Editor’s Note: Jane Kansas, an artist, activist and queer elder, passed away in late 2022—a loss felt by many Haligonians. On her first birthday since we lost Kansas, a memorial will be held Monday, June 5 at the Bus Stop Theatre (2203 Gottingen Street), with the opportunity to remember her from 1pm until midnight. An art […]
Lis van Berkel
Posted inNews + Opinion
Saying farewell to Jane Kansas
“No! Don’t fucking move me, bitch!” Those are the first and almost the only words Jane will say at the Valley Hospice. It makes the nurse laugh, as she and three paramedics lift her into the air above the gurney and over to the hospital bed. That the nurse goes in for a hug next […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Citizen Leslie
January 2009 Sensible is the word that drifts to mind when describing how Megan Leslie looks, waiting in the upper foyer of the House of Commons. Wide-legged brown slacks. A slightly electric-blue shirt. Brown tweed jacket. Sturdy leather boots. Definitely one of us. One of us is how our generation of newly engaged cynics described […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Going green?
In a decade when you canbuy free-range eggs, organic hair gel and eco-handbags, the mind begins to turn to “greening” your final, inescapable purchase: your funeral. Each year, traditional funerals result in more metal being put in American soil than was used to make the Golden Gate Bridge and enough concrete to build a two-lane […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Sleazy money
On Halloween night, six people gather in a Spring Garden Road cafe and trade horror stories. “I’ve lost all my money and I live on credit. In the past 13 years, I’ve lost $250,000 at VLTs. Somehow I’m $30,000 in debt again.” “I’ve always tried to tell the truth, so I knew I had a […]
Posted inArts + Music
The march of progress
Ian McKinnon has been going to gay pride parades on and off for the past 26 years. For the last three years, it’s been “off.” Lacking substance. Middle-class conservative. Normal. These are the words he and others use to describe the parade—not just the Halifax Pride parade, but gay pride parades in general. Pride parades […]
Posted inLifestyle
Outdoor swim guide
LAKE BANOOK Getting there: Turn right after crossing the Macdonald Bridge to Dartmouth, then left up Thistle Street past Dartmouth High until Maple Street. Turn right, then left onto Ochterloney, which becomes Prince Albert Road. Turn left on Hawthorn, and then make a sharp right onto Banook Avenue, which ends up behind the clubhouse. Bus […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Business displeasure
It sounds like the name of a fictional planet, but Atlantica is also the posh title given to our region by a Halifax-based conservative think-tank, the Atlantic Institute of Market Studies: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, Eastern Quebec, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire and northern New York State. President and CEO of Atlantic […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Where goes the neighbourhood?
Imagine dozens of tourists passing by the Public Gardens and Peggy’s Cove—and making a bee-line for what’s left of one of the oldest surviving inner-city neighbourhoods in Canada: peninsular Halifax’s north end. They’d come to see the area’s saltbox-shaped houses; its Georgian architecture; its tiny one-and-a-half storey houses; its four-storey decaying Brunswick Street mansions; its […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Casa fantastica
If you lamented the bulldozing of the Italian Cultural Centre Association this fall, the brick Agricola Street landmark which is home to Halifax’s Italian Weekend, be prepared to swallow your words—and a whole lot more wholesome north end gnocchi and polenta—come June. That’s when the ICCA—which is not being replaced by another unattractive low-rise apartment […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Monster house
Robin Stewart thinks his house is ugly—and on its west wall, a billboard-sized sign has been declaring it so since September. Vandals didn’t tack it there. Neither did HRM’s Dangerous and Unsightly Bylaw- enforcement officer. No, this sign, emblazoned with corporate logos, was strung by the Nova Scotia Home Builders’ Association. The NSHBA represents professional […]
Posted inArts + Music
Fall arts preview: October 2006
Written by Sue Carter Flinn, Johnston Farrow, Sean Flinn, Carsten Knox, Lis van Berkel. Halifax Pop Explosion The fall in Halifax is synonymous with busting out scarves, wearing long sleeves and experiencing exciting concerts. The biggest annual alternative music festival in Halifax returns with another amazing line-up of rock, hip-hop, folk and experimental acts, set […]