While you were off enjoying your summer, the citykept busy. There have been changes ranging from the unveiling of the beautiful “North is Freedom” statue at the North Branch Library, to the dubious installation of a bunch of surveillance cameras on downtown streets. There were plenty of visitors, coming to gawk during the Tall Ships […]
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
Catching cliches
—from Saskatoon and New Zealand Finding out how others see you is educational—you get to discover how out of touch they are. Articles from different ends of the planet help make the point. First up is a piece in Saskatoon’s Star Phoenix about riding the train from Montreal to Halifax to take part in a […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
BURNING EARS
A Titanic error —from England, Houston and Winston-Salem When Titanic news happens, our morbid link to the disaster often gets our town mentioned on lips around the globe. It happened five years ago, when the so-called Unknown Child—a nameless infant who was buried in Halifax’s Fairview Lawn Cemetery along with 120 other victims of the […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
The mayor’s concert diary
In response to a timeline being circulated by Events Halifax, Peter Kelly is releasing excerpts from his 2007 personal diary. January 19I’m busy performing a Stationery Supply Inventory when Fred MacGillivray bursts into my office. He says Events Halifax has a chance to book Soul 2 Soul for a September 1 concert on the Common. […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Market research
It’s hard to say enough good things about the farmers’ market expansion. Even premier Rodney MacDonald isn’t up to the task and he’s a professional hot-air blower who got to announce provincial cash in support of the project. “I am proud to commit $2.25 million for a state-of-the-art facility,” RodMac said last Thursday, the summer […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Steering contest
The fast ferry plan to whisk commuters between Halifax and Bedford by boat survived its appearance before city council this week. Although details of the proposal are sketchy, council gave unanimous approval1 “in principle” so the idea can still float toward becoming a reality. While this may be a step in the right direction towards […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Road to ruin
The Critical Mass bike ride wound its way through downtown last Friday night, before heading down Chebucto Road to end at the Mumford corner. There, in the parking lot of Saint Agnes church, the 60-or-so riders crowded around the church steps to listen to a short speech from Kevin Moynihan, one of the locals determined […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Burning ears
Murder most foul—from Los Angeles, Toronto, England and the blogosphere The city has been on edge since last Friday, when local police drew a connection between the murders of Michael Knott and Trevor Brewster, and the news has reverberated widely. “The RCMP has issued a public advisory about gay cruising areas in the Halifax area […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Good citizens
Congratulations to Stephen Kimber, Lezlie Lowe and Robert Plowman, the members of Team Coast honoured at Saturday’s Atlantic Journalism Awards. Kimber took home a silver award for Enterprise Reporting. Lowe and Plowman were both nominated in the Feature Writing category; Plowman was awarded silver, Lowe the gold for her profiles of Haligonians with HIV. Three […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Spray for mercy
I’m a graffiti snitch, a narc, a stool pigeon. The Man is on a crusade to clean up the town, and I’ve happily done his bidding, ratting out urban art day after day. Being an informant doesn’t make me happy, but I have my reasons. The city’s war against graffiti is escalating to the point […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Channelling God
When Ahmed Assal and his family were emigrating to Halifax from Egypt, they learned a lot about their new home at the airport. “I didn’t know anything about Canadian rules,” recalled Assal during testimony at his recent human rights inquiry. Then an airline employee approached him at the gate to say “because you have small […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Their fare share
Metro Transit is getting some long-overdue tender loving care. The GoTime system will be going through a major overhaul during the summer, to relaunch as an improved departure-time service this September. As part of the GoTime changes, 3,000 new signs will go up at the city’s bus stops, replacing the current ugly and confusing signage. […]