When Habiba Diallo reflects on her high school experience in Halifax, she realizes not much has changed in terms of anti-Black racism. Now in her mid-20s, she’s noticed how institutions like the educational system have failed to improve the negative experiences that several Black students face daily—and it’s a change she believes many institutions are […]
Racism
Posted inNews + Opinion
New instructions to police expected to strengthen ban on street checks
A new law enforcement directive is meant to strengthen the existing ban on the racist practice of police street checks, which targeted Black Haligonians six times more often than white residents. Liberal and NDP critics for justice and African Nova Scotian affairs say they’re pleased with the change, but there’s more work to be done. “It’s […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
PCs apologize for whitening the African Nova Scotian affairs department
It has been more than a month since Progress Conservative premier Tim Houston’s cabinet reveal named Pat Dunn as minister of African Nova Scotian affairs—the third white politician to hold the role since it was created in 2003. In this move the former deputy minister of the department, a Black woman, was replaced with a […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Black police officer and Liberal candidate pulled over at gunpoint by RCMP
D ean Simmonds, superintendent for the Halifax Regional Police, has devoted most of his career to trying to bridge the gap between Black Nova Scotians and the police force that serves them. He’s been an officer for 20 years, four of them spent as the HRP’s Diversity Equity Officer. He hoped his work might make […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
African Nova Scotian Justice Institute an Atlantic first
This morning, the province announced that it will be investing $4.8 million in an African Nova Scotian Justice Institute, or ANSJI. The institute—the first of its kind in Atlantic Canada—will be run through the African Nova Scotian Decade for People of African Descent Coalition (ANSDPAD), and will address anti-Black racism in the criminal justice […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Racism delivered in Grade 10 correspondence course
UPDATE: Comment from education department spokesperson Jasmine Flemming added Friday, June 18. The correspondence course material arrived on shalan joudry’s doorstep in the spring, requested from Nova Scotia’s education system for joudry’s teenage daughter, Malaika. But it wasn’t until Wednesday night, June 16, that Malaika felt ready to tell her mom about the blatantly racist […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
“I just want people to love us like they love our food”
Haligonians, like all Canadians, are fond of thinking of themselves as “better than Americans.” This thought comes with a gentle self-congratulatory pat on the back, and a brazen lack of awareness about the ways anti-Asian racism permeates the membranes of our city. When a racist, misogynist 21-year-old murdered eight people, six of Asian descent, in […]
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
What will it take to fix the Halifax Pop Explosion?
It was like a snowfall. Flurries at first. Then, a quickly mounting storm. “YOUR company has systemic racism on its own, NOT just because most companies also have it,” reads one of many comments on an Instagram post shared last June by the Halifax Pop Explosion. “recognize that the racism stems from somewhere personal, whether […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
250 years later, the province is still trying to shirk its promises in North Preston
A decision came out of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia recently. The Downey v. Nova Scotia ruling affirms what pro bono lawyers and the grassroots movement of North Preston residents (that spurred the mobilization of those pro bono lawyers) have been telling the Department of Lands and Forestry for at least half a decade: the […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
NSCAD community wants president Aoife Mac Namara reinstated
The Friends of NSCAD group is among those unhappy with the sudden dismissal of the university’s president, Aoife Mac Namara, by its board of governors. The former president, widely described as an ally to many of the institution’s marginalized students, was fired on June 26. “The Board offered no proper justification for such extreme action, […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Halifax Regional Council learns about the legacy of anti-Black racism in Nova Scotia
The Coast’s live-gramming of Halifax Regional Council continues with a presentation from Wanda Thomas Bernard and more. The best way to learn about what happened at council this week is to head over to The Coast’s Instagram and watch the 07/07 Council highlight on our profile. That way you can interact with the story as […]