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Plagiarism

Plagiarism’s main monitor: the audience Your deadline approaches with every tick of the clock. Your phone calls fall on deaf ears; your emails wait unanswered. You ruffle through your notebooks one last time, trying to find one stone of information you left unturned – nothing. Panic sets in. All you need is a little bit of Wikipedia knowledge. Why not? No one will know. Halfway down the Wiki…

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Plagiarism

Your deadline approaches with every tick of the clock. Your phone calls fall on deaf ears; your emails wait unanswered. You ruffle through your notebooks one last time, trying to find one stone of information you left unturned – nothing. Panic sets in; you can’t let down your editors. All you need is the little bit of Wikipedia knowledge. Why not use it? No one will know. Halfway down the Wiki…

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fycanadianpolitics

73% say they are in favour of a national inquiry into the issue of murdered and missing aboriginal women. That is the finding of an Angus Reid Institute (ARI) online

staypozitive

Don’t say maybe if you want to say no.

the best advice I’ve ever read. (via staypozitive)

shegoestothemovies

I should be working on Charlie and I’m going to in a minute but I just have to get this off my chest first.

Bill C-24 is disgusting in so many ways I can’t begin to list the reasons, but on the personal side of things, it just… it’s alienating. It’s alienating in such an insidious way. While I always felt strong ties to a country I’ve never lived in through my parents, I could still feel at home here in Canada. It’s where I was born. It’s where I grew up. I’ve always wanted my dual citizenship and to live back in the UK for a while, but if I’m travelling around the world and someone asks me where I’m from, I’m not going to say fucking England.

But under this bill, in the ONLY country I’ve ever lived in, with the ONLY passport I’ve ever carried, I’m now a second-class citizen. IN MY OWN COUNTRY. Which means there is now no place where I would be “deemed” fully anything.

And I know I’m not the only one, because growing up at least 70% of the people I knew and were friends with were either children of immigrants or had immigrated here when they were younger.

Canada, you just disowned your own children. I’ve never been this disgusted with the only country I’ve ever thought of as “home.”

lumistarlight

every other party voted it down, but conservative majority so obviously We must vote the conservatives out of power Get them out out out their values have no place in a modern multicultural canada

allthecanadianpolitics

I grew up here, I was only a few months old when my parents immigrated here. Now suddenly, i'm "second class" because of where I was born? that's complete bullshit, literally I speak french and english but nah, that's just not "canadian enough" for Harper

^^^

anancientheart

What if clouds and lakes switched spots and every time you looked up you’d see waves being pulled by the moon and we’d wade through the clouds on a hot day. What if birds grew grass and the ground grew feathers. What if flowers were as tall as trees and trees as small as flowers.

a-little-insane-deactivated2015

I’ll have whatever he’s having.

fycanadianpolitics

A CBC News investigation has revealed that the Conservative Party candidate running against Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau in the Montreal riding of Papineau is part of an elaborate, multi-year art project, intended at least in part to "mess with" the Conservative Party.

tastefullyoffensive

British YouTuber Emma Blackery does hilarious impressions of how popular social media sites would act on a first date.

She nailed Tumblr.

datchidatchi

Girl / Boy

keithboykin

George Zimmerman has been arrested like every year. But Trayvon Martin was the “thug,” right?

poynterinstitute

In a digital world, I think journalism can be more fun than it’s ever been. I know it is a grim outlook for many news organizations financially, and I know many people have lost jobs, and I don’t mean to dismiss that. But I think we have so many tools at our disposal that we can tell stories in ways that journalists never could before. That’s what this is all about: telling stories.

Bobby Blanchard, student journalist (via poynterinstitute)

inothernews

“FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!” Video taken by a German climber shows the moment an avalanche slammed into a base camp on Mount Everest during a 7.9 magnitude earthquake in Nepal. At least 2,500 people were killed.

nowheretaylor

eroscestlavie

this is life changing

Whether jogging, biking or walking the dog, Point Pleasant Park is a staple for life in Halifax. We often take these activities for granted and don’t think twice about taking our next step.

Now imagine wanting to enjoy the park without being able to dip your toes in the ocean or hike in any direction off the main paths.

Current user experience

Vicky Levack, who has cerebral palsy and requires an electric wheelchair to get around, says she’s never been to Point Pleasant on account of her friends and family telling her how inaccessible it is.

“It’s really sad since I was hoping to go to Shakespeare in the park,” she says, referring to Shakespeare by the Sea.

Stephen Rice, Halifax Regional Municipality’s supervisor of major parks, explains a few trails are somewhat accessible.

“Cambridge Drive from the parking lot (off Tower road) is pretty wide and flat all the way to the Prince of Wales Tower,” he says.

“Sailors Memorial Way, down by the waterfront, is also nice and flat. The crusher dust surface is pretty good,” he adds.

Rice says the only formal complaint he can remember, from several years ago, with regards to accessibility had to do with washrooms near Shakespeare by the Sea. Park management then installed ramps to rectify the situation.

Cambridge and Sailors Memorial are are two of the park’s main trails, yet neither one is officially recognized as being accessible.

There is also the issue both these main trails are connected by a pair of steep hills.

Incline up Cambridge Drive from Sailors Memorial Way. (Photo: Francis Tessier-Burns)

Imagine having to go up or down those in a wheelchair: no easy task if you have someone to help maneuver your way and practically impossible if alone.

Inconsistent information

A web page for accessible trails in HRM identifies only one accessible trail in Point Pleasant Park. It reads “the only wheelchair accessible section is from the canteen out to the terminal pier”. This path can barely be considered a part of the park.

Point Pleasant Park trail map. Only accessible trail is in blue in North-East corner. (Photo: city of Halifax)

In fact, this trail is more of a sidewalk along the docks and is only about 300 meters long. There are no signs indicating it’s considered accessible; the entrance is tucked between a fence around the docks and a fence around a helicopter landing pad.

It is also worth noting this “accessible trail” is not represented on any of the trail maps within the park itself.

The Recreation Services page for HRM’s website doesn’t identify Point Pleasant as having accessible trails.

On Point Pleasant Park’s page from Nova Scotia’s website, it’s shown to have “limited accessibility”.

Finally, a data set showing all trails in HRM outlines 157 trails specific to Point Pleasant Park. Of these, 138 are marked “No” under a column named “Wheel_Acc”. Another 18 are unspecified and one single trail is marked as accessible. This data set was last updated on Apr. 12, 2015.

Not a ‘topic of discussion’

Warren Reed, who is 65 and also requires a wheelchair, says he’s been to the park many times and saw “obvious accessibility problems”.

Reed is the founder of the James McGregor Stewart Society which aims to “improve the state and opportunities for people with disabilities in Nova Scotia.”

“The trail surface isn’t really conducive to be used by wheelchairs in Halifax weather,” he says.

“They can become very soupy and unpleasant.”

Trails can become “soupy”, says Reed. (Photo: Francis Tessier-Burns)

Reed says the solution isn’t to pave every trail, but he wishes the same park experience would be offered to those who require wheelchairs.

“Choose a particular path that is the best experience and make that one as accessible as possible,” he says.

This goes for both the seaside experience and woodland.

Unfortunately, these experiences have rarely — if ever — been thought about by HRM.

Searching “Point Pleasant Park” in the minutes for the city’s Accessibility Advisory Committee meetings for the past five years doesn’t yield any results.

“The accessibility of Point Pleasant Park has never come up as a topic of discussion,” says Jennifer Weagle, staff contact for the committee.

Based on the minutes for Point Pleasant Park’s Advisory Committee, accessibility was addressed once in the last nine years.

In 2012, Ms. Sylvia Wambolt requested “parking signage improvements that would assist wheelchair users exiting the Park.” The committee made the request but no other information was found.

Guidelines for accessible parks

Clinton Pinks, a landscape architect with the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources, says there are currently no specific accessibility guidelines when building park trails.

It is worth mentioning Point Pleasant is owned by HRM and not the province.

Pinks says NSDNR’s Parks and Recreation Division is reevaluating the current trail strategy. They will be focusing more on “responsible design and the user type” rather than stick to specific guidelines previously laid out.

Essentially, different trails would be suited for different types of users. These trails would then have signs informing the potential user.

Pinks says to do this, architects would need to balance between user experience as well the existing physical landscape.

He gave Jerry Lawrence Provincial Park as a good example of an accessible park. It features wide accessible walkways and two large boardwalks leading up to a pair of fishing piers over the water.

Pinks says boardwalks offer a better surface for wheelchair users and their standard width is wider than normal trails: two meters instead of one and a half.

Crusher dust doesn’t offer the best experience for wheelchair users. (Photo: Francis Tessier-Burns)

“There are so many variations in standards across the U.S. and other provinces,” he says.

To make a park more accessible, he says those in charge should look at parks with a similar landscape and see what worked for them instead of sticking to strict local guidelines.

Regarding Point Pleasant, Warren Reed hasn’t lost hope.

“People can sometimes think and come up with attractive solution,” he says.

“Point Pleasant is a wonderful place, maybe even the best park on the East Coast of North America. It’s in an unusual spot so close to the city and worth preserving, but also worth thinking about very carefully.”

Point Pleasant Park: fun, natural, inaccessible Whether jogging, biking or walking the dog, Point Pleasant Park is a staple for life in Halifax.

#accessibility #halifax #HRM #point pleasant park #trail #wheelchair