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The Coast | News, events, restaurants, concerts and Burger Week for Halifax, Nova Scotia
Home of the Best of Halifax Reader's Choice Awards, the award-winning independent newspaper covers the Halifax news, politics, events, concerts, movies, restaurants, and nightlife scene.
Jessika Hepburn and Fatema Sidat have a lot in common. They both have kids, a knack for making jewellery, and a passion for community organizing, especially when it comes to local handmade goods. Hepburn and Sidat are the co-organizers of this weekend’s Maritime Makers Market (formerly the Etsy Made In Canada market), an annual craft…
Sixteen years and 24 hours later, Kathy Symington’s complaint will be heard in full by Nova Scotia’s Human Rights Commission. The news was announced Wednesday by civic advocacy group Equity Watch, which has been fighting on behalf of the firefighter’s gender discrimination case. Equity Watch held a press conference on Tuesday at Province House decrying…
Halifax VegFest Sunday, September 23 Halifax Forum Multipurpose Room 2901 Windsor Street $5 suggested donation Lettuce talk about the third annual Halifax VegFest. The festival—happening this Sunday from 10am to 6pm at the Halifax Forum—is about celebrating vegan and plant-based living, says Jessie Doyle, one of its organizers. Though the event caters to vegans and…
Sometimes, while everyone else is flocking to the newest wine creations, a classic is quietly released to those waiting in the wings for something like Luckett Vineyards’s 2017 Ortega ($24). Ortega, an aromatic white grape of the vitis vinifera species, native to Europe, is also moderately hardy, surviving to about -25° C. Winemaker Mike Mainguy…
There’s a good chance you’re going to enjoy Neptune Theatre’s take on Shakespeare in Love. Directed by Jeremy Webb, the play features a host of local Halifax actors, all of whom work to make this play a more comedic venture than I recall the movie being. Allister MacDonald nails down the role of William Shakespeare,…
Today Devour! A Food Film Festival announced that it’ll be bringing Questlove—you know, The Roots’ co-founder, Grammy-winner, Tonight Show musical director, James Beard Award-nominated author, overall cool human—to the glorious Annapolis Valley as part of this year’s event. If you didn’t know, he’s very into food and food politics. The eighth annual Devour! will sit…
What do you think you are doing? Canada’s GDP is smaller than California’s GDP. Do you really think you should be playing hardball with Trump? If you fuck this up—and cost me my job—not only will I refuse to vote for you, but I promise to never vote Liberal again.—Blue collar exporter
Every year the university students come back and traffic turns to shit. Every year, enough of the stupid bastards fail—and by Christmas the roads have returned to normal. You know the expression “What are you waiting for, Christmas?”—Yes, I am waiting for Christmas!
You: A disgusting man leaving a north end pub after lunch on your bicycle. Me: Also about to leave by bicycle.I was taking off a long sleeve top and had a tank top underneath. You said “Keep going!” I responded with ”Learn some manners. It’s 2018.” instead of throwing my bike lock at your knee…
Bikers, I love that you’re not polluting and I wish I lived close enough to town to bike in. But, when you’re at a stop sign or a red light, that means you too! I’ve seen more cyclists run a red light or stop sign in the past month than I’ve seen actually stop—including one…
In this world where people are often too busy to stop, you followed us and let us know that our bike fell off our new bike rack on the McKay Bridge. Not only that, you followed us back to the bridge to ensure we got our bike back. You, good sir, are a wonderful human…
Did you check Kijiji before writing the eviction notice? Thank you for waiting until all the students snatched up every livable unit in our price range. We were long-term tenants who paid your mortgage. Thanks for everything.—Crusty in Cole Harbour
You ignorant, racist, idiot fool! You phoned customer support for assistant with your issue—and when my co-worker answered your call, and started to resolve your issue, with her slight accent, you rudely and loudly say, “English! I want English!” Have you just recently crawled out from under your rock? I wonder, how many languages do…
People are urinating in the sinks of downtown coffee shops, apparently to conserve water. So you’re washing your hands in a urinal, basically. Well, I guess it’s for a good cause.—Stinkydinkinsink
City councillor Lindell Smith was a 16-year-old aspiring audio technician the first time that he was mentioned in The Coast, as part of Stephen Kimber’s 2007 cover story, “Inside the Square.” Smith joins us to talk about the stigma surrounding Uniacke Square, his political goals and how the north end has changed over the past…
“The statue coming down was a great first step, but there’s more that can be done,” says Angel Marcus-Panag. On Thursday, the Halifax resident went to City Hall and delivered his petition containing over 1,700 signatures in favour of renaming Cornwallis Street to Rocky Jones Boulevard. The vast majority of those names come from an…
Get ready to pumpkin spice up your life as Christina Martin and Ben Caplan both play Big Ticket hometown gigs, FIN: Atlantic International Film Festival goes into binge mode, Word on the Street takes over the Halifax Central Library, and Prismatic Arts Festival shines on with a slew of shows—including the must-see Asheq: Ritual Music to Cure a Lover.…
Higher learning institutions have become central to the current debate around freedom of expression. The issue arose in Nova Scotia with the controversies around Acadia psychology professor Rick Mehta and has now been reignited after Dr. Mehta’s termination last week. The university cited a number of factors, including failure to fulfill academic responsibilities, unprofessional conduct and…
Regional council defeated a motion Tuesday that would have exempted tobacco from the city’s new anti-smoking bylaw. Despite councillor Sam Austin’s attempt to amend the nuisance bylaw and separate cannabis and tobacco use, all smoking and vaping on municipal property will be restricted to designated areas after October 1. It wasn’t the outcome Austin was…
The headlines are frequent and ominous. A quick Google search summons warning after warning: satellite images of green spiralling across Lake Erie; health warnings plastered along rivers in Alberta; three dogs in New Brunswick, dead. Halifax is not immune. In August, the municipality issued a blue-green algae warning for two Dartmouth lakes, Banook and Mi’kmaq.…
The Girls of Meru Sunday, September 16, 1:30pm Cineplex Park Lane, 5657 Spring Garden Road $12.50 ($11.25 stu/sen) finfestival.ca “I just wanted to focus on the case,” says Andrea Dorfman of her documentary The Girls of Meru. She says it multiple times, speaking with empathy and care for the 160 girls she made the movie…
Asshole students Rebecca Thomas talks about how she worries in the south end that she does not have a safety net which allows her to carry on in public, like her white friends who have been drinking and who feel “a little animosity towards the wealthy neighbourhood of Halifax” (“White noise” story in the Back…
Q I am a gay man in my late 50s and have never been in a relationship. I am so lonely, and the painful emptiness I feel is becoming absolutely unbearable. In my early 20s, I hooked up off and on, but it never developed into anything. I have always told myself that’s OK; I’m…
Africville launch Thursday, September 13, 11am Africville Museum, 5795 Africville Road Word on the Street reading Saturday, September 15, 11am Halifax Central Library, 5440 Spring Garden Road, Lindsay Room (second floor) Home takes on different meanings for everyone, but for Shauntay Grant, it comes in the form of her latest children’s book, Africville. The book…
SuperNova To September 17 Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, 1723 Hollis Street Iranian-Canadian artist Rah-Eleh is bringing her talents to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia to debut her video installation SuperNova. As one of many artists visiting Halifax for the Prismatic Arts Festival, her work offers a look at diverse and marginalized identities, with…
Asheq: Ritual Music to Cure a Lover September 13-14 Dalhousie Arts Centre, 6101 University Avenue $22-$25 prismaticfestival.com Forbidden love, dysfunctional families, secrets and demonic Middle Eastern exorcisms—sounds like typical soap opera material, right? If that’s your steeze, you definitely need to hit up Asheq: Ritual Music to Cure a Lover during the Prismatic Arts Festival…
HAPPY BIRTHDAY VIRGO (Aug 23-Sep 22) Your keynote is the Japanese word shizuka. According to photographer Masao Yamamoto, it means “cleansed, pure, clear and untainted.” One of his artistic practices is to wander around forests looking in the soil for “treasures” that emanate shizuka. So in his definition, the term isn’t about being scrubbed or…
Ash Is The Purest White Sunday, September 16, 3pm, Park Lane 7 Ciao (Zhao Tao) is a gangster’s moll in a crumbling Chinese city. When she uses a pistol to protect her boyfriend from a gangland attack, she takes the fall and spends five years in prison. Getting out, she finds her country, her relationships…
Gala presentation: Hopeless Romantic Cineplex Park Lane Mall, 6:30pm 5657 Spring Garden Road Saturday, September 15 $22.50 finfestival.ca How might you make a romantic comedy that is funny and honest without being reductive about our experience of love? That’s the guiding question behind Hopeless Romantic, an ambitious locally-made film premiering this week at the Atlantic…
Gala presentation: Hopeless Romantic Cineplex Park Lane Mall, 6:30pm 5657 Spring Garden Road Saturday, September 15 $22.50 finfestival.ca How might you make a romantic comedy that is funny and honest without being reductive about our experience of love? That’s the guiding question behind Hopeless Romantic, an ambitious locally-made film premiering this week at the Atlantic…
Splinters Thursday, September 13, 7pm Rebecca Cohn Auditorium, 6101 University Avenue $50 finfestival.ca Thom Fitzgerald is having a busy week. Earlier he was in Toronto for the premiere of his new feature, Splinters, at TIFF. On Thursday night the film opens FIN: The Atlantic International Film Festival. And Friday is the first day of shooting…
Love, Scott Monday, September 17, 6:30pm Cineplex Park Lane, 5657 Spring Garden Road $22.50 finfestival.ca Scott Jones’ life changed on the night of October 13, 2013, almost five years ago. The openly gay musician was attacked on a New Glasgow street by Shane Matheson, a teenager with a knife. The incident put Jones in hospital…
We saw you—barely. The other evening, cycling north up Agricola Street. You had no headlight, no tail light, no helmet, an all-black outfit and you were texting. There were others who cam close but you took the prize for worst cyclist. BTW, we cycle too—but unlike you, we believe it’s incumbent upon us to make…
When you left out of the blue and all your friends came out the woodwork to tell me you’d been cheating on me with every dude in sight, I thought I’d never feel again. With the benefit of time, a girlfriend who truly loves me, career success, and those same friends telling me you’re still…
Shame on council for placing yet another ridiculous restriction on the good people of Halifax. You assholes will be remembered when election time rolls around again. Goodbye and good riddance. Not much good to have smoking be legal if you have to buy a boat, go 10 miles out to sea and weigh anchor before…
1. If you are walking in a group, don’t spread out to take up the entire goddamn sidewalk—especially when you see someone walking toward you. It won’t kill you to stop talking for 10 seconds and walk in single file to get out of the way so other people aren’t forced off the sidewalk. 2.…
How many gazillion hours would a single mother have to work at what this city offers as a hourly wage to pay for a decent apartment? Then, if we could make rent, I guess we would have to eat at the food bank. Halifax employers, up your hourly rate so people can afford a decent…
