Jamaican migrant worker granted federal health care after being fired from N.S. farm [VIDEO]

Kerian Burnett, left, and Stacey Gomez, right, speak to reporters in Halifax on Monday, Aug. 14, 2023. Burnett arrived in Nova Scotia from Jamaica to work on a strawberry farm, but says she was fired after her cancer diagnosis, leaving her without medical coverage. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Marlo Glass

A migrant worker who was diagnosed with cervical cancer shortly after arriving in Nova Scotia has been granted health insurance under a federal program.

Kerian Burnett arrived from Jamaica in April 2022 to work on a strawberry farm, and says she was fired after her cancer diagnosis and left without medical coverage.

Her lawyer, Thiago Buchert, says that after nearly eight months Burnett has been admitted to the interim federal health program.

Festival for Black Nova Scotian filmmakers back on stage for this spring

Shelley Fashan, left, and Tara Taylor are the founders of the Emerging Lens Film Festival.

A film festival created for Black Nova Scotian filmmakers is now open for submissions and its organizer hopes the event will go ahead without COVID restrictions for the first time since 2019.

The Emerging Lens Film Festival is now in its 13th year. Co-founder Shelley Fashan said the idea for the festival first came about in 2010 when she attended the screening of a documentary by East Preston filmmaker Tara Taylor, who eventually became Emerging Lens’ other co-founder.

[VIDEO] – SIRT’s first director of African descent welcomes questions from Black community

Alonzo Wright is the new director of the Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT). Credit: Nova Scotia Government/Twitter

One of the longest-tenured Black senior crown prosecutors in Nova Scotia’s history recently appointed as director of Nova Scotia’s Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT) is encouraging and welcoming questions from the Black community about cases in his new role.

Alonzo Wright becomes the fourth director of SIRT since its 2012 launch. He’s SIRT’s first director of African descent.