Old school seeking new cool, with a $10 million price tag
In 1920, the University of King’s College burnt to the ground. It was the middle of winter. A fire spread through the main building and into adjoining residences, destroying the Windsor, Nova Scotia campus founded in 1789—the oldest chartered university in Canada. In 1930, the university re-opened at the site it’s on today, adjacent to Dalhousie…
Amanda Peters’ The Berry Pickers brings L’nu stories to the forefront
If you haven’t heard Amanda Peters’ name in your book club circles, consider this a friendly heads up: There’s never been a better moment. Last night, the Falmouth, NS author’s debut novel, The Berry Pickers, took home the 2023 Barnes & Noble Discover Prize—an award voted by booksellers to identify “new talent in the literary…
How Christine Sinclair and the Canadian women’s national soccer team came to Halifax
The greatest goal scorer in the history of international soccer emerged, hooded and shoulders hunched, into the Halifax rain on Monday afternoon. Christine Sinclair, scorer of 190 goals in 328 matches for Canada—more than Lionel Messi for Argentina; more than Cristiano Ronaldo for Portugal—will make her Wanderers Grounds debut on Tuesday, Oct. 31 in a…
USS ends with call for Canada to move towards reparatory justice
The four-day Universities Studying Slavery conference that took place in Halifax Oct. 18-21 produced a resolution calling on Canada to join the Caribbean Community and Common Market political and economic union—CARICOM—in fulfilling reparatory justice through creating a National Reparations Commission. The resolution was proposed by Dr. Sylvia D. Hamilton, filmmaker, writer and Inglis Professor Emeritus…
Halifax admits failure on pedestrian safety, lowers safety standards
Thursday was a big meeting for Halifax’s Transportation Standing Committee. The committee got a handful of updates about how poorly the city’s Integrated Mobility Plan has been implemented since being adopted in 2017. The city got an update on its Strategic Road Safety Framework, which was brought forward by councillor Patty Cuttell as an information…
Police take request for 24 new hires to the public
The Board of Police Commissioners met virtually on Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 25, to get public feedback on the police budget priorities. Halifax Regional Police made the same budget asks at this meeting as they did at last Wednesday’s BOPC meet—which keen readers may remember we described with the headline ”Talk of hiring 24 new cops…
Emma Donoghue still believes in the power of writing—and of queer love stories, too
Emma Donoghue isn’t finished writing. Even now—15 novels, a dozen-odd plays, five short story collections, three screenplays, a Booker Prize shortlist and one Academy Award nomination under her belt—the Dublin-born, London, Ont.-based author can’t quell the storm of ideas that nag in the corners of her mind for a glimpse of a page, a chapter,…
Two ideas for expanding democracy are heading to council
On Monday, the city’s Executive Standing Committee met to get a report on electoral reform. When the city did the public consultation for the required-every-eight-years District Boundary Review, they heard about the things we citizens might want to change about our democracy. Based on our feedback, staff explored potential changes to lowering the voting age,…
Everything you need to know about this year’s AfterWords Literary Festival
A who’s who of Canadian writers will descend on Halifax for the next week, starting Sunday. The fifth-annual AfterWords Literary Festival kicks off Oct. 29 and runs until Nov. 5. This year’s lineup is as stacked as the hardcovers piled next to your bedside table: Book lovers can meet and hear from the likes of Emma…
Thanks for all the fish: John’s Lunch bids farewell after 54 years
Open the front door of John’s Lunch on Pleasant Street, decaled over with a slew of Best of Halifax awards, and once you pass by the rows of red vinyl booths and galley kitchen—fries and haddock tips sizzling away in the deep fryer—you’ll come across a wall. It’s a narrow one, not much wider than…
Acadian food the star dish at this year’s Devour! The Food Film Fest
Shane Robicheau was born into the kitchen. A second-generation chef from Clare, NS, the 24-year-old grew up in his parents’ restaurant, Seashore Restaurant & Blue Rock Lounge, smelling the brine and salt and broth of freshly caught clams and lobsters, the simmering potatoes and onions, that made up the Acadian dishes his family had cooked…
The Wanderer Grounds podcast: The very best of the Halifax Wanderers’ 2023 season
The Canadian Premier League will announce its 2023 regular season award-winners on Thursday, Oct. 26, but here at The Coast, reporters Martin Bauman and Matt Stickland have come up with a far more prestigious (and definitely official) set of awards: The inaugural Wanderer Grounds Awards. Er… Groundies? Wandies? We’re still not entirely sure. Four Wanderers—all…
The Grand Parade podcast: Should Halifax de-amalgamate?
In this week’s Grand Parade episode, Coast reporters Matt Stickland and Martin Bauman dive into the HRM’s Integrated Mobility Plan and what it secretly not-so-secretly suggests: Maybe Halifax would’ve been better off had the province not amalgamated the region in 1996? Matt fills Martin in on why John Lohr’s housing power play is a recipe…
Honest Abe arrives a wee bit tardy into Halifax Harbour this week
Abraham Lincoln, it has been said, was so moral-bound that he once walked miles from his New Salem, Illinois storefront just to return the correct change to a customer. Honest Abe never lied, so the former president’s lore goes. (Maybe.) But was he ever late, strolling to and from the White House? Just a smidgen,…
USS day 3: Gospels of freedom, ecologies of resistance
It’s Friday, Oct. 20 in the ballroom at the Halifax Marriott Harbourfront Hotel. Dr. Afua Cooper speaks to the international crowd at the Universities Studying Slavery conference after coffee, tea and eggs, and presents a poem written for this moment. Cooper is a distinguished historian and poet, Killam Research Chair in Black and African Diaspora…
USS day 2: Outside conference windows, the Atlantic Ocean is a symbol of loss
Day two of the Universities Studying Slavery conference in Halifax began with breakfast in view of the harbour at the Halifax Marriott Hotel. This Thursday Oct. 19 morning, the former president of Ghana, His Excellency John D. Mahama, spoke to a full ballroom about emotionally connecting Ghana to Nova Scotia through the waters of the…
Everything you need to know about HRM council’s Oct. 17 meeting
Big news to start off this regular Tuesday meeting: John Lohr is the new mayor of Halifax! Okay, this is an abbreviation of the civics lesson required to bring everyone up to speed about the change to today’s agenda: The addition of agenda item 18, Information Item 6 – Memorandum from the Chief Administrative Officer…
Talk of hiring 24 new cops is a waste of time
On Wednesday Oct. 18, Halifax’s Board of Police Commissioners had the first meeting in their budget pre-season. It’s largely unclear what the point of this meeting was, but we’ll get to that later. The meeting started with Halifax Regional Police giving their first budget presentation of the 2024 budget season, asking for a grand total…
USS day 1: King’s partners with Black Cultural Centre and former president of Ghana visits Africville
Day one of an international conference studying reparations, slavery and education began Wednesday, Oct. 18 in Cherry Brook—an historic African Nova Scotian community just outside of Halifax—at the Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia. The Universities Studying Slavery conference is Oct. 18-21 in Halifax Get the full weekend program here Keynote speeches Thursday, Oct. 19…
Kayo rides a wave on latest album, Trip
If you were to cross your fingers and wish for a strong end to 2023, you would be hard-pressed to dream up a better run than the one Kayo is on: Fresh off a win at the African Nova Scotian Music Association Awards, where the St. Lucian-turned-Haligonian brought home the honours for Artist of the…
Dal and King’s host first appearance of Universities Studying Slavery conference in Canada
The Universities Studying Slavery—USS—conference is happening outside of the United States for the first time, and it’s happening in Halifax. From Wednesday Oct. 18 to Saturday Oct. 21, keynote speakers and panel sessions will take place at the Black Cultural Centre—BCC in Cherry Brook and the Halifax Marriott Harbourfront Hotel to consider the theme: “Slavery,…
26 years later, Halifax’s North of America still punk as ever
Mark Mullane has a job to do: For the next month, the former North of America singer and guitarist has his work cut out re-learning chord progressions and guitar tunings that, 20 years ago, in the midst of a whirlwind punk career, he hadn’t quite written down. Or if he did, that is, between European…
A conversation on treaty education with the MK, Nova Scotia’s Mi’kmaw school board
October is Mi’kmaw History Month in Nova Scotia. It began with the 37th annual Treaty Day on Oct.1, but treaty education in Nova Scotia continues long after the last Halloween pumpkins are smashed thanks to Mi’kmaw educators across the province, in tandem with the provincial government. Nova Scotia is a part of Mi’kma’ki, but the…
The secret to booking travel on a cargo ship? It’s tricky.
Let’s make this abundantly clear: I am not a travel agent. But, I do aim to please. And this week, like many weeks, I received an email from a lovely Coast reader who wondered how they could book a trip as a passenger aboard a cargo ship. “I want to find out all I can…
Kardinal Offishall and Haviah Mighty headline free November show in Halifax
What do you get when you bring one of Canada’s most influential hip-hop figures, a recent Polaris Music Prize winner and two Halifax music powerhouses together under the same roof? The answer: One hell of a concert. On Thursday, Nov. 9, Mr. “Everyday Rudebwoy” himself—Kardinal Offishall—will perform a free concert at the Marquee Ballroom (2037…
Watersheds board pushes back against “developer’s language”
The Regional Watersheds Advisory Board met on Thursday Oct. 12, for what was supposed to be a pretty routine meeting. They elected a chair and vice chair. They got a report on last spring’s edition of Bedford West’s water quality monitoring, although the samples weren’t taken in the spring because of the fires and consultant…
Late Wanderers push falls short against Pacific FC in home playoff debut
Sometimes, there isn’t much to say about fate and its cruelties beyond what Ray once said in Trailer Park Boys: “That’s the way she goes. Sometimes she goes; sometimes she doesn’t. She didn’t go.” At home in front of a sell-out crowd of 6,500 at the Wanderers Grounds, in a match where Halifax held 72%…
5 things to do in Halifax this weekend (Oct. 13-15, 2023)
Thanksgiving is in the rear-view, which means one thing in Halifax: Not only is Nocturne here for another year, but another full weekend slate of events is on offer—with happenings ranging from buzz-worthy comedy shows to sold-out concerts at the Light House Arts Centre. Want to know how to spend your weekend? Allow us to…
Everything you need to know about Nocturne 2023
One of the biggest weekends of the year in Halifax is here. Nocturne—the self-described “independent, free, contemporary art festival” that has brought Haligonians together under the night sky since its founding in 2008—is back for another year of public art installations and events. This year’s festival arrives jam-packed with exhibitions ranging from live artist panels…
The George Harrison of cargo ships arrives in Halifax Harbour this week
Most of The Beatles’ catalogue, at least as history remembers it today, started with what remains the most successful songwriting duo in all of popular music: John Lennon and Paul McCartney. So prolific were the two at their craft—and so symbiotic was their relationship—that even today, reciting their names rolls off the tongue like a…
Did Dal just make HoCo uncool?
“There’s people! It’s working!” An organizer of Dal’s officially sanctioned 2023 homecoming party—HoCo—celebrated students and guests who showed up to the university’s free festivities on campus Saturday, Oct. 7. A Dalhousie spokesperson says as many as 1,500 students, alumni, faculty and staff came to the school-sponsored event, which included a Dal Tigers football game, party-music…
The playoff table is set for the Halifax Wanderers. How far will they go?
Eleven months ago, on the day the Halifax Wanderers announced Patrice Gheisar as the second head coach in the club’s short history, the new man of the hour paused for a moment to talk about expectation. It was the elephant in the room: Despite leading the Canadian Premier League in attendance through four seasons—and by…
Home ice at what price?
In November 2022, The Coast broke the story of the ballooning price tag on Dalhousie University’s new home ice rink. When the school’s Board of Governors approved the rink in 2021, the budget was $21.6 million; by 2022, the cost was up to $36.5 million. The additional $14.9 million was approved by the board in…
The Grand Parade podcast: Here lies the Integrated Mobility Plan. It was nice while it lasted.
Remember the Integrated Mobility Plan—that vaunted guide that was meant to usher Halifax into a new era of transportation? The one where people could walk, wheelchair, bike or take the bus from their home and feel safe doing so? The same one that was meant to help the HRM slash its carbon output amid a…
Comedian Dave Merheje has a soft spot for donair—and Halifax, too
Dave Merheje knows his way around Halifax. As a cast member of CBC’s Mr. D in seasons 7 and 8—Merheje played economics teacher and errant hockey coach Dave Bechara—the Los Angeles-based comedian and actor spent time wandering around the city in between shoots and even got to make friends here. Until next week, he’s calling…
Police plan to do better by women hits chief-shaped roadblock
Halifax’s Board of Police Commissioners met on Wednesday, and learned that former police chief Dan Kinsella’s sudden retirement is negatively impacting women who have been the victims of violent crimes. That’s because the city, in a proven effort to make the legal system a bit less dismissive of assaulted women, wants to automatically review any…
Every big show happening in Halifax (and beyond) in October 2023
Fall is officially in full swing, and along with the return of pumpkin spice lattes and Dalhousie, King’s, Saint Mary’s University and NSCAD students, we’ve got a full lineup of shows, festivals and events coming to our corner of the province. Here, The Coast has got you covered with all the big show announcements, from…
Truth and Reconciliation Day in Halifax prioritizes learning and listening
Inside the Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre on Saturday, Sept. 30, a crowd of all ages wore orange and listened to stories from residential school survivors and their families. Saturday marked the third National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Halifax and across Canada. The day’s event focused on healing through storytelling alongside cultural activities geared…
North Preston R&B artist JupiterReign embraces her star turn
JupiterReign is having a year to remember. Eight months on from releasing her debut Intergalactic EP, the soft-spoken North Preston R&B artist—otherwise known as Thaydra Gray—is enjoying a star-touched moment of her own: The 27-year-old is in the running for four African Nova Scotian Music Association Awards, including Rising Star and Artist of the Year.…
Everything you need to know about HRM Council’s Oct. 2 meeting
Public spaces like the Convention Centre, the Halifax Metro Centre (currently known as Scotiabank Centre) and the new stadium being proposed for the Wanderers Grounds live in a weird place in this day and age. They are built and exist with public money, and yet don’t give the HRM much direct benefit in return. Most…
Halifax’s Leanne Hoffman embraces fear and risk on the expansive The Text Collector LP
Leanne Hoffman is not short on ambition. The Halifax singer-songwriter’s latest project, the dazzlingly pop-fuelled The Text Collector, is far from a conventional 15-song LP: Not only has Hoffman accompanied her album’s release with a poetry book—365 entries over the course of a single year—but the 31-year-old artist has also turned each of her songs…