal for the front yard of the memorial library? Because I think that would be a great spot for some shops with the walk way staying in-between them and the old memorial library. Though I would really miss the trees in that section a lot

no. this is for the church parking lot across the street.
The Poor House Burying Ground is under that parking lot, Grafton Street, and the font lawn of the Memorial Library.

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by Ziobrop

The Poor House Burying Ground is under that parking lot, Grafton Street, and the font lawn of the Memorial Library.

Never knew that, despite having walked those areas countless times. Thanks for the link, I now have a whole different view of that street corner.

[Keith P.]

Those graves are unmarked and the souls there unrecorded, so there should be little reason not to do a respectful relocation to another site.

[counterfactual]

I fully support Keith's proposal to re-locate, but I *don't* support stopping this or any other development. I think it would be ridiculous that we end up with another ugly and useless surface parking lot and decrepit old library forever, because there was, in a previous century, a burial ground that, also in an earlier century, was paved over for the parking lot and library foundations themselves!

This development proposal has been posted here before and discussed (it's made the rounds via the developer's website). The photo Zio has posted does not give a full perspective on what they're accomplishing here, which preserves heritage buildings along Sackville while bringing some density residential (and probably some more life) to Blowers, and really improves the corner of SGR/Sackville. Kill the parking lot. YES.

The only change, would be to move the entrance to the parking garage from Blowers to either Sackville or SGR.

[Ziobrop]

Blowers would be the perfect place for the enterance for parking. It's allready the service side for the hotel, and sgr and grafton fronts are too valuable.

[counterfactual]

Originally Posted by Ziobrop

Blowers would be the perfect place for the enterance for parking. It's allready the service side for the hotel, and sgr and grafton fronts are too valuable.

I could see that. I mainly just would love to see this proposal approved.