Petition calls on council to join other municipalities in asking for federal action on ceasefire in Gaza
The devastation in Gaza was again top of mind at Sackville town hall on Tuesday, as about 50 local residents gathered in the cold outside to hold a candlelight vigil, with others attended the meeting inside, and asked Tantramar council to follow the lead of other Canadian municipalities, and ask the federal government to pursue a ceasefire in Gaza.
Sackville Ceasefire Coalition member Sarah Kardash presented to council, spending her five minutes of allotted time laying out reasons why town council should write to Prime minister Justin Trudeau and ask him to demand a ceasefire in Gaza.
“As a Jewish member of the coalition, I’m horrified that Israel is weaponizing the deaths of Israeli citizens on October 7 to fuel a genocidal war against Palestinians,” said Kardash, quoting the large numbers of Palestinians killed in the Israeli campaign to eradicate Hamas.
According to the estimates from the Gaza Health Ministry, over 23,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 7, the majority women and children.
“The UN has called Gaza a graveyard for children,” Kardash told council. “Imagine the equivalent of two nuclear bombs dropping on an area half the size of Tantramar… Experts say the relentless bombing by Israel since October 7 is the most destructive in modern history and among the deadliest in recent history.”
Kardash presented a detailed petition to council signed by 253 local residents, and organized by the coalition, which Kardash described as “a group of Tantramar residents of diverse ages, faiths and backgrounds who are united as global citizens in our humanitarian concerns for the people of Gaza.”… Continue
Meet the candidates: Allison Butcher, running in Ward 3 (Central Sackville)
Allison Butcher was born and raised in Sackville and lived in Ottawa before returning to her hometown in 1998. She’s the mother of two teenage daughters, and for the past 20 years she has worked as a pre-school teacher. She’s been involved in municipal politics since 2016 and is currently in her second term as councillor.
Listen to CHMA’s Meet The Candidates interview with Allison Butcher, which took place by phone on November 9, 2022.
She is running in Ward 3, where residents will elect four councillors from a pool of nine candidates.
Along with Butcher, those candidates include Michael Tower, Alice Cotton, Josh Goguen, Virgil Hammock, Charles Harvey, Sana Mohamad, Saditya Pendurthi and Bruce Phinney. CHMA has interviewed all of them except for Charles Harvey, who declined an interview request, and Sana Mohamad, as we’re awaiting a response from that candidate.
CHMA is compiling all its election coverage in one place, for your convenience. For more candidate interviews and other local elections coverage, click here.
TRANSCRIPT Allison Butcher, Nov. 9, 2022:
CHMA: Allison Butcher, thanks so much for taking the time to speak with us.
AB: Thank you.
CHMA: So for those who might not already know you, tell us a bit about yourself.
AB: So I’m Allison Butcher, I live in Sackville, and what will be Ward 3. I am a preschool teacher here in town and have been for about 20 years now.… Continue
Councillors express dismay at under-representation; ask for a single Sackville ward with reps at-large
On Thursday evening, Sackville’s municipal reform committee met for a third time, with a narrow mandate of providing input on whether Sackvillians would elect their future Entity 40 representatives at large, or in up to four separate wards.
But before they got to that question, councillors sounded off on a previous decision made by the province, to forego its own representation-by-population guidelines and allot just 50% of representatives to the former town of Sackville, which is home to 68% of the population of the new Entity 40.
Right off the bat, Councillor Allison Butcher asked Deputy Mayor Andrew Black if there was any chance of changing what she called “a skew as far as population goes?”
“No,” said Black. “That has been decided. That meeting that we had on the 15th, whatever decision was made at the end of that night with the advisory committee that was there, that decision was final.”
It’s become a theme of the municipal reform process so far: rushed decisions made in private meetings, with no substantive engagement with councils, much less the general public.
It was enough for Butcher to forego her usual attempts to put a positive spin on her comments: “At the risk of sounding really, really jaded, it probably doesn’t matter what I think should happen with the four councillors representing the 7000 people,” said Butcher, “because I’m starting to feel like it doesn’t matter what we think.”
Black told the committee that after a 1.5 hour meeting on February 15 with provincially appointed facilitator Chad Peters and the eight appointees to the provincial advisory committee, there was a consensus reached among all members, including himself and Mayor Shawn Mesheau.… Continue
Hicks and Butcher talk skateboards, rink fees, defining the press, and Sackville’s wish list for lobbying the provincial government
Councillors roundtable is a monthly feature on CHMA Talks. This month, councillors Ken Hicks and Allison Butcher joined in the conversation, recapping some issues from Tuesday’s discussion meeting, and looking forward to items up for consideration on Monday, August 9, for council’s regular monthly meeting.… Continue