Queer, trans and allied organizations across Canada have penned a powerful open letter—and you can sign it too
March 31 is International Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV). This day is dedicated to celebrating transgender people, their contributions to society and raising awareness of discrimination faced by transgender people worldwide. Transphobic sentiments continue to escalate among the far right in Canada. In the United States and United Kingdom, bills and laws are being issued…
Every big show happening in Halifax in April 2025
Spring has sprung, the days are getting long and as the calendar finally flips from March to April, there’s a brand-new lineup of shows coming to Halifax. As always, The Coast has you covered at what’s happening in town: Crypthand Crypthand is a new Canadian play that imagines the early life of Anne Lister, a…
Calling all Black writers in Nova Scotia
If you’re an emerging Black writer in Nova Scotia working on a project but aren’t sure how to publish it, or want to talk to writers who have been there and get advice on what comes next, then the Ink Collective is likely for you. With bi-monthly sessions from spring until fall, the program aims…
Uniting for Action: Preventing Gender-Based Violence in Nova Scotia
We are in the midst of an emergency. The second annual Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Summit, organized by a collective of advocates and organizations, sold out in record time—because people know we are at a breaking point. But selling out a summit is not a victory. The real measure of progress is lives saved, harm prevented,…
Another year, another solar eclipse of the heart
Look (safely) to the east this Saturday at sunrise for a sight that captured hearts and minds last April: a partial solar eclipse. Yes, the celestial bodies are at it again. Just as the sun is rising on Saturday, March 29, the moon will pass between the sun and Earth, turning the sun into a…
The best (of) date day in Halifax
Figuring out what the best things to do, eat and see in Halifax is easy! We have taken the guess work out of it with our annual Best of Halifax readers choice awards. So we’re using that intel to put together a date day itinerary that is sure to be a hit. Let Halifax be…
School workers’ new deal includes wins for wages, school safety
Over 5,000 education workers in Nova Scotia have signed a new two-year deal with the province, after nearly a year of bargaining. In a member update Sunday night, the council of eight local union presidents told members they were “proud of what we have achieved” and that getting this deal “showed us what we can…
Obladee, Ob-la-da, life may not go on for beloved downtown wine bar
Obladee Wine Bar—on the corner of Barrington Street and Sackville Street—is barely visible through the jungle of scaffolding. If potential patrons are making a decision based on curb appeal, they would most likely veer away from it, if they noticed it at all. The scaffolding has been in place since July 2023 when HRM issued…
ZUPPA turns 27 but isn’t scared of dying
Turning 27 can be a cursed year for great creative people, but Halifax-based Theatre Company Zuppa Circus—now known as just ZUPPA— hopes to sail through the milestone without joining the ominous and infamous 27 Club. The Coast caught up with three of its members on a Zoom call, and they seemed healthy and happy. Their…
Hark! A Kate Beaton
Award-winning cartoonist and author Kate Beaton is in Halifax Friday to discuss the enduring connection between art-making, labour and community. Beaton is in town to deliver the 2025 Cyril J. Byrne Memorial Lecture at Saint Mary’s University on Friday at 7pm. The lecture will be held in the Scotiabank Conference Theatre, located off the main…
FAT JULIET opening in fair Dartmouth, where we lay our scene
When Winnipeg native Stevey Hunter graduated from Dalhousie’s Fountain School of Performing Arts, they quickly became disillusioned by the options for roles available to them. So they did what any good creative does; they wrote one for themself. “Going to theatre school as a plus size actor, I felt very put in a box about…
The students are not alright–with Bill 12
There’s really something for everyone in this week’s Public Bills committee meetings–from farmers speaking about protecting water over profits in Nova Scotia, veteran public servants standing against threats to workers’ jobs, teachers warning against threats to academic freedom and ordinary people asking why their access to public information is being limited. If you missed Monday’s…
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The rising tide of motor vehicle fatalities in Canada
Following three decades of improvement in road safety, Canada is now seeing a resurgence of increasing road fatalities. 2022 saw the country record 1,931 vehicle-related deaths, the highest since 2013 and a 6% increase from 2021. As a result, personal injury lawyers are also seeing an increase in cases. This resurgence in fatal road traffic accidents has…
“The height of arrogance:” St. FX prof calls out Bill 6, Houston’s dismissal of provincewide movements to ban fracking, uranium exploration
“Let’s not mince words,” Jonathan Langdon tells The Coast. “Anybody who tells you that the evidence around fracking has changed–that it’s more healthy, that it’s safer–this goes against all the studies up-to-date which show the health risks are the same or more acute than they were 10 years ago when we put this ban in…
The end of an era
“I’ll take a bag of 20 tokens, kind Sir.” “Coming right up.” That interaction, between my dad, dressed in his business suit and driving large blue Caprice Classic, and a Bridge Commissionaire in his navy blue uniform, is one of the core memories of my childhood for the number of times I witnessed it in…
Dalhousie student union launches fundraiser so Palestinian students can study in Canada
The Dalhousie Student Union is hoping to raise $30,000 to help Palestinian students affected by genocide to continue their studies in Canada. Launched this week, the DSU’s new fundraising campaign is one of the biggest in the union’s history. The goal is to support 15 Palestinian graduate students in getting matched with professors and research…
Haligonians share their most memorable Walks of Shame
Raise your hand if you’ve been there: It’s the morning after, and you’re still dressed in the same clothes you wore last night. You’re not at home. Last night’s pursuit of a good time has left you looking and feeling like a snowbank in March—a little haggard, ready to melt into a puddle and in…
Trump threatened this trans comic’s visa—now she’s coming to Halifax
Ava Val has heard enough performative allyship since coming out as a trans woman in her thirties. “If I get one more ‘Yasss Queen!’ while I’m picking a wedgie in a park, I’m detransitioning,” the Toronto comedian jokes in So Brave, her gut-busting debut comedy special. “I love your support, but fuck! Being called brave…
Things aren’t looking good for our Halifax byelection
Mark Carney is under a microscope. (Yes, that would be a Markroscope, but let’s not make the term a habit.) Since his landslide victory in the Liberal Party’s race to replace Justin Trudeau on the weekend, Canada’s attention has turned to Carney to lead us into a trade war and/or general election. But there is…
Groundbreaking disability lecture series isn’t over yet
A popular lecture series that began in January will soon conclude. Called “Representations of Disability in Historical, Scientific and Artistic Perspectives,” this original series of public talks at the University of King’s College has brought together leading disability scholars, researchers, writers and artists to examine how ideas of “disability” and “normality” are represented in art, science,…
How cutting property taxes can end up costing you
On Wednesday, Feb 26, Halifax budget season’s regular debates had their curtain call. After about a month of intense scrutiny and discussion, Halifax’s business units have mostly set their budgets for a city budget of about $1.3 billion. There are a few items that council may consider funding, which will be debated on March 19,…
Two deaths in HRP custody bring back painful memories for Halifax mom
They say that time heals all wounds, but for Jeannette Rogers, the scab is ripped off and bleeds fresh every time an innocent person is killed in police custody. Losing someone in such a senseless way is a club nobody wants to be part of, but in the past few weeks, two more families joined…
The Halifax byelection finally started, but it might not finish
Update: Mark Carney will be Canada’s next prime minister, following his overwhelming win—85.9% of the vote—at the Liberal Party of Canada leadership convention yesterday, Sunday, March 9. Carney must be sworn in by the Governor General (no date’s been announced for that yet) and has to form a cabinet, then he can call a general…
Driven to drink by Trump? Start here.
It’s mind-numbing trying to keep up with Don Trump’s tariff moves. The US president is a trade terrorist, and negotiating with terrorists is something rational people avoid if possible. To their great credit, Canadian premiers have stepped off the Trump roller coaster and gone ahead with various measures to show America we most definitely have…
Haligonians share their worst dates
If you’ve been following the drama from the latest Love Is Blind season, you’ll have been reminded of one of life’s near-certainties: The people we date are full of surprises. (And they ain’t always pretty.) The TikTok talk of LIB contestant Ben’s alleged history of leaving business cards behind after his hook-ups wouldn’t even hold…
Auditor General blasts “arbitrary” and “unrestricted” university funding
On Tuesday, the province’s top watchdog, Auditor General Kim Adair, released her report on government funding to universities. It looked at how the Department of Advanced Education monitored the $2.5 billion it gave to Nova Scotia’s 10 universities over the past five years. “These post-secondary institutions rely on government, on average, for a third of…
The future of AI news is here in Halifax, it seems—and god, it sucks
A few weeks ago, I ventured down Quinpool Road and visited a company office that doesn’t exist. The building is real. And the company—at least in some notional sense—is real. But the other parts—who works at the company, how they’re connected to Halifax, what it bodes for our new digital era—I’m far less certain of. I…
Halifax libraries budget shows city working against itself on parking
The regular season of HRM’s budget debates ended on Feb 26, with a slew of routine budget presentations from HRM’s public libraries, the municipal auditor general, the city’s corporate service business units and the fiscal services business unit. Here’s how that meeting of the city’s Budget Committee—a group whose membership is all of council—went down.…
First look at Reta’s, the Hydrostone’s newest fine-dining favourite
Steph Ogilvie has worked in her share of high-end kitchens. The Halifax chef and Top Chef Canada finalist has done pop-up dinners at Montreal’s Ratafia wine bar, cooked at Toronto’s Michelin-recommended GEORGE and joined the kitchen crew at Newfoundland’s famed Fogo Island Inn, where Gwyneth Paltrow and David Letterman have stayed. But none compare to…
Every big show happening in Halifax in March 2025
Spring is almost here—finally!—and with the longer days of March, Halifax is coming back to life. From film festivals celebrating homegrown talent to some of Canada’s biggest rock acts coming to town, there’s a whole lot more to look forward to this month than just the promise of warmer weather. (Although that certainly helps, too.)…