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‘He thought I was nuts’: Guidance counselor snaps photos of wild squirrels interacting with miniature props
Wednesday was Nancy Rose’s day off. For most of the afternoon, the high school guidance counselor from Bedford, N.S., was crouched on her porch, her camera fixed on a miniature bathtub that was carefully staged on a railing. Ms. Rose was waiting for a squirrel to approach the tub and reach for the peanuts inside. National Post reporter Jake Edmiston interrupted Wednesday’s photo shoot to speak to the photographer, whose whimsical depictions of the woodland creatures are garnering international attention.
Nova Scotia premier reveals plan for probe into Rehtaeh Parsons tragedy amid fresh vigilante threats
Already in damage control over the alleged gang rape of Rehtaeh Parsons, the Nova Scotia government has announced further measures in response to the case amid mounting local and international outrage.
Heavily criticized for initially refusing to review the case, N.S. Premier Darrell Dexter today revealed that Marilyn More, minister responsible for the Advisory Council on the Status of Women, will coordinate the province’s response to the tragic suicide of the 17-year-old girl.
Separate impassioned pleas from Parsons’ parents has led public outrage at the Nova Scotia justice system which decided not to prosecute the four boys accused of gang raping the girl when she was only 15. The school system has also been accused of wiping their hands of the situation and not taking any action.
“Nova Scotia will learn from this terrible tragedy,” More said in a statement. “Right now, it is a time to care and be kind to one another. Nova Scotians have pulled together in tragic times in the past, and they are doing so now. (Facebook)
‘For the love of God do something’: Rehtaeh Parsons’ father issues emotional call to action after daughter killed by ‘disappointment’
Rehtaeh Parsons’s heart was so big, sometimes it scared her dad.
A defender of the downtrodden, Parsons was quick to hand out spare change and stand up for neglected animals.
Glen Canning prepared for the worst for his daughter after she was allegedly raped, but hoped he’d never have to face it.
Amid the angry noise generated by thousands of people around the world seeking justice for a Nova Scotia teenager, who was removed from life support on Sunday after attempting suicide a few days earlier, is the voice of a father in agony over the loss of his child.
In a heartbreaking entry posted to his personal website, Canning remembers his daughter and lambasts the justice system he says failed to help her.
“The worst nightmare of my life has just begun. I loved my beautiful baby with all my heart,” Canning writes. “She meant everything to me. I felt her heart beating in my soul from the moment she was born until the moment she died. We were a team. We were best pals.”
Canning explains how he watched his daughter suffer from repeated disappointment.
“My daughter wasn’t bullied to death, she was disappointed to death. Disappointed in people she thought she could trust, her school, and the police,” he writes. (GlenCanning.com)
‘You have zero class’: Anonymous issues blistering attack on N.S. justice minister over lack of charges in Rehtaeh Parsons case
One day after threatening to release the identities of four boys allegedly involved in the gang rape of teenager Rehtaeh Parsons, the hacktivist group Anonymous has issued a blistering attack on Nova Scotia Justice Minister Ross Landry and other authority figures over their decision not to prosecute in the case.
“What we have learned is certainly appalling, but it wasn’t the act of rape that shocked us. It was the behavior of the adults in Rehtaeh’s life that we found most disturbing,” the Anonymous group “Operation Justice for Rehtaeh” said in a Thursday morning press release that took aim at “school teachers, administrators, the police and prosecutors.”
“All of you have created a mess and instead of taking responsibility and cleaning it up, the first thing you did yesterday morning was get on television and defend your jobs. You have taught the young men in your community a terrible lesson: rape is easy.” (Facebook)
Anonymous threatens to out boys involved in alleged gang rape of N.S. teen unless RCMP charges them
The “hackivist” organization Anonymous says it knows the identities of at least two of the four boys involved in the alleged gang rape of Rehtaeh Parsons and are threatening to release their names and locations unless the RCMP charges them.
“Our demands are simple: We want the N.S. RCMP to take immediate legal action against the individuals in question. We encourage you to act fast. If we were able to locate these boys within 2 hours, it will not be long before someone else finds them,” the Anonymous group working under the name “Operation Justice For Rehtaeh” said in a Wednesday press release.
The group initially said they knew the names of two of the four boys, but within 30 minutes said on Twitter it knew the names of all of the alleged perpetrators.
“We do not approve of vigilante justice as the media claims. That would mean we approve of violent actions against these rapists at the hands of an unruly mob. What we want is justice. And that’s your job. So do it.” (Facebook)
‘Those are the people that took the life of my beautiful girl’: Mother goes on attack over teen’s suicide
On Sunday night, Rehtaeh Parsons’ family removed her from life support, and on Monday her mother took to Facebook to lash out at those she holds responsible for her 17-year-old daughter’s suicide.
Leah Parsons wrote that the straight-A student’s descent into agony began 15 months ago when she went to an acquaintance’s house in suburban Halifax and was sexually assaulted by four boys her age, who later distributed a photo of the assault among their classmates.
“Rehtaeh is gone today because of the four boys that thought that raping a 15 yr old girl was OK and to distribute a photo to ruin her spirit and reputation would be fun,” she wrote.
“Secondly, all the bullying and messaging and harassment that never let up are also to blame. Lastly, the justice system failed her. Those are the people that took the life of my beautiful girl.” (Facebook)
Nasty neighbour note didn’t stop Nova Scotia family from embracing ‘tacky’ Easter decor
Lori Perron was intrigued. A trip to the community post office box not far from her Peachtree Hill home in Halifax, N.S., typically yields a stack of bills, some coupons, junk mail and nothing more.
But on March 4 there was something more. Tucked amid the standard correspondence was a plain white envelope with “Home owner” typed across the front.
“I thought we must have won something,” Ms. Perron says. “It is pretty exciting whenever you get something in the mail that isn’t a bill.”
The excitement, alas, was fleeting, and it vanished altogether after the 45-year-old stay-at-home mom sat down on her front porch to read the envelope’s contents, a letter consisting of three sentences.
“Dear Home owners,” it reads.
“Before Easter comes the community asks that you do not demoralize our subdivision and street with yet again your very tacky decorations. Halloween and Christmas was enough.
“Perhaps you should consider that this area is a step above you.” The letter was signed: “A Concerned Neighbour.” (Devaan Ingraham for the National Post)
‘Some people give us Cape Bretoners a bad name’: The smoking MacNeils earn hamlet of Mabou a new claim to fame
Before the Second World War, Mabou, Cape Breton, was known mostly for coal mining. More recently, it was celebrated as the home of the Rankin Family, the popular Celtic pop band.
This week, the hamlet of about 1,000 has a fresh claim to fame: The smoking MacNeils.
On Friday a Sunwing flight to the Dominican Republic was forced to land in Bermuda, and three MacNeils arrested. David MacNeil Sr., 54, Darlene MacNeil, 52 and David MacNeil Jr., 22, allegedly tried to smoke on the plane, and then refused to cooperate with the flight staff. An entire planeload of vacationers spent a day dealing with the fallout.
The MacNeils, now banned from Sunwing, were to fly home Tuesday night, but their story already had an uninterrupted flight home.
Nova Scotia parlour ordered to pay nearly $9,000 for tattoo typo
Marie Huckle wanted to get a lasting tribute to a recently deceased friend, and decided to tattoo a phrase that held special meaning, signalling they would one day meet again.
Instead, the tattoo artist left out a letter, and she ended up with “See You at the Cossroads” on her ribcage.
“This had been a traumatic experience, and it’s embarrassing … I just don’t want it any more,” said Ms. Huckle, 23, who has spent many painful hours under a laser trying to erase the botched memorial.
A Nova Scotia small claims court has sided with the Dartmouth, N.S., woman, and ordered Newcombe’s Ink tattoo parlour to pay her nearly $9,000. (Photos: Power/William Power; Courtesy Marie Huckle)
Highly addictive drug blamed for cannibal attack in Miami a growing threat
The new synthetic drug being blamed for a horrific attack in Miami in which a naked man chewed the face off of a victim in broad daylight has become popular in parts of the Maritimes and has health officials warning of the drug’s violent consequences.
U.S health authorities say bath salts popularity was noted by doctors to rise significantly throughout late 2010 and into 2011.
“Bath salts” — as the drug is known by on the streets — are much more dangerous than than the impression that their innocuous-sounding name leaves. Made with the active agent of either Methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDVP), mephedrone or methylone, it can result in an aggressive, chaotic response in the user, combined with intense hallucinations and extreme euphoria. It has been compared to a mix of cocaine and amphetamine.
Greg Purvis, director of Addiction Services for the Pictou, Colchester East Hants and Cumberland county health authorities in northern Nova Scotia, called the drug the most dangerous new product he’s seen in his career.
“I’ve been working in addictions for 19 years … and this is the first drug which really has me concerned.” (AP Photo/The Miami Herald)
Groundhog Day 2012: Shubenacadie Sam predicts early spring; Punxsutawney Phil calls for more winter
This country’s first furry forecaster brought good news to winter-weary Canadians on Thursday morning, as Nova Scotia’s Shubenacadie Sam failed to see his shadow — meaning, according to tradition, an early spring is on its way.
The news was less pleasant for our neighbours south of the border, as Punxsutawney Phil — made particularly famous by Bill Murray’s 1993 movie Groundhog Day — did see his shadow in the town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. (Photo: Jason Cohn/Reuters)
Tiny Sable Island Canada’s newest national park
It is just a long, slender, green-bean of a thing, but this dune off the cold coast of Nova Scotia is anything but a harmless strip of sand. Its swirling waters are known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic, for they have swallowed 350 ships since 1583. Its underwater Scotian Shelf hosts 18 shark species who feast on the island’s grey seals.
The island is tall and narrow — 40-km in length, and only 1.5-km in width — and its body is held together by a skeleton of beach grass that traps the sand granules and the pirate wreckage buried within. Hundreds of untamed horses run wild, their matted manes unruly in the blustering wind where the Labrador current collides with the warm gulf stream and breeds thick fog.
This is Sable Island, a crescent-shaped mass roughly 300 kilometres out to sea. On Monday, Sable Island was formally named a Canadian national park reserve to ensure, the environment minister said in a statement, that the “iconic” and “fabled” island will be protected for all time.
Bay of Fundy, Canada’s last shot at Wonderhood
If you did not already know, a major international election campaign has been waged these past few years, a high stakes war of electoral attrition pitting 28 natural wonders of the world — and the countries where said wonders are located — in a vote to determine the New7Wonders of Nature.
It is a catchy label, and one that would presumably look awfully nice on tourist pamphlets, international travel brochures and websites promoting the Bay of Fundy, Canada’s lone surviving entry in a global popularity contest cooked up by the New7Wonders Foundation.
It is like “American Idol” or “So You Think You Can Dance, Canada,” only the 28 natural beauties shaking their hips include Mt. Kilimanjaro, the Great Barrier Reef, the Grand Canyon, the Dead Sea, the Cliffs of Moher and, well, the Bay of Fundy. (Photos: Len Wagg/Communications Nova Scotia)
Kevin Libin: How equalization is a formula for stagnation
In short, the grave truth about equalization in Canada is this: the more productive and responsible your province, the lousier your access to medicine, nursing homes, schools, the justice system, day cares, and dozens of other services will be. On the other hand, the more a province proves itself fiscally careless and economically stagnant, the likelier its citizens are to enjoy the most well padded public programs on offer.
