OTTAWA – A Nova Scotia court decision that upheld the right of police to release names of men arrested for soliciting prostitutes is being applauded by experts in human trafficking who are now calling for Canada’s anti-prostitution laws to be enforced across the country.

OTTAWA – The Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society will be required to accredit Trinity Western University’s law school graduates.

Growing up in Glace Bay, N.S., Trevor Tracey watched funerals pass by the windows of his elementary school and dreamed that one day he would be the man leading the procession.

NEW WATERFORD, N.S. - He has been called a ray of sunshine, a sign of hope and messenger of peace. But little Aidan Oliver says he just wants to make people happy.

The Knights of Columbus Sydney Council 1060 has brought the order’s prestigious Star Council Award to the shores of Nova Scotia.

The largest private alumni donation ever to St. Francis Xavier University will help bring post-secondary education to more of Nova Scotia’s marginalized people.

Cold waters, an overnight storm and countless jelly fish were not enough to slow down swimmer Marilyn Korzekwa during her historic three-province Atlantic Ocean swim to raise funds for the Good Shepherd in Hamilton, Ont.

With the phone pressed to her ear memories spring to life of a man from half a life ago.

“Sure I remember him,” said Sr. Mary Jo Mazzerolle. “The day before he was killed he was in our house. He came to us to say Mass and afterwards he came to our house for supper.

The Canny Scot: Archbishop James Morrison of Antigonish, by Peter Ludlow (McGill-Queens University Press, 352 pages, hardcover, $34.95).

For those of us interested in how Church social action really happens, Peter Ludlow has written a fascinating, accessible, full-length biography of Archbishop James Morrison, one of the most important Canadian bishops of the 20th century.

It’s been the winter of our discontent.

After a practically snow-free December and January, the Maritime provinces were relentlessly buffeted by snowfall after snowfall during February and March. 
Two and sometimes three storms in a week left Nova Scotians scratching their heads and cussing their fortunes.


Advocates of religious freedom scored a big win on Jan. 28 when a Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge bluntly told that province’s law society to stop trying to impose its morality on a private Christian university.

In the small township of New Waterford, N.S., a parish has fallen. 

Like many Catholic parishes, our little flock smack in the middle of Nova Scotia is facing a financial crunch and Canada Day serves as one of our biggest moneymakers.

ANTIGONISH, N.S. - The diocese of Antigonish in Nova Scotia no longer owes $16 million to 125 victims of clerical sexual abuse.

The diocese has made its final payment to settle a class-action lawsuit, the Canadian Press reports. The settlement was negotiated by former Bishop Raymond Lahey, who was arrested on charges of importing child pornography just three weeks after announcing the deal to settle claims dating as far back as the 1950s.

The lawsuit was initiated in 2002 by Ron Martin, whose brother committed suicide that year leaving a note about abuse he suffered at the hands of Fr. Hugh Vincent MacDonald. MacDonald was charged in 2003 but died before his trial could come to a conclusion.

The last payment is not the end of the process of healing, said diocesan spokesman Fr. Don MacGillivray.

“Healing always takes time,” MacGillivray told the Canadian Press. “But I’m a person of hope, and that’s what my faith calls me to be.”

The diocese put 150 properties up for sale, dumped its shares in the local weekly paper, The Casket, and drained savings from parishes to come up with the full settlement.

My seven-year-old recently made his First Communion. He is one of two children to take this life-changing spiritual step in our rural Nova Scotia parish. That’s right, one of only two.

I’m sure there are other children in our countryside community who should have joined them, but for many reasons those children did not prepare for the sacrament. Most don’t even attend Mass, even though their parents did so as children.