In normal circumstances, the 39,938-tonne Vayenga Maersk container ship would stop in Halifax on its cross-Atlantic voyage from Montreal to Bremerhaven, Germany—only this week, it’s skipping Nova Scotia altogether. That it’s doing so isn’t altogether unusual—from time to time, shipping lines omit port calls to make up for delays or scrap stops if demand dwindles—but […]
Martin Bauman
Martin Bauman is an award-winning journalist and interviewer, whose work has appeared in the Globe and Mail, Calgary Herald, Capital Daily, and Waterloo Region Record, among other places. In 2020, he was named one of five “emergent” nonfiction writers by the RBC Taylor Prize. As host of the Story Untold Podcast, he has interviewed some of Canada's most notable figures, including Paralympian Rick Hansen, cave diver Jill Heinerth, and Juno Award-winner Shad. A passionate speaker and mental health advocate, Martin has been a youth panellist for the Canada-wide Spotlight on Invisible Disabilities Partnership and bicycled solo across Canada to raise funds for services in his hometown of Waterloo, Ont.
Posted inNews + Opinion
Can you identify the Boxing Rock beer bandits?
Boxing Rock Brewing Co. taproom manager Linnea Swinimer had just settled in with her morning tea on Wednesday when a text message from her neighbour at the Local Source Market gave her the news: Thieves had broken into their Windsor Street storage locker overnight and made off with a whole lot of beer. Her first […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Inflation is slowing, but not at the grocery stores—and food banks are bearing the brunt
Last summer, for the first time in her career as program and outreach coordinator at Halifax’s Brunswick Street Mission, Cassie Sinyerd and her colleagues did something they wish they never had to: They started capping how many people their food bank program served every week. Nestled between Proctor and Nora Bernard Streets, the Mission has […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Dal students rally for Houston to extend rent cap amid housing crisis
When Dalhousie University student Katie Cheslock and her roommates were coming up to the end of their one-year lease on their Jubilee Road-area apartment last August, they took comfort that, in re-signing, they would be covered under Nova Scotia’s temporary 2% rent cap. Introduced in November 2020 under then-provincial housing minister Chuck Porter, the temporary […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
The Brooklyn Bridge is coming to Halifax Harbour this week (just not the one you’re thinking of)
St. Patrick’s Day weekend was bound to end in a hangover, wasn’t it? It certainly feels that way looking through the Port of Halifax’s expected arrivals this week. Take a glance, and you’ll spot a whole flotilla of familiar names that were supposed to reach port last week, only to run into slowdowns and other […]
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Coast readers: St. Patrick’s Day cheer alive, but waning in Halifax
How green will Halifax be under a blanket of St. Patrick’s Day snow? Perhaps not very green at all, if The Coast’s latest poll results prove true. This week, we asked you to share your St. Paddy’s traditions. The results? Turns out most of you would be happy to skip the holiday entirely. Nearly seven […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
‘A pattern of predatory behaviour’: King’s shares damning review into Wayne Hankey sexual assault accusations
More than a year after former University of King’s College professor Wayne Hankey was set to stand trial in the first of three sexual assault cases brought against him, an independent report commissioned by the university he spent his career at finds the professor not only showed a “pattern of predatory and abusive behaviour” throughout […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
One behemoth of a ship arrives in Halifax Harbour this week
Do you remember the first time you watched Star Wars? There’s a moment right at the beginning of Episode IV: A New Hope that fundamentally changed my understanding of scale and shattered any imagined limits of just how utterly enormous a thing could be. I’ll describe it for you if you’re unfamiliar: The scene opens […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Nova Scotia’s primary care reporting is delayed (again). Here’s why that matters.
If you have bad news to share, wait for a Friday afternoon. That tenet, if you’ve worked in newsrooms or followed corporate and government communications for any stretch of time, is well-worn and polished enough to have earned its own moniker: The “Friday afternoon news dump.” The logic behind The Dump is dead simple: Whatever […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Coast readers: A four-day workweek in Nova Scotia? It’s not as far-fetched as you think
Workers of the world, take note: Findings from what has been billed as the world’s largest trial of a four-day workweek suggest that paying workers the same wages for less work not only improves employees’ well-being, it might actually (surprise, surprise) benefit a company’s bottom line. A team of scientists at the University of Cambridge […]
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Excavation, tree removal underway at planned Hartlen Point military test site amid opposition
The first omen that Hartlen Point’s newest arrival—a controversial Canadian naval testing facility that’s soon to be built on three acres of Halifax’s shoreline popular with birders, hikers and surfers—might not begin as smoothly as Canada’s Department of National Defence leaders had hoped came this past Sunday, March 5, the same day that construction crews […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Marvel comics meets Shakespearean tragedy in Halifax Harbour this week
As a rule, I loathe emails and would spend a fortune to never read another. But there are exceptions: Coast readers are a wonderful bunch, and I’ve been nothing short of delighted with many of the correspondences I’ve had with them. This past week was no different. One reader, Al, wrote in about our weekly […]