Bike Lanes, Morris Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Dear Premier Houston    - sent via Email with an assortment of cc's

In a letter sent to Halifax Regional Council on Wednesday night, and posted on "X"  you said your government will be forced to act if council moves ahead with a recent decision to make Morris Street in the downtown core a one-way street for bike lanes.  See  City News  

Aside from the bully rhetoric, this raises another issue. Should a Canadian politician be conducting business on "X"?   Very, Very, Very bad optics these days.

You raised concern that the decision to make Morris Street one-way could worsen traffic congestion, create unnecessary public safety risks and potentially impact operations at the port.

“As Premier, I have a responsibility to stand up for Nova Scotians who are concerned with ever-worsening traffic problems in Halifax,” reads the statement on social media. “I won’t stand by as decisions are made that will make their lives worse.”

We are all concerned about traffic, but I am encouraged to see more and more people in the bike lanes, on electric bikes, and e-scooters. I'm not one of them but I applaud them - except when they park them hither and yon on sidewalks where they are a hazard to the disabled. I am 78 years old with mobility issues, and have to take transit or drive. The new transit terminal at Scotia Square is a plus.  

Since you have co-opted control over municipal transportation, the most sensible thing to reduce congestion would be to provide funding for lower - or no - fares on public transit. They are much too high for the working poor. You should have kept the tolls on the bridges instead of adding the costs to the provincial debt for the next generation of working poor and middle class taxpayers. If there were a toll on the bridges equivalent to a transit ticket, I suspect we would soon see fewer cars pouring into downtown from the bridges. We take advantage of seniors free on Tuesday to enjoy Halifax on Transit.

My main worry as I drive my very fuel efficient little 10-yr old Honda Fit is the increasing number of huge SUV's and pickup trucks that are the scourge of the roadways, driving 20+ km over the speed limit, ignoring red lights, taking up more and more room, putting more strain on the pavement and hogging parking places. They are making walking scarier. The other scary thing for me in my little Honda is all those huge trucks hauling refuse away from construction sites. I can only imagine the hell that would ensue if infilling of Dartmouth Cove were approved.

We all have a greater responsibility to get over this worship of the car culture and enrichment of fossil barons, even when if it requires us all to change our behaviour,  and think of people, community and planet first. That is where your "responsibility" should be exercised. 

There were a number of precipitous actions in the first term, like axing the Coast Protection Act, and more worrisome things are quietly unfolding in this one.  I do not believe you are "standing up" for all Nova Scotians on a number of these issues. 

 

The Bike Lane Question

This was occasioned by a message from my own councillor, Sam Austin, and then covered in the Halifax Examiner. It has also made CTV. It seems to be grumble that irritates people in cars across the country. If only our public transit were more reliable, I would be using my car less often.

 Just sent to the Members of Halifax Regional Municipality Council

I wish to express extreme disappointment at our new Mayor’s proposed motion for a “temporary pause on awarding new bike lane design and construction contracts”, given it comes from a Harvard educated city planner who was quoted in Mar 2021 when he was Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Infrastructure and Communities. 

“Today is a great day in Canada for climate action, human health, and livable communities. With the launch of the fund for active transportation with support for an Active Transportation Strategy, the path is set for more Canadians than ever to choose cycling, rolling or walking as safe and enjoyable alternatives to motorized transport. Today is the day we put active transportation networks within reach of every community.”

This is a man whose own father is an inspirational cyclist. I‘ve been noticing an increase in commitment to bicycle use as friends and neighbours acquire electrified cycles. Use of existing bike lanes seems to be increasing where they are available. At a social event last evening this motion by the Mayor was the main topic of conversation. Though I am old and can no longer ride a bicycle due to health issues, I support their concerns and regret that I am not mobile enough to come to support our concerns at tomorrow's demonstration.

My husband and I have been pleased by the improvements in the terminal at Scotia Square with its heated waiting room and display screen, but we still seem to be encountering enough delays and cancellations to make us nervous to use the bus, when we really need to be somewhere on time.

This morning I drove my little old Honda Fit down Portland Street to an appointment on Baker Drive in awe of the cyclists who brave that fear-inducing intersection. A friend out for a morning walk was killed near there, trying to cross at a pedestrian crosswalk in 2020. The area always feels to me like a giant temple dedicated to the worship of the private automobile. Is it just my imagination, or are people buying larger and larger vehicles lately? Is our mayor perhaps pandering to the people who think that ownership of such vehicles entitles them to total control over the roadways for which we all pay?  We must all contribute to reducing our reliance on the Religion of the Car and the enormous costs of maintaining the infrastructure to support it.

I shall add this disappointment to a few that I have not forgotten in the past few years, though they came from another level of government.  Jurisdictional blaming is counterproductive, and everything IS connected.

·         Our premier’s cancellation - without any explanation - of the hard work and bi-partisan efforts that went into creating the Coastal Action Plan. Inquiring minds have not ceased to speculate. 

·         The same premier’s whimsical cancellation of bridge tolls, which had been  budgeted for major maintenance of the bridges and for repayment of a loan from the province toward that maintenance. This debt has now been added to the Provincial debt to be paid by the next generation.  Will they thank us for this “free ride”? This came shortly after an increase in public transit fares.-   Duh!   

Why do I recall that old maxim known as Hanlon's razor which reads: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."  In the world of politics, there are many other more concise, but less polite, words which could be substituted for both malice or stupidity.

I urge you to vote against this motion. 

Elinor Benjamin Dartmouth, NS 

 

Illegal deportations to El Salvador

 Sent Via April 14, 2025  Email: dhssecretary@hq.dhs.gov

The Honorable Kristi Noem
Secretary of Homeland Security
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
2707 Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20528  USA

Dear Secretary Noem

It seems ironic to be addressing as Honorable someone whose office is located on a street named in Honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. and is connected to the illegal deportations to a brutish prison in El Salvador.  On March 15, 2025, President Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act, claiming that the Tren de Aragua (TdA) criminal group was attempting to invade the U.S. He ordered the removal of Venezuelans aged 14 and older who were allegedly linked to TdA, even if they had no criminal record.

The "Terrorist takeover of America” and “Enemy Alien” labels are blatant “Manufactured Crises” – such as those employed in Nazi Germany. The last time the “enemy alien” clause was invoked was during a declared war, interning  over 120,000 Japanese Americans in camps. Even then, thousands of innocent people lives were irrevocably harmed.   Invoking it now to target migrants unfairly and indiscriminately is an unprecedented misuse of power. For decades, the United States has been covertly undermining attempts at democracy in Latin America with money and force to smooth the path for American investors. Now comes a $6 Million dollar payment to an unsavory ally.

On the same day, a class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of five Venezuelans facing removal. A U.S. District Court quickly issued a temporary restraining order (TRO), stopping deportations and requiring the government to halt flights to El Salvador. The government appealed, but the D.C. Circuit upheld the order. The administration has now taken the case to the Supreme Court.

The expulsion of 238 individuals from the United States to El Salvador, despite a court order explicitly barring their removal represents not only a flagrant disregard of the United States’ human rights obligations, but also a dangerous step toward authoritarian practices as the Trump administration ignored and is now calling for the firing of a federal judge of the United States Judiciary. This is also a dangerous endorsement of President Bukele’s punitive security agenda
                                            -Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International

Cc  by Snail mail to Mrs. Marybeth Krumm Turner
Minister-Counsellor & Chargé d’affaires,
Embassy of the United States of America
490 Sussex Drive,  Ottawa, ON K1N 1G8

 Elinor Benjamin, Long time Member, Amnesty International