4 ways to mark Emancipation Day in Halifax in 2023
This Tuesday, Aug. 1 marks Nova Scotia’s third annual Emancipation Day—a day to reflect on the history and impacts of slavery in Canada. On that day in 1834, the Slavery Abolition Act took effect across the British empire. It freed over 800,000 enslaved Africans across the Caribbean, South Africa and here in Canada, too. Halifax’s…
Michie Mee headlines Crescendo, Halifax’s new all-Black music festival
Canadian hip hop royalty comes to Halifax next weekend. Rapper and actor Michie Mee—considered one of the genre’s pioneers in Canada, after rising to fame in Toronto’s hip hop scene in the 1980s and 1990s—is set to headline a new festival celebrating Black music in Nova Scotia. Crescendo Fest is a two-day event “designed to…
Nova Scotians are being governed very badly when it comes to climate
In the past few years it seems like tragedy has piled on Nova Scotia, which has only been compounded by recent—likely now normal—climate changed weather. In the fires of Tantallon, the flaws and vulnerabilities of suburban sprawl were on full display: Related And now, after the biblical floods of July 2023, we are about to…
6 things to do in Halifax this weekend (July 28-30, 2023)
Friday might call for a chance of showers, but the weekend in Halifax is still hot, hot, hot—and that goes for what’s on offer around the HRM, too. From Canadian football to local film to a brand new taproom, there’s plenty to see and do. Allow us to be your weekend guide with these Coast…
Halifax film festival jumps on the rebrand wagon
It’s been a busy few days for rebranding, with a struggling social media network changing its name on Sunday, followed by Halifax’s major film fest following suit Wednesday. But unlike Elon Musk’s dopey move—an X-tinction level event according to much of the Twitterverse—the Atlantic International Film Festival went in the right direction. Rebranders of the…
What do the floods mean for Halifax’s shipping industry?
There is some irony in Monday’s arrival and departure of the Atlantic Sun container ship, given how little sun Halifax—and most of Nova Scotia, for that matter—saw this past weekend. Friday and Saturday’s torrential rain and flash floods washed out roadways, destroyed bridges and prompted a provincewide state of emergency. It also threw a sizable…
F*cking Trans Women is the one-woman Halifax show you need to see this Pride
There’s a moment during Zoë Comeau’s F*cking Trans Women, a story of “trying to navigate intimacy and hot fucking sex with bodies that don’t fit the norm,” when a cartoon-animated penis runs across the screen behind the stage. It’s the kind of impromptu moment of levity you might have expected from a Seth Rogen film…
UPDATED: Here’s what you need to know about the flooding in the HRM right now
Halifax mayor Mike Savage has not minced his words about the historic flash floods still receding across parts of the HRM. On Saturday, he described this past weekend’s downpour as “biblical proportions” of rain, and yet more evidence of the “awful force and unpredictability… of a changing climate.” More than 300 millimetres of rain fell…
The Wanderer Grounds podcast: Halifax has built its home stadium into a fortress once again
Make that five home wins in a row for the Halifax Wanderers. On Sunday, July 23, in front of an ebullient Halifax crowd, the Wanderers looked comfortable in beating reigning regular season champions Atlético Ottawa 1-0 behind a magnificent goal from striker Théo Collomb. In this week’s episode of The Wanderer Grounds, Coast reporters Matt…
See Canada like you haven’t before at this Halifax Public Library exhibit
Take Pablo Picasso’s cubist works and marry them with the vivid, expansive landscapes of Lawren Harris: That’s as good a starting point as any to describe the latest exhibit on offer at the Halifax Public Library. On the fifth floor of the Halifax Central Library, you’ll find a free, month-long showcase of Belleville, NS artist…
7 things to do in Halifax this weekend (July 21-23, 2023)
Want to get outside this weekend? Lucky you: There’s no shortage of options, with one of Halifax’s busiest weekend events lineups in recent memory. From free concerts and film screenings to Broadway shows to Pride to Halifax’s longest-running multicultural festival, there’s a little bit of something for everyone. Allow us to be your weekend guide…
Glitter Bean’s workers turn to crowdfunding to save queer-centric co-op cafe
It’s the end of a hot and sweltering day, and Alex Marchand and Minnow Holtz-Carriere are closing up shop. There are counters to wipe, glasses to clean and stubborn appliances to fix. All in a day’s work at Glitter Bean Café, the queer-owned worker’s co-op that has served coffee at 5896 Spring Garden Road since…
Every independent grocer in Halifax (and beyond)
As the cost of living continues to soar, people are finding it increasingly hard to afford food. Normally when unemployment is low, food bank use is also low. When levels of employment are as high as they are now, food bank use should also be down. However, the demand is still on the rise. The…
Canadian international Doneil Henry “willing and ready” to make his mark with HFX Wanderers FC
He is considered a “big brother” to Canadian soccer superstars Alphonso Davies, Jonathan David and Tajon Buchanan. One year ago, Doneil Henry helped Canada’s senior men’s national soccer team qualify for its second-ever FIFA World Cup appearance. Today, he is a Halifax Wanderer. On Tuesday, July 18, the 30-year-old Brampton, Ont. native practiced for the…
Prepare for Halifax’s busiest cruise ship day of 2023 (so far)
It’s not an uncommon event when Halifax sees three cruise ship arrivals on the same date: From April to November this year, it will happen 24 times. What’s far less common? When each of those three ships holds more than 1,000 passengers. On Thursday, July 20, when the Liberty of the Seas, Zaandam and Zuiderdam…
Come From Away adds 3 shows to Halifax stand
Come From Away doesn’t open Halifax until November, and it’s already a hit. Today the show’s producers announced that three performances have been added to CFA’s local run, making for a total of seven chances to see the show at Scotiabank Centre from Tuesday Nov 14 through Sunday Nov 19. “Due to overwhelming demand, three…
Here’s what you need to know about the legal hubbub over the Wanderers Grounds and Halifax Common
Last week, members of the Friends of Halifax Common local advocacy group declared that they are ready to sue the HRM over the alleged privatization of the publicly-owned Wanderers Grounds, where Canadian Premier League soccer club HFX Wanderers FC plays its home games. The reason, according to lawyer Ronald Pink’s cease-and-desist letter to Halifax mayor Mike…
The Grand Parade podcast: Nova Scotia’s property tax cap is subsidizing millionaires and landlords. Here’s how to fix it.
Take heed of the old phrase, “Be careful what you wish for.” Back in 2005, when Nova Scotia introduced its Capped Assessment Program, the stated goal was to keep seniors and families in their homes that might otherwise have been priced out. The solution of the day was to limit property tax increases to no…
Everything you need to know about HRM council’s July 11, 2023 meeting
Something funny happened in the Halifax Forum debates. Some councillors inadvertently admitted that they have no confidence in the city’s ability to implement its large strategic plans—like the Integrated Mobility Plan or the Bus Rapid Transit plan. Want to know why? Well you’ll have to keep on reading, that information is the digestif at the…
What does “wish-and-a-prayer” UN shipping emissions target mean for Halifax?
Last week, the International Maritime Organization—the UN’s authority over the global shipping industry—introduced what it described as a “revised” target of reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions “close to” 2050. Emissions have been a thorny issue for shipping regulators: In 2020 alone, bulk carriers, container ships and oil tankers combined to emit 790 million tonnes of…
Halifax Wanderers topple Pacific FC in rainy 2-1 victory
There’s a well-worn English football adage that’s used—often to the point of meme-ery—to judge a soccer team or player’s bona fides: If they’re any good, can they still do it on a cold, wet and windy night in Stoke? Playing at the Wanderers Grounds has begun to take on that feel in recent waterlogged weeks:…
Ottawa declines Hartlen Point residents’ appeal for renewed environmental impact assessment of DND site
Neighbours and environmentalists hoping that Ottawa would take a second look at plans for a 93,000-square-metre military testing facility at the edge of Eastern Passage are left looking for other avenues. Late last week, the federal Impact Assessment Agency of Canada rejected the group’s request to designate the Department of National Defence’s $129-million Hartlen Point…
Shelter eviction protester testifies Halifax police assaulted her, violated her Charter rights
On the day Brady Patterson was arrested—Aug. 18, 2021, one of 24 demonstrators protesting Halifax’s forced removal of temporary shelters—she spent more than five hours in Halifax Regional Police custody before she was granted the right to speak with a lawyer. That delay was among several concerns Patterson’s defense lawyer, Asaf Rashid, raised in provincial…
Au Liban brings haute Lebanese cuisine to Lower Water Street
The first taste of grape leaves lands light and lemony on the tongue and immediately begs for more. Topped with pomegranate seeds and stuffed with rice, parsley and tomatoes, it’s both singing with flavour and seductively simple—the kind of cool dish perfect for a hot summer afternoon in Halifax. It’s the first thing chef Georges…
Halifax is bee-coming a pollinator city
HRM’s environment and sustainability standing committee had a special meeting Thursday to talk about bees and phosphorus. First on the agenda was an application to make Halifax a bee city. City staff recommended waiting until the city has hired a naturalization coordinator before making the application, and that coordinator is in the process of being…
This Halifax band almost broke up due to burnout. Instead, they’re launching a triumphant comeback this Saturday at The Marquee.
If Justin Murphy—front person of Halifax indie rock band Walrus—feels a bit reverent when he takes The Marquee stage this July 8, it’ll be hard to blame him. Someone a bit more prone to cheesiness might even pinch themselves (though that feels out-of-character for Murphy’s brand of north end irony). See, it isn’t just the…
What’s up with all the summer rain in Halifax’s forecast?
It hasn’t been a summer for hanging clothes out to dry. According to Environment and Climate Change Canada, Halifax Stanfield International Airport saw 20 days with at least some amount of rainfall in June. That’s second only to famously icy January (26 days of rain and snow) for precipitation in the past 12 months, and…
Everything you need to know about the 2023 Halifax Pride festival
For almost four decades, Halifax Pride has been a bright spot in the city’s summer calendar: A multi-day, multi-venue celebration of 2SLGBTQ+ identity and culture offering everything from lunchtime lectures on current issues to after-dark, free-for-all parties hotter than the humidex. This year, it’s a little different: Apparent tumult within the organization itself (the board…
About those billionaire megayachts in Halifax Harbour this week…
Ever wondered how much it costs to keep a superyacht seaworthy? For each year that New York multibillionaire and real estate developer Larry Silverstein keeps his US $40-million megayacht Silver Shalis running, complete with its lap pool, elevator and gym, it’s estimated to cost the former World Trade Center owner somewhere between US $2-4 million.…
Caribbean Bliss offers great eggs Benedict *and* inspo for city planning
The best way to judge a breakfast place is to order the eggs Benedict, because there are only two correct ways to make the dish. The first correct way to cook an eggs Benedict can only be found in greasy spoon diners. Greasy spoon Hollandaise sauces are usually made by adding water to some powdered…