April 18th, 2020, the residents of the small town of Portapique, Nova Scotia, went to sleep that night, not knowing they would wake up to complete mayhem in the middle of the night. Many heard gunshots and saw flames billowing in the night sky. An anonymous alert by the RCMP left many not knowing what was going on. By 11:26 a.m. on April 19th, 23 people were dead, and three people were injured. The man responsible for it all was shot and killed by the police. So many questions remain. How did the shooter get away with this? Why didn't the RCMP warn residents sooner? How could a civilian b ..read more

This week on Context: Canadians are on the move. In the past five years inter-provincial migration has grown exponentially. Alberta, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia have seen an influx of people moving from neighbouring provinces to start a new life.     Most interprovincial migrants come from Ontario. Between July 1st, 2021, and June 30th, 2022 over 14,000 more people came to Nova Scotia from other provinces or territories than left the area itself. A report from Scotiabank says pandemic restriction severity, housing affordability, and telework adoption all appear to hav ..read more

This week on Context we tell the story of African Nova Scotians and how they’ve contributed to the history of Canada. They’ve been in Canada for almost 300 years and yet some of us don’t know their stories and all that they have given us. Context is on the road as Maggie John travels to Nova Scotia to speak with Isaac Saney, a historian in African Studies at Dalhousie University. We’ll also get a tour of the historic Africville Museum. The original community of Africville was established in the 1700s. As you’ll hear today the museum is a replica of Seaview United Baptist Church - the core of t ..read more

The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health is calling it a crisis in our country. After years of campaigns dispelling the stigma around mental health, we are now facing a shortage of mental health care support, with some wait lists a year-long leaving many Canadians with nowhere to turn for help. Fewer than 1 in 3 Canadians with mental illness can access care. The pandemic has put pressure on a system that was already fragile. In a poll conducted by Angus Reid in partnership with the CBC, 54 percent of Canadians felt their mental health had worsened during the past two years. The Canadian Ment ..read more

Eleven years of war in Syria -- with devastating consequences. What began as the Arab spring- pro-democracy demonstrations erupting all over the Middle East in 2011 soon turned into war when the Syrian government had enough.  Crackdowns intensified; Syrians were killed, as protestors demanded the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad. Then, a civil war erupted, accompanied by the factions of fighting also carried out by Isis and Kurdish forces in the region. The number of lives lost will never be known but estimates are that hundreds of thousands of Syrians have perished since 2011. Th ..read more

Anger: we see it in traffic. We hear it on the radio, and we read it online. It’s all around us.    But are Canadians angry?    For many years we have been depicted as one of the nicest- happiest people in the world. Something has changed.    According to the “Rage Index”- a new way to measure our crankiness in this country- unvaccinated Canadians seem more perturbed than the rest- upset with things like their financial situation; the government; societal changes and the economy.     But all of us seem to have a bee in our bonnet when it comes to th ..read more

Canada is among the 12 countries in the world that have made assisted death legal.       Brought into law 6 years ago, MAID continues to be a point of contention in this country.        Last year alone, 10,000 Canadians died by the procedure, with numbers expected to increase this year.        When Bill C-7 was initially passed the caveat to accessing the procedure was that one’s death had to be reasonably foreseeable.         Since then the law has changed and allows those w ..read more

The cost of being a woman in the world can be deadly as we saw recently with the death of Mahsa Amini – a 22-year-old Iranian woman, detained by morality police for allegedly not wearing her hijab correctly. She died after falling into a coma while in police custody.    It is the most recent case that has resurfaced the debate around gender equality everywhere.      But as the protests in favour of gender rights continue - the silent death of millions of unborn girls worldwide including in Canada hasn't stopped either.     It's called gendercide or ..read more

Two and a half years ago the world stopped as we all watched George Floyd die before our eyes. After years of hearing about the racial injustice experienced by people of colour - the world seemed ready to finally listen. But according to statistics Canada the number of reported hate crimes went up. Anti-black hate crimes went up 92% in 2020; hate crimes against indigenous people increased 152%  but the most startling were crimes against  east and southeast Asian Canadians which saw a 301% rise -making headlines around the world. But studies show diversity and representation at the de ..read more

A tragic death on an Ontario farm has led to calls for more rights and safety requirements for migrant workers working under Temporary Foreign Worker permits.    The workers fill vital positions - primarily in agriculture, food and beverage manufacturing, and home care. But are migrant workers being treated humanely?     An open letter from Jamaican farm workers to their country's Ministry of Labour describes the program as "systemic slavery" - listing poor housing, abusive bosses, and exposure to dangerous work conditions. In late September, the Canadian government re ..read more