🗞️ Channeling Sloan

Hey Halifax,

I guess Mark Zuckerberg woke up last week, took a look around, and thought “you know what this world needs more of? Misogyny and misinformation.”

Over the weekend—somewhere between overhauling Meta’s fact-checking process and dismantling the company’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs—the Meta manchild found time to record a three-hour podcast where he suggested that more corporations should embrace their “masculine energy.”

Behold the horror…

You’ll have to speak up, I can’t hear you over that gold chain. Also, maybe time to re-instate your fact-checkers because men have held 90% of CEO positions in Fortune 500 companies for over a decade. These spaces are plenty masculinated, thanks.

We should not be surprised that the man who started a website specifically so that he could rank women in his school by attractiveness is still up to his old tricks. But he once again proves that of all the tech bro d-bags in all the land, he still reigns supreme 👑.

Have a great day!

– Julie

🌡️ Traffic & Weather

Today: 🌨️ 1°

Tomorrow: 🌨️ -5°

Next Day: 🌨️ -3°

7-day forecast

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

EDUCATION

 School workers in contract talks feel “unheard and undervalued” by province

New year, new deal? 

Not yet for roughly 5,000 school support staff in Nova Scotia. These bus drivers, educational program assistants, library support specialists, early childhood educators, custodians and Indigenous or African Nova Scotian student support workers are represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees, and they’re “frustrated with the province” as bargaining for a new contract continues to be “dragged out.” So says a press release from CUPE and the Nova Scotia School Board Council of Unions. 

CUPE says it’s “almost a year into negotiations and the progress has been repeatedly stalled by the Houston administration” as “all bargaining meetings were cancelled in November due to the snap election” then “briefly resumed before the holiday break and now talks are stalled by a mandate from the province which has prevented employers from discussing wage proposals.”

The Coast’s education reporter Lauren Phillips has more on the 5,000 support staff who could go on strike next month over wages, health and safety and school violence.

🤔 Need To Know

🖼️ Police are appealing to the public for help in finding a trio of valuable Maud Lewis artworks that disappeared from a Halifax home—the three Christmas cards by the celebrated Nova Scotia folk artist depict various winter landscapes and are worth $10k each.

🥀 Family members of a 60-year-old Nova Scotia woman killed by her partner say she was an “effortlessly funny” person who could also be lovingly honest and direct.

🎭 Live Art Dance presents Omote (面), a co-creation between Vancouver dance artist Shion Skye Carter, and Halifax mask maker Miya Turnbull, at the Bus Stop Theatre. February 28, 8pm and March 1, 2pm & 8pm.*

📱 Nova Scotians can now get appointment reminders for most of the health appointments they have—the reminders will come in text messages if health providers have a cellphone number on file.

*Sponsored Post

MUSIC

Customer Service channel Sloan in new music video

Last year was a good one for Halifax’s Customer Service: The emo/punk band’s debut EP not only landed them an Exclaim! shout-out, but also propelled a multi-province tour, an opening gig for Hollerado and a new record deal with Toronto’s Royal Mountain Records. Ask drummer Owen Harris, and he’ll say it was “the best ever.”

“All I ever wanted to do was tour,” Harris says, speaking by phone with The Coast, “and to see more parts of Canada and travel around and meet people in bands that I love.”

The band wanted to celebrate. And so, as they thought about how best to turn their newest single, “and it feels,” into a music video, the idea dawned on them: Why not pay homage to the music scene that came before them.

The Coast’s Martin Bauman caught up with the foursome to chat about their latest single, getting props from Sloan and their forthcoming sophomore EP.

🗞️ In Other News

🇨🇦 Sydney-Victoria MP Jaime Battiste announced that he is forming an exploratory team to consider running to replace Justin Trudeau and become the first Indigenous leader of a major political party in Canada.

🛍️ The federal government’s GST tax “holiday” has been in place for a month and businesses say they’ve seen mixed results when it comes to increases in sales—here’s what Canadian retailers have to say.

💉 A woman from Windsor is disappointed that the province is refusing to fund vaccines for hepatitis A and B for people who are exposed to raw sewage.

🗓️ Things To Do

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

🗓The Comedy Stand Presents Albert Coombes: Albert Coombes has made a name for himself recording for Just For Laughs Originals and being featured in the upcoming Halifax Comedy Festival. This is your chance to see him live before his star continues to rise! Featuring the hilarious Stu Anthony and hosted by the one and only Jon Pickett, this is a comedy show you won't want to miss. | Jan 16 | 7pm | $20

🗓Exhibit—Maroon Beads by Tyshan Wright: Halifax-based artist Tyshan Wright works at the intersection of contemporary art and traditional Jamaican Maroon culture and craft. Be the first to explore the latest exhibition at this week’s opening reception of Maroon Beads at the Mary E. Black Gallery. | Jan 16-Mar 9

🗓Halifax Cocktail Festival: Hosted at the Halifax Marriott Harbourfront Hotel, the Halifax Cocktail Festival is a two-session event where you’ll get to enjoy delicious cocktails made by many of Nova Scotia’s top mixologists. | Jan 18

🗓Halifax Thunderbirds Lacrosse: Come cheer on the home team as they take on the Rochester Knighthawks at the Scotiabank Centre. | Jan 18 | 7pm | From $26.25

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

⚓️ What’s In The Harbour

➡️ The MSC Silva VIII container ship leaves Halifax for New York at 12am.

🚢➡️ The Wolfsburg vehicle carrier arrives in Halifax from Emden at 12:25am and leaves for Jacksonville at 4pm.

🚢➡️ The CMA CGM Cedrus arrives in Halifax from Colombo at 5:15am and leaves for New York at 11pm.

🚢➡️ The Zim Asia container ship arrives in Halifax from Valencia at 5:20am and leaves for New York at 6pm.

🚢➡️ The MSC Matilde V container ship arrives in Halifax from Sines at 6:15am and leaves for Montreal at 12am.

🚢 The Atlantic Sun container ship arrives in Halifax from Norfolk at 3:20pm, and…

🚢 …its counterpart the Atlantic Sea also arrives in Halifax from Norfolk at 3:20pm.

➡️ The Algoscotia oil tanker leaves Halifax for Sydney at 11pm.

🍴 Where To Eat & Drink

🧆 The weather may be fal-awful, but the flavours in the Falafal Bowl at The Canteen will brighten up your day: house made falafel, tomato, cucumber, pickles, feta, garlic sauce, hummus, crispy chickpeas. 

🍣 Experience the freshest and finest our ocean has to offer with the Tuna Crudo at Salt + Ash Beach House: fresh, diced tuna, sesame and ginger dressing, radish, cucumber, fried garlic.

👀 In Case You Missed It

🏛️ The Coast Council Preview: City Hall reporter Matt Stickland tipped us off that he has some exciting developments to share from yesterday’s city council meeting. His meeting report should drop sometime in the next couple days, but to get up to speed you can start with this preview from Monday.

🌳 The city removed the fencing from both Meagher Park and downtown’s Victoria Park on Monday, a welcome move. But now that the parks are returned to service as just parks, there’s a risk of forgetting what else they did for the city in recent years. So we’d like to bring your attention to a Coast story that Martin Bauman wrote one year ago, when Meagher Park was behind a fence and its community rallied around a poem.

That’s it!

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