Journalist Robert DeVet remembered as fearless advocate for the marginalized

Robert DeVet, founder of the Nova Scotia Advocate and a "renegade" journalist whose work challenged the status quo, died suddenly Monday in Annapolis Royal, N.S. He was 66.

DeVet launched the Nova Scotia Advocate in 2016 to be a voice for seldom-heard Nova Scotians. The online publication, funded entirely by reader donations, aimed to fill the gap left by other news media and tackled issues including poverty, gentrification, racism,prisons and disabilities.

Gary Burrill,leader of the Nova Scotia NDP, said the style of journalism DeVetpractised has a long history in the province dating back 100 years to publications coming out ofindustrial Cape Breton and the work of James BrysonMcLachlan, a coal miner, unionist and editor of the Maritime Labor Herald.

"A kind of journalism that is unabashedly committed to and engaged on the side of people who have been relegated over to the side and marginalized in their experience," said Burrill, adding that DeVet never asked him softball questions even though both men came from the progressive left.

DeVet served as owner, publisher, head writer and editor of the Advocate. The retired civil servant was present at almost every protest or demonstration in the Halifax area for many years, Burrill said,taking photographs and interviewing participants for the Advocate.

Prior to founding the Advocate, DeVet reportedfor the Halifax Media Co-op.

Burrill said he last saw DeVetabout six days ago when the journalistwas atCitadel Hill covering a climate justice protest and trying to climb the hill ahead of much younger protestors to get a betterangle for photos.

Ingrid Waldron met DeVet in 2016 when he came to interview her about the ENRICH project she had started three years earlier. The community-based project is dedicated to investigatingthe cause and effects of toxic industries situated near Mi'kmawand African Nova Scotian communities.

She said although DeVet had a gruff demeanour, she was struck by his sensitivity and empathy for the marginalized.

Describing him as a "'renegade"' and a "rebel," Waldron saidDeVetwas always determined to do his own thing in the way he wantedand "wouldn't take nonsense from anyone."

"What I really loved about him is that he was like a journalist advocate," she said. "He was using his journalism to advocate for communities andI really appreciated him for that.

"For sticking with the topic, for sticking with communities, for going beyond."

Waldron said what set DeVet apart from other journalists was his willingness to do a story about a community and track that story over time. Something, she said, most journalists don't have time to do.

Waldron's sentiments are shared by Fiona Traynor, a community legal aid worker at Dalhousie Legal Aid Services in Halifax.

She first met DeVet when they worked together on income assistance and welfare reform with a community group. Traynor said DeVetcovered stories about marginalized people and communities in Nova Scotia in an in-depth way that "mainstream media" couldn't or wouldn't.

"He interviewed people whose lives were directly impacted by government systems, political systems and oppression and injustice and neglect," saidTraynor. "And in that,he brought their voices to life and he brought the issues up that needed to be publicized."

Traynor said DeVet's death is an "immeasurable loss" for communities andthe province, and leaves a gap she is not sure will ever be filled.

In a post Friday on the Nova Scotia Advocate'sFacebook page, DeVet's sonsaid the Advocate would cease publication but will be maintained indefinitely as an archive.

The Advocate was a "labour of love," wrote Simon De Vet, adding that 100 per cent of reader donations, minus a small amount for website expenses, were used to pay freelance contributors.

De Vet said hisfather put anenormous amount of work into the publication, personally editingevery article and carefully curatingeverything that went online.

"My father ran the Advocate in a way that reflected his own beliefs," hesaid. "He was never neutral, and would proudly hold signs and chant at the rallies he attended."

De Vet said he hopeshis father showed there is room for many kinds of journalism in Nova Scotia.

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