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, […]
Race
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 […]
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Pushing beyond the glass ceilings of BIPOC political representation
I was asked to reflect on the lack of people of colour running in the four federal ridings in Halifax Regional Municipality. This statistic is so unsurprising—I didn’t think it was worth writing about—but I do think it’s an important statistic to know, so here it is: There are no people of colour running for […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Street check report confirms what Black Haligonians have known for years
Time and time again the stories are told, and time and time again no change has come. For years, Nova Scotia’s Black community has been recounting stories of pain, frustration and fear in its interactions with police. Now, with the release of the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission’s report on street checks, African Nova Scotians […]
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Students call for Dalhousie interim president to resign
A group of about 20 Dalhousie students protested Monday afternoon at the welcome reception for the university’s new interim president and vice-chancellor, Peter MacKinnon. In a press release, the group of students say they don’t believe MacKinnon’s appointment was made with the university’s best interests in mind. “We feel the interests of faculty and students, […]
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Cogswell District building on anti-Black history
The new neighbourhood set to replace the Cogswell Interchange is the conclusion of a slum removal strategy that started in the early 1900s, says a Concordia University planning professor, and now threatens affordable housing in the surrounding area. Ted Rutland, the author of Displacing Blackness: Planning, Power and Race in 20th Century Halifax, says every […]
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Unclear mandates at the Office of African Nova Scotian Affairs
How and why did the original African Nova Scotia Affairs’ mandate change and why is the Office of African Nova Scotia Affairs now part of the ministry of Communities, Culture and Heritage? The expansion of the OANSA can be of benefit, if it had the goal of creating an African Nova Scotian representative in the […]
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Being Black and a tourist in Halifax
I live in Toronto. In May, I spent two weeks in Halifax visiting a friend who lives in the city. I went to the Central Library, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, Pier 21, the Halifax Seaport Farmers’ Market, Peggys Cove, the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History and […]
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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
Poor history of hiring Black workers continues
The effect of systemic racism damages indiscriminately. Our government, media agencies, educational organizations and construction industry are equally complicit. The federal government signed a contract with Irving Halifax Shipyard without a provision that financial auditors be tasked with ensuring that the contract requires the inclusion of Black Nova Scotians in hiring programs. The provincial government […]
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Being a Jamaican man in Nova Scotia
Last week, Cumberland North MLA Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin gave me my “told-you-so” moment of the month when she shared her concerns that legalizing marijuana could make Nova Scotians lazy like Jamaicans. Smith-McCrossin said in a subsequent apology post on Facebook—since deleted—that her comments “were criticized as racist and insensitive.” Of course, they were. Many quickly came […]
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No closure in Randy Riley murder trial
As Randy Riley got up to exit the courtroom for the last time in his first-degree murder trial, he blew a kiss to his aunt, who blew a kiss back. Moments before, he had been convicted of second-degree murder. Riley, 27, was charged in 2013 with the shooting death of Chad Smith, who was killed […]