Remember 1758? Good year. The Seven Years’ War was all over the news, Clement XIII became the 248th Pope…lots going on. And here in Nova Scotia, we elected our first legislative assembly, the first elected legislature in Canada—pretty awesome, frankly. People moving forward, working together…it really put that whole Seven Years’ War into perspective. (Oh, […]
Michael Fleury
Posted inNews + Opinion
Market Value
The new Seaport Farmers’ Market made a push for funding this week, which is an ongoing concern for market manager Fred Kilcup. Yes, the conceptual art looks beautiful, but the new market comes with a 9.75 million-dollar price tag. On Tuesday, Kilcup took his case to city council, and had a generally positive response. “It […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Road warriors
The irony is not lost on Christopher Sweetnam-Holmes. A founder of Montreal green-development and consulting firm Ecocite, Sweetnam-Holmes arrived in Nova Scotia last week to speak at the province’s Power of Green Conference, which set out to discuss a society that could “eliminate waste” and “renew itself through creative adaptation.” But before he arrived, Sweetnam-Holmes […]
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Critical mass
On stage, inside Pier 21, Harold Madi takes his turn playing god. “I’ll do that again, watch the screen over here…annnd, pop!” With one divine keystroke, buildings appear. Roads are re-routed. Skyscrapers rise from the footprint of the Cogswell interchange and the Halifax skyline is transformed. If only it were that easy. Tonight, it’s just […]
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Urban renewal
Here’s why that headline is clever. One: HRM by Design, the city’s ambitious design strategy, renews this week with public forum number four. Two: it’s urban—this time around, more urban than usual. The fourth public forum focuses on the downtown core, bounded by Cogswell, Inglis, South Park and the Harbour. If ever there were a […]
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Banned in NS
The list of movies that have been banned in Nova Scotia over the years ranges from the gory (Rabid Grannies, 1988) to the pornographic (Beverly Hills Copulator, 1986) and even includes a few cult classics (Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, 1971—the tagline for Sweetback? “The Film that THE MAN doesn’t want you to see!” Apparently not). […]
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Common, feel the noise
After an August on the Common that included an armed robbery, a stabbing and this week’s disgusting table-leg beating, the Halifax Regional Police are telling officers to pay closer attention to the park-cum-gauntlet. “I wouldn’t so much call it changes to patrols,” says HRP constable Jeff Carr. “But officers who are assigned to regular patrol […]
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Bus, stop?
With summer fading faster than the backside of a disappearing bus (Wait! I need to get to work!), both the city and the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 508 are taking a break from their ongoing labour negotiations. The latest round of talks broke off on Sunday. Key negotiators on both sides are taking a wee […]
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Hot fun in the summer Pride
Pride gets off to a rousing start this weekend with a couple of old favourites and some all-new events. For example, the Dykes vs. Divas baseball game gets underway on the Common at 1pm on Sunday (classic), followed shortly thereafter by the Homo Hopper Tour at 3pm, hosted by Halifax’s own April Showers (new). It’s […]
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The writing on the wall
What a week at council…Not only do our councillors have time to entertain fanciful, secret dreams of Justin Timberlake (and let’s face it, who hasn’t?), they still found time to get down to brass tacks. The real nitty-gritty. The truly pressing… Graffiti! Arghhh! Yeah, you’d better scream, bucko. Graffiti will seduce your children and make […]
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New Direction home
It’s always been an uphill battle for Direction 180, but that’s life when you’re serving the city’s most vulnerable and forgotten. There’s no disputing Direction’s struggle. Established in 2001 in association with the Mainline Needle Exchange, Direction 180 is a methadone clinic on Gottingen that provides support and treatment for recovering addicts. The presiding goal, […]
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Atlantic-wha?
Does anyone really understand Atlantica? I mean, honestly. For all the window-breaking and paint-bombing over the past week, who among us has a clear picture of what Atlantica proposes? What did last weekend’s conference actually accomplish? John Jacobs has spent quite a bit of time struggling with such questions. Along with Scott Sinclair, Jacobs was […]