If I decide not to report someone when they make an inappropriate comment, does it make me an enabler? If I continue to work with someone who I’ve heard rumours about does it make me complicit? If I post this sexy photo on my social media, does it make me more of a target? I […]
Voice of the City
Posted inNews + Opinion
When Daniel Paul found Cornwallis
Daniel Paul found his rival in a pub in 1965. He and his brother Lawrence and their Indian Brook friend Norman Brooks were upgrading their education together in Dartmouth. Getting out of school early one day, the trio headed to Halifax’s Piccadilly Tavern on Argyle Street for a few beers. They had enough cash to […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
African Nova Scotian communities form an integral part of our past, present and future
The African Nova Scotian Decade for People of African Descent Coalition welcomes the recent report from the United Nations Group of Working Experts on People of African Descent on its mission to Canada. More than 25 African Nova Scotian organizations presented to the Working Group in October 2016 and are pleased to see many of […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Stuck in the middle of the arts funding food-chain
Fall 2017 marks 20 years since I moved to Halifax and 15 years from when Shahin Sayadi and I founded the Onelight Theatre company. In those years, I have had the pleasure of being engaged with arts and culture in this city and I know that we have talented, visionary, hard-working and engaging artists in […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Shaw Wilderness Park sets dangerous precedent for future land deals
Allan Shaw and the Shaw Group sold the land for the Purcells Cove urban wilderness park for $6.6 million—300 percent of its assessed value and $2 million more than it paid for the property in 2011. That’s how to make “corporate philanthropy and real city-building” pay. And in another altruistic gesture, they got HRM to […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
The time is now for a guaranteed annual income
No one is happy with the current set of supports available to people living in poverty. We tend to blame people for their problems, despite the growing consensus that health is a combination of things—including income—that are largely outside the person. We need to acknowledge that it is a community responsibility to guarantee each person […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Death of the cinema
The sale of the Oxford Theatre is a sensible business decision for Cineplex Theatres. It was part of the deal when they purchased Empire Theatres in 2013, but the general consensus from talking to family and friends in Halifax—I’ve lived in the U.S. since 2010 and last visited the Oxford in 2015—was that they probably […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Bob Bjerke’s dismissal moves Halifax back in time
I’ll preface this article by admitting that I don’t yet know the details of chief planner Bob Bjerke’s quick exit (read: dismissal) from his role at HRM. No one does, not even the rest of HRM’s planning staff or apparently Bjerke himself (according to media interviews). This alone speaks to the culture of elusiveness that […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Lessons from Morgentaler
Recent headlines have highlighted that abortion access in Nova Scotia might be the worst in the country. It’s been almost 30 years since the Supreme Court of Canada held that barriers to abortion access may violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and yet in Nova Scotia it’s clear that significant barriers remain. In our […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
A nightmare of evocation as Halifax falls to the wrecking ball
One of my dystopian nightmares (I know that term is redundant but I want to emphasize just how scared and disgusted it makes me) goes like this: At some point in the not-so-distant future, everything that makes Halifax livable, lovable and distinct (common lands, public spaces, historic buildings, heritage neighbourhoods) has been razed and replaced […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Don’t be a butt to artists
LINKS @lizmacdraws; lizmacdraws.com WORDS AND COMIC BY Liz Mac Related Stories
Posted inNews + Opinion
Making sense of transit on Gottingen
Gottingen Street is one of Halifax’s busiest, most historic sections of road. Once stigmatized as unsafe and crime-filled, Gottingen is now in transition to a vibrant, dynamic and livable neighbourhood. A major component of that transition is how people move into, out of, and around the area. Where people can go and what places people […]
