🗞️ Border disorder

Hey Halifax,

I’ve missed you!

It’s always fun to add new items to my list of “things I never thought I’d have to worry about”. This week, it’s everything I’ve ever written about Donald Trump and Elon Musk, which if you’ve been around a while, you know that’s somewhere in the range of a lot to quite a lot.

We have a family place in Florida where I have been vacationing since I was an egg, and as I was contemplating some beach time, multiple people have looked at me sideways and been like “are you sure it’s safe for YOU to travel to the U.S. considering, you know…”

Although some of that concern is valid—a French scientist was denied entry to the U.S. last month after immigration officers at an airport searched his phone and found messages in which he had expressed criticism of the Trump administration—it seems to be very much the exception and not the rule.

While immigration lawyers say the rules have not drastically changed, the perception of increased enforcement has led to anxiety among travellers. According to Statistics Canada, there was a 23% drop year-over-year in the number of Canadians crossing back into Canada from the U.S. in February.

To be safe, lawyers are recommending ­everything from leaving your phone at home to putting it through a digital “cleanse.” Canada updated its travel advisory to the U.S. Friday, warning of “significant” discretion border officials have when screening travellers entering the U.S. The advisory now has a new paragraph warning people to “expect scrutiny” of their electronic devices and to anticipate possible detentions while awaiting deportation.

It seems that lots of people are not willing to risk it, but I’ve always liked to live dangerously. What do you think?

Have a great day out there!

– Julie

📷 @editorjulesl

🌡️ Traffic & Weather

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7-day forecast

🚗 Driving, biking or busing today? Check out the current traffic conditions and ongoing road closures.

NEWS + OPINION

Sexism vs. Misogyny: They are not the same and the difference matters

Nova Scotia is in the middle of a crisis—and we’ll say it over and over until everyone believes it. Since Oct. 18, seven women and one man have been killed in incidents of intimate-partner violence.  In five of the seven homicides, the perpetrator then killed himself.

As a province, we also own two records: the highest rate of gender-based violence in the country and the largest mass shooting in Canadian history.

The reality is grim.

The problem of gender-based violence might seem insurmountable. But focusing on education about misogyny may provide a place to start. It is important to help understand what misogyny is, how it affects us all, and how it can lead to violence.

The epidemic of gender-based violence combined with the increasingly polarizing political landscape has made the conversation about women’s rights more heated than ever. This means that the words ‘sexism’ and ‘misogyny’ have officially entered the mainstream. 

Like all terms that enter the public vernacular—I’m looking at you “woke” and “politically correct”—social media and pop culture have oversimplified them. “Sexism” and “misogyny” have been thrown around so much that they have become interchangeable, but they do not mean the same thing and understanding the difference is key to helping us, as a province, understand exactly what we’re up against.

The Coast’s Julie Lawrence spoke with acclaimed professor of philosophy at Cornell University and one of the foremost thinkers and writers on misogyny—Kate Manne—about her book Down Girl and understanding the difference between sexism and misogyny.

🤔 Need To Know

🗳️ A new survey is finding high levels of support for Premier Tim Houston’s government—the poll, conducted by Abacus Data, says provincial vote intention finds 56% support for the PCs while The NDPs are at 26% and the Liberals at 13%.

🏳️‍🌈 The province has been hit with a recent string of vandalism targeting 2SLGBTQ+ businesses and people—one advocate says these types of action are being influenced by the U.S. president.

💡 There was a large power outage in Dartmouth Monday afternoon—more than 14,000 customers were without electricity as of 1 p.m., according to Nova Scotia Power’s outage map.

🚗 Optimize your vehicle fleet with Jim Pattison Lease! Flexible leasing, telematics, analytics, upfitting, and fleet management tools boost efficiency and reduce costs. Learn more about our services now!*

🥁 Missed getting tickets to Little Women? Next up at the Pond Playhouse: SpringFest! TAG’s three-night fundraiser dedicated to JOY! April 24-26. Tickets already selling fast!*

🍔 We're halfway through HFX Burger Bash! With 50 Downtown Halifax restaurants participating, make it your ultimate destination for this delicious event.*

*Sponsored Post

SPONSORED BY NSCAD UNIVERSITY

NSCAD's Mayhem is 100% underway!

NSCAD's year-end festivities kick off in earnest this week with two free shows. Our design students take over the Port Campus (1137 Marginal Rd.) with an exhibition that promotes sustainable design practices from Tuesday to Sunday. And Friday evening don't miss the Academy Open House (1649 Brunswick St.) featuring mind-blowing Expanded Media, Animation, and Photography programming by students. See the whole schedule online for details.

FOOD + DRINK

Celebrating the best of the best in local cocktails

The 2025 Imbibe Cocktail Event filled the Light House Art Centre with the brightest and smokiest cocktail creations, produced by some of Nova Scotia's most skilled and talented bartenders.

Every year the Imbibe Cocktail Event—hosted by the Restaurant Association of Nova Scotia (RANS)—hosts a cocktail competition. Bartenders showcase their skills to a panel of judges to be awarded the Judges' Choice Award. On the night of Imbibe, guests also get the chance to vote for their favourite cocktail and bartenders. 

The Coast team has the winners for you.

🗞️ In Other News

🚪 The province has announced an agreement with a youth support organization that will create new supportive housing in Halifax—the partnership with Affordable Housing Association and Phoenix Youth Programs will open spaces for youth and young families.

😿 Animal shelters across Nova Scotia are struggling to keep pet food pantries stocked—highlighting a 50% increase in demand since last year.

🍽️ Restaurants Canada says the province’s move to increase the minimum wage will pose significant challenges for the industry—earlier this month, the province increased minimum wage from $15.20 to $15.70.

⚒️ Most Nova Scotia municipalities have not followed the province's request to publicly support more resource development in the province—with some calling the appeal "vague" and "inappropriate."

⛈️ As extreme weather events lead to the largest year on record for insurance claims, home insurance rates are on the rise—in 2025, home insurance rates have risen 5.28%, well above the rate of inflation.

🚗 The general manager of a car dealership in Dartmouth says he expects the price of new vehicles to increase in less than 90 days as a result of an ongoing trade war with the United States.

🏘️ The Nova Scotia government is embarking on the redevelopment of Shannon Park, confirming it is purchasing land for affordable housing at the former military site that has been largely vacant since 2017—they expect about 600 affordable units to be built.

🇨🇦 Several hundred people braved the rain at Alderney Landing on Sunday to attend Nova Scotia's first Elbows Up, Canada! event—organizers billed it as "family-friendly, non-partisan gatherings celebrating Canada's strength, unity and resilience."

SPONSORED BY POLARON SOLAR

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🗓️ Things To Do

Looking for something to do this week? Check out these Coast picks:

🗓 Tim Forbes re/collection Recent Paintings & Sculpture: Bridging the abstract and minimalist, Forbes’s artistic vocabulary leverages a unique visual language in a bold, modern dialogue, often wrestling with contemporary issues that ground his work in the present. Influenced over time by mid-century aesthetics, he embraces its tenets—a selective monochromatic palette, enlarged mass, repetition, and pattern recognition—all contributing to a pared-down formality. | April 10-27 |

🗓 Improv Party Show - Dating Edition: The seasoned improvisers will make up wacky scenarios based on your suggestions. Watch them compete in games, do challenges to win over the audience and get you laughing. | April 10 | 7:30pm | $15 |

🗓 Symphony Soloists Play Mozart: Hear a lively concert of showpieces performed by Symphony Nova Scotia musicians! Conducted by Music Director Holly Mathieson, this spotlight on the Symphony highlights the virtuosic chops of wonderful wind principals Danielle Johannes, Timothy Yung, Gabe Azzie, and Carys Sutherland, and Concertmaster Renaud Lapierre. Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante is the perfect platform for bright, vivid colours from the woodwind musicians, while Renaud brings his crystalline technique to Vasks’ distinctive and achingly beautiful Distant Light. | April 10 | 7:30pm | From $31 |

Have an event to share? Let us know at [email protected].

⚓️ What’s In The Harbour

➡️ The CMA CGM T Jefferson container ship leaves Halifax for New York at 4am.

🚢➡️ The Oceanex Sanderling container ship arrives in Halifax from St. John’s at 7:45am and leaves for St. John’s at 4pm.

🚢 The Algoscotia oil tanker arrives in Halifax from Sydney at 11:15am.

🍴 Where To Eat & Drink

🍩 Make the holiday even sweeter with the Easter Six Pack at Total Donut Solutions: two strawberry coconut filled croissants, two milk chocolate dipped donuts and two chocolate custard filled donuts. 

🍹 Sip on the perfect blend with the Heritage Minute at Agricola Street Brasserie: Forty Creek Barrel Select, Creme de Cassis, Limoncello, cranberry.

👀 In Case You Missed It

🎓 The kids are not alright. According to Mental Health Research Canada, 1.25 million youth in Canada need mental health support every year, yet more than half of them aren’t receiving it. The numbers are stark: surveys suggest roughly one in four young people have had thoughts of suicide; it is now the second leading cause of death among young Canadians. Young people in Nova Scotia need more help—and Mount Saint Vincent University (MSVU) has taken a huge step to meet that need by launching a new doctoral psychology program and training clinic—the first of its kind in the province. The Coast’s Julie Lawrence has more on the new MSVU program that will train more mental health and addictions professionals for youth at a time when we need it more than ever.

🍔 At long last, Burger Bash is officially here! But before you embark on your tour de beef (and chicken and tofu and veggie and fish), you need to get your official Burger Bash passport. The passport guides you to all official Burger Bash locations and provides descriptions of burger offerings and Garrison Brewing features. Download your passport here.

That’s it!

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