In 2007, Canada was one of four countries to vote against the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (with New Zealand, the United States and Australia). With its single-minded focus on making Canada an “energy superpower,” albeit only with fossil fuels, the Harper government feared the declaration’s concept of “free, prior and informed” […]
Indigenous
Posted inArts + Music
Radical softness
“As a 2-Spirit person, I’ve never really identified as male or female, masculine or feminine roles,” says Brad Jones, “in or out of drag.” From politically inspired satin dresses to mirrored masks inspired by Final Fantasy, Jones—AKA Jennifer DaFuque—is refashioning drag culture and making space for 2-Spirit identity in Halifax. The only 2-Spirit drag performer […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
DNA does not define us
I’m ambiguously brown. By that I mean I have brown skin and almond-shaped eyes. I get those from my dad who is Mi’kmaq. I also have curly hair, freckles and thin lips from my mom, whose grandparents came from Scotland. “Where are you from?” is a very common question in my day-to-day as people try […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
History lessons and white academia
“White teachers taught in residential schools, why shouldn’t white profs teach about its history?” It’s a satirical headline from Walking Eagle News, written about the recent controversy at Mount Saint Vincent University and the lack of Indigenous voices in academia. But the joke also speaks to the uneasy and ongoing tradition of white Canadians taking […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Getting blamed for our own murders
I was 18 years old the first time I drank—three years older than Tina Fontaine was when she was killed. It was at a party in university held in my residence dorm. It was one of those parties where the house leaders mix together a big vat of mystery booze in a plastic garbage can […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Cornwallis statue is history
Edward Cornwallis is coming down off his pedestal, at least for a while. Halifax Regional Council voted Tuesday to remove the controversial bronze statue of the city’s founder and place it into temporary storage. There it will remain until a more permanent solution can be agreed upon in the spirit of truth and reconciliation. “We […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Mayor on Cornwallis panel: “I don’t really think it’s useful to point fingers”
The Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq Chiefs wants immediate action. Halifax mayor Mike Savage, however, is looking forward to more conversation. On Friday afternoon the Assembly officially walked away from participating in HRM’s historical panel on the legacy of Edward Cornwallis. The Chiefs cited ongoing delays in dealing with city hall and called for the statue […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Mi’kmaq Chiefs call for immediate removal of Cornwallis statue
The Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq Chiefs will no longer work with city hall on a solution to how Halifax commemorates its problematic founder, Edward Cornwallis. According to a press release sent out Friday afternoon, the Chiefs unanimously agree that the process to form the joint historical committee has “taken far too long and have […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Cornwallis panel nominee’s sexual assault conviction
One of the names put forward to judge the actions of Edward Cornwallis has a violent history of his own. Chief Wilbert Marshall, who has been selected by the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq Chiefs to help lead Halifax’s examination of the city’s controversial founder, was himself convicted of sexual assault 10 years ago. Marshall […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Halifax’s Indigenous advisor talks Cornwallis, council and reconciliation
The wave of reconciliation is shallow, but it’s spreading. So says Wyatt White, the Halifax Regional Municipality’s first-ever Indigenous advisor. White, who hails from the Listuguj Mi’kmaq First Nation on the New Brunswick/Quebec border, is a former aboriginal affairs advisor to Environment Canada and to the provincial department of Education. He recently sat down with […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
A roundtable discussion with the vanguard of Halifax activism
The major news stories of 2017 highlight how much labour has come off the backs of activists, but they also emphasize how much further we still need to go. From Cornwallis and street checks to white fragility and Pride’s pinkwashing, Halifax has a lot of work to do. Fortunately, the resilient spirit of resistance in this […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Here’s to what Halifax is getting right
Most of the news in 2017 has been spent documenting and/or trying to hide from all the horrible garbage fires happening around us. Here, at the end of the year, we instead wanted to raise a glass of kindness to those who are making this city better—the local points of lights in an otherwise abysmally […]