After four years in the business, owner Stacey Cayea has decided to close Sugar Shok Treat Boutique in Dartmouth. “The numbers talk and you gotta listen sometimes,” Cayea says of her financial troubles. In the past few years, Cayea has had to sell personal belongings to get stock into the candy store. “This year, there’s […]
Rebecca Dingwell
Posted inNews + Opinion
Curious about paganism? Participate in Samhain
Donald Adams wants curious locals to stop by the Halifax Common on Sunday to experience a public Samhain ritual. Adams is a neopagan who also happens to be an atheist—so he sees deity as a metaphor—and he has been organizing the annual ritual since 1997. Neopaganism is a modern recreation of paganism, based on what’s […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
No one really knows how to get more women to run for council
[Image-1] Lisa Blackburn, one of Halifax’s recently-elected councillors, is also one of the only women. She’s disappointed by that. “There’s so much missing when we have so few women,” says Blackburn. “We think about things differently; we process things differently; we’re just wired differently.” This year’s municipal election brought five new people to Halifax Regional […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Racist trolls are poisoning the Good Robot, Islamic centre situation
[Image-1] It’s been said that good fences make good neighbours. But the wooden fence around the beer garden at Good Robot Brewing Company hasn’t stopped the next-door Islamic centre from taking issue with its noisy goings-on. Despite “amicably” trying to work out the problem amongst themselves, the news has made the Centre for Islamic Development […]
Posted inLifestyle
Learning love and trust with an adopted dog
I remember these two pet food commercials from a few years ago: One featured a man trying to get his new cat out from under his couch. In the other, a woman wanted her new dog to play fetch. By the end of each ad, the pet owners seemingly give up—but the cat hops onto […]
Posted inLifestyle
Why people get tattoos of their pets
It took Ariel Mactavish two hours to get a decent print of her dog’s paw—an image that would later be part of her tattoo. Her Shetland sheepdog, Zorro (named for the Z-shaped marking on his neck) was getting impatient after having his pads pressed into a stamp pad over and over. “He was not impressed, […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Landlord licensing: a solution to shitty landlords?
[Image-1] When the hot water at Brett Bell’s apartment stopped working, he called the company that managed his property. It didn’t help. Since it hadn’t received complaints from any other tenants about the water system, Bell’s claim was shrugged off. “I was like, ‘I’ve been taking cold showers for the last couple days,’” says Bell. […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Meet the Big Lifters
[Image-1] Everybody’s working for the weekend. At least, that’s the case for folks involved with the Big Lift project. On this particular Sunday morning, it’s sunny. Lucky for the workers. It usually takes high winds for a day’s work to get cancelled—15 meters per second, to be exact. This weekend’s re-decking began on Friday and […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Crushing it: the journey of a can
It’s Sunday, the evening before collection day in south end Halifax. Outside the houses on Edward Street, tidy mounds of rubbish decorate the curb: plastic bags of recycling, trash and what appear to be loose remnants of spring cleaning. And there are, of course, plenty of empty beer cans—evidence of a boozy weekend. These […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
New ownership a bumpy road at Smiling Goat
[Image-1] Things have changed at the Smiling Goat Organic Espresso Bar. New owner Kit Singh took over the coffee shop at the end of January. He says he became instantly attracted to business opportunities in the city after taking a trip to Halifax in September from his home in England. “When I came to know […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Meet Nova Scotia’s first Mi’kmaw child welfare specialist
[Image-1] These days, Natalie Doucette has been on the road more than she’s used to. With 24 years of experience working with Mi’kmaw Family and Children’s Services under her belt, Doucette recently became the province’s first Mi’kmaw child welfare specialist. Doucette’s work includes a regular commute between offices in Sydney and the Mi’kmaq community of […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Battling depression often a world of silence and emptiness
[Image-1] Dexter Nyuurnibe knows how damaging the silence surrounding mental illness can be—so he decided to speak up. The NSCC broadcast journalism student has presented at schools, universities and even given a TEDx Talk. This year, Nyuurnibe will be the MC for the Jack Summit, an event which brings 200 students from across the country […]
