Imagine a Halifax where every public space had art as part of it. Close your eyes and picture a trip to the mall that included taking in a mural or two. A visit to a government building also meaning a visit to a mixed-media installation. When, this Wednesday, Halifax Regional Council voted unanimously to spend […]
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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
Halifax goes back into lockdown to fight community spread
“T here’s community spread in Halifax Regional Municipality,” premier Iain Rankin said at a COVID-19 briefing Thursday afternoon with chief medical officer of health Robert Strang. Confirming that the recent surge of infections means COVID’s third wave has hit Nova Scotia, Strankin announced a “circuit breaker” lockdown for HRM and surrounding areas that comes into […]
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Vaccine clinics “for us, by us” in ANS communities have given over 600 doses
On a sunny Thursday in early April, the Emmanuel Baptist Church held the first African Nova Scotian community vaccine clinic. The large space was set up with a registration area, 10 vaccination stations and a post-vaccine waiting area. “It happened to be a really nice day, so we had some chairs outside,” says Gina Jones-Wilson, […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
If you want to move to Nova Scotia “now is not the time”
On Thursday morning at 8am, Nova Scotia’s borders will shut tighter than they have since the beginning of the pandemic. The cause is a combination of increasing cases, an uptick in cross-border travel and possible community spread. As of Wednesday, Nova Scotia has 79 active COVID-19 cases—some are easily explained (40 percent are a […]
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
Must-watch music video: Jenn Grant’s “Flying On Your Own”
What a way for beloved folk-pop phenom Jenn Grant to tip her hat to Cape Breton’s legendary singer-songwriter Rita MacNeil: Within days of the news that, finally, MacNeil will be inducted into Canada’s Songwriters Hall of Fame, Grant is dropping the following video—a cover of MacNeil’s classic anthem “Flying On Your Own.” Watch it now: […]
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 […]