On Tuesday, with 96 new cases bringing the province to a total of 419 active COVID-19 infections, Nova Scotia locked down. Not only does the rest of the province join Halifax, which went into lockdown Friday, but the restrictions are getting tighter. “We are in a race between the variant and the vaccine,” said doctor […]
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Posted inArts + Music
Music review: Fungus’s album Sanguine will grow on you
Sanguine is the colour of oxygen-depleted blood, of a scab. It’s also the name of the red sunrise that is Halifax four-piece Fungus’s debut LP. The self-described “goblin rock” band has been quietly building a devoted fan base since 2018 with its particular blend of grunge, country and blues, selling out Gus’ Pub late last […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
In lockdown, Halifax universities backtrack on reopening plans
“It is pure joy to write this note about the coming academic year,” University of King’s College president William Lahey wrote in an email to students just last week. (Disclosure: Jonathan Werbitt is a King’s student.) “The good news is that teaching and learning, and our communal life in general, will once again be largely […]
Posted inArts + Music
Don’t refund your local event ticket
We’re about to do this whole thing again: Another lockdown, aiming to curb a spike in cases in a province that, so far, has been a leading example of how to do this whole COVID thing right. It’s been a combination of personal vigilance, pre-existing factors and, often, individual privilege (like the ability for office […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Despite a year of calls to defund the police, council adds $2.7 million to HRP’s budget
If the words of Mike Savage, quoting Joe Biden—”Don’t tell me what you value, show me your budget and I’ll tell you what you value”—are true, what does Halifax Regional Council’s approach to police budgeting say? In a year teeming with calls to defund or at least reallocate police money, and in a meeting where […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Are real estate love letters enabling racism in the housing market?
Jillian Robinson was feeling quite confident about the letter she’d written to attach to her bid for a home in Halifax’s red-hot housing market. She chronicled her family of three’s life—an adorable toddler coming up fast on two years old; an American ex-NBA player dad working to turn around the local high school’s basketball record […]
Posted inArts + Music
Review: Post-Democracy will decimate you
Lee fiddles with the buttons on his slim-cut suits. Lee drinks too much. Lee inflicts harm. Lee wears his hair in a greasy man-bun, a double-looped-at-the-nape physical manifestation of his personality. Lee doesn’t think he has a problem with women. Post Democracy is available as a digital performance through Sunday, April 25. Tickets are $20 […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Pilot Picasso reflects on a tough year after Portapique
On Sunday, April 19, 2020, Dimitri Neonakis was at home with his girlfriend, stunned, as news from Portapique slowly made its way to the public. By the end of the day, he was exhausted. The pandemic was still fresh—shutdowns had begun in Nova Scotia just one month prior—and now the province was dealing with the […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
We’re still calling it femicide
It’s been one year since the mass shooting in Portapique. Across the province, communities and families are taking time to remember the 22 lives that were violently and prematurely taken in an act of misogynist violence. Over the past year we have all struggled to make sense of this violence, the loss of innocent lives […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Timeline of the year after Portapique
The shattering events that started a year ago in Portapique had repercussions far beyond the small Nova Scotia community. A lot has happened since then, whether it be related to gun laws, police regulations or the investigation into what, exactly, happened during those two chaotic days. Here’s a summary of the last 12 months of […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Yes, we should share the vaccine
This week I—an able-bodied, healthy, working-from-home individual—have: Attended an in-person pottery class, an in-person violin lesson and an in-person yoga class. I went out for drinks after yoga with a friend, and met another friend for drinks the next night. (It’s been a long week.) I went into the office and worked in a frenzy […]
Posted inArts + Music
John Devlin’s second act, from outsider to world star
John Devlin doesn’t draw for other people. He doesn’t draw for museums or galleries (even though, right now, his work is hanging in New York’s American Folk Art Museum, Berlin’s Galerie Parterre Berlin and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia). He doesn’t even do it for the agents in London and Paris who represent his […]
