Rants &Raves
We discuss vigilante acts, health care woes and more
RANT: For vigilante acts. To the person or persons responsible for firing a rock into a Sydney home recently as means to inflict vigilante or mob justice, you got it all wrong! The move appeared to be against an individual charged with sex offences but the home targeted was not where that individual lived. The results of such a cowardly display are a hefty repair bill and a family left frightened for their safety in their own home. This is not how our democracy works. Criminal charges are for the courts to deal with, not individuals bent on exacting their own brand of justice. The police are investigating and it is hoped those responsible are charged. Such actions cannot be allowed to go unpunished as it undermines the safety of all in the community.
RANT: For the state of local health care. Plenty of pent-up frustration is required before hundreds of people give up a weekend afternoon in order to attend a protest rally. Last Sunday at Memorial High in Sydney Mines was one of those times. The message from local doctors who spoke at the event was loud and clear – the medical system in Cape Breton is broken and the Nova Scotia Health Authority needs to do more to fix the problem. Much more. And since the primary problem seems to be a chronic shortage of doctors can someone explain to us once again why a plan can’t be put in place that allows for additional students to be admitted into Dalhousie University’s medical school at government expense in return for a contract to work in the province for a certain number of years after graduation? It would be similar to the deals made for those entering medical school through the military. Surely, the price tag wouldn’t be any greater than the dollars used to try to entice doctors from other parts of Canada and beyond to settle here. In this way the government could guarantee a constant flow of doctors into the system, wait times for surgeries would be reduced, emergency rooms would stay open more often and more Nova Scotians would have access to family doctors. Makes sense to us.
RANT: For unsightly properties. One has to feel bad for homeowners who are so fed up about the deplorable state of a neighbour’s property they’ve spent upwards of five years trying to get the Cape Breton Regional Municipality to do something about it. Such is the case over at the corner of Fulton Avenue and Melrose Drive in Westmount and making things even worse are the two dozen or more stray cats that have taken residence at the home that has area residents in an uproar. Not the best neighbourhood to have a bird feeder we’d hazard to say. Time, it would seem, for CBRM to crack down once and for all.
RAVE: For sunny weather. OK, we get it. There are only three seasons in Cape Breton. Spring is really an illusion on this Island, right? Except, it would seem, on weekends such as this one when the outdoors can still be enjoyed before the black fly invasion begins. Let the raking begin.