A new parlour game launched in late November when Don Connolly announced his retirement. “Who’s going to be the new Information Morning host?” is based on the premise that CBC has one chance to get this right, as precedent tells us the person filling Connolly’s chair could be a public face of the corporation for […]
Kyle Shaw
Loving the arrival of this mysterious climate event people are calling "spring".
Kyle was a founding member of the newspaper in 1993 and was the paper’s first publisher. Kyle occasionally teaches creative nonfiction writing (think magazine-style #longreads) and copy editing at the University of King’s College School of Journalism.
Posted inNews + Opinion
Speeding beauty
The urge to return home hit Nicole Turlo when she was working at a spa in Toronto, pregnant with her second child. She didn’t have a job in Nova Scotia, and she told her husband he didn’t have to come, but she knew moving felt right: “As long as I’m in Halifax, I’ll be happy.” […]
Posted inLifestyle
America just doubled down on the war on drugs
When California started 2018 by formally legalizing weed, it felt like a blow to Canada’s cool cred. California has more people and a bigger economy than Canada, and it made legalization happen January 1, while prime minister Justin Trudeau is already losing his nerve for what had seemed a firm July 1 deadline. That’s weak, […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Waiting to exhale
The last time I tried to buy weed before the Cannabis Act was introduced, I was a teenager. It was late in the 1900s, when the other prime minister Trudeau was winding down his political career. We never had much pot-buying success, my friends and I. But that was fine with me. Attempting to score […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Atlantic News delivers your Saturday Globe and Mail fix
Saturday is always the busiest day of the week at Atlantic News, the venerable newsstand/temple of media, so it stands to reason Fridays aren’t exactly slow. And sure enough, this morning the shop was humming—staff at two cash registers, someone in the back room unpacking boxes of magazines, multiple phone lines ringing. But it was […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
The best of the Best of Halifax
Journalism has an uneasy relationship with cliche. Near the top of the list of reporters’ rules is the admonition to avoid cliche whenever possible. Hot on its heels is the warning that some cliches are true for a reason. At the end of the day, it’s not in anyone’s interest to avoid a useful turn […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Dal to students: It’s not about white fragility or reverse racism
Adding to whatever homework they received in classes today, Monday afternoon Dal students were emailed a 900-word memo about white fragility and the Code of Student Conduct. The email came from the university’s vice-provost for student affairs, Arig al Shaibah, who just a week ago sent a similar note responding to the homecoming street party. But unlike […]
Posted inArts + Music
In Memoriam: Dunsworth and Downie
This has been a horrible week in Canadian culture. On Monday, local actor John Dunsworth passed away at 71, after a short and unexpected illness. Then 53-year-old Gord Downie of The Tragically Hip followed him, succumbing on Wednesday to a brain cancer that was widely discussed from the moment he announced its existence more than […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Dal moves quickly to meet with residents at homecoming ground zero
The adults at Dalhousie University are busy trying to clean up the mess after Saturday afternoon’s homecoming party/riot/debacle. Houses around the Jennings Street scene of pro-Dal chanting, public intoxication and mass arrest received a letter from university president Richard Florizone today, inviting them to a meeting Tuesday night. ”Dear neighbour: I want to apologize for […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Know comments
The Coast’s comment section is a place intended for civil debate, constructive discussion and for folks to share their own experiences. But it hasn’t been meeting those goals. The vast majority of comments on our website fall under personal attacks and intense arguments between commenters. Given the potential of comments to be a force for […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Kudos for The Coast’s awesome writers Lezlie Lowe and Jacob Boon
Nominees for the 2016 Atlantic Journalism Awards were announced today, with a pair of crime-related Coast stories making the list. In Enterprise Reporting: Print, the AJA category for work such as investigative journalism that demonstrates reportorial initiative, our city editor Jacob Boon is nominated. You will probably remember Boon’s article, “Continuity errors,” for breaking the […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
To the trolls who would silence trans writers
Last Thursday, March 23, we ran an opinion piece both in print and online called “Trans exclusionists target Halifax trans women.” After it was shared on The Coast’s Facebook page, the story caught the attention of TERFs—trans exclusionary radical feminists—around the world. These TERF trolls proved the story’s point by unleashing an ugly torrent of […]