Return of the slaving ship Amistad, and declining university enrolment. It’s an eclectic day for Metro online, with full links apres jump.
LOVE THAT BOAT
from New Brunswick
The CanadaEast site, an umbrella collecting Irving’s NB newspapers, reports on the trip the replica of Amistad is taking. The original boat “sparked a slave revolt” in the 1800s before sparking a Spielberg movie in the 1900s, and last week the replica began retracing a slave trading route from America to Africa.
In 1839, more than 50 African captives en route to Cuba on the Amistad schooner rebelled and took over the ship. They were captured and jailed in New Haven.
With help from area abolitionists, the surviving Africans won their freedom in a historic court battle that started in Connecticut and ended in the U.S. Supreme Court. Former U.S. president John Quincy Adams represented the slaves. (story here)
The Amistad is scheduled to stop in Halifax this Friday, June 29, and Saturday.
DEGREES OF DIFFICULTY
from Montreal
A report out yesterday says Maritime universities can expect fewer students, which means “tough decisions are ahead” says news site Canoe.ca. The report, released in Halifax by the Maritime Provinces Higher Education Commission, doesn’t have a lot of laughs for one of the east coast’s most important industries. According to commission executive Mireille Duguay:
“The viability of certain institutions and/or certain programs is likely to be threatened. It’s a basic math equation. … I think it’s definitely going to call for more collaboration among institutions.” Duguay noted university participation rates among Maritimers aged 18 to 24 has traditionally been four or five percentage points higher than the national average, but that gap has been reduced to less than two points and is expected to continue to shrink. (story here)
Nova Scotia’s tuition rates, the highest in Canada, naturally came under fire. The Education Department’s Kevin Finch claims the province will get them down to the national average by 2010. We’ll be watching.
Watch for Halifax coming up online. Send links here.
This article appears in Jun 21-27, 2007.
