🗞️ Dalhousie has divested before, nearly 40 years ago

Good morning Halifax!

If there’s one thing we Nova Scotians love telling people it’s that we have the best beer in Canada. We don’t need to have tried all the beers in Canada to know for sure, we just do. It’s part of our pride of place.

But now, we can say it and it’s actually categorically true.

This past Saturday, Boxing Rock Brewing Company was honoured as the Brewery of the Year at the Canadian Brewing Awards. This esteemed annual competition judges beers from 800 breweries across 61 style categories. Boxing Rock was awarded three gold medals: one in the IPA category—known to be one of the most competitive—one in the Blonde Ale category for Puck Off Blonde Ale, and one in the American Red Ale category for Temptation Red Ale.  

Congrats to the hard working peeps at Boxing Rock! 🍻

Have a great day!

– Julie

🌡️ Traffic & Weather

Today: ⛈️ 15°

Tomorrow: 🌤️ 20°

Next Day: 🌦️ 20°

7-day forecast

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

💨 Here is Halifax’s Air Quality Index and the smoke report.

MUSIC

Singer-songwriter Laura Rae touches on isolation, stagnation in new single, “Lightspeed”

Laura Rae had a lot to balance during the pandemic lockdowns. Her father’s emphysema left her without a bubble outside of her household. Most of her family remained miles away in Ontario. 

Since then, the bilingual singer-songwriter has etched her feelings on a newly released track that’s both emotionally complex and subtly technical.

Titled “Lightspeed”, Rae’s new track echoes the isolation we faced during the pandemic, bringing listeners back to those feelings of futile stagnation.

Like many of us, Rae turned to doom scrolling social media, binging Netflix, and hoping the mundane-yet-fear-riddled time would soon come to pass.

“The way you spend minutes is the way that you’re spending your life,” she said in an interview with The Coast.

The song sees an acoustic guitar plucked alongside the subtle percussion of a brush hitting an old school bell—a piece of memorabilia belonging to Rae’s husband, whose grandmother used it as a school teacher in Cape Breton. Rae’s synths and a stand-up bass riff courtesy of Alex Keoughan add further colour to the track.

Above this melancholic backdrop are Rae’s soft yet powerful vocals, punctuating the track with lyrics most could find relatable to their own pandemic experience.

The Coast’s Brendyn Creamer talks to Rae about her new single and how it portrays her feelings from the pandemic. 

🤔 Need To Know

🎻 The Scotia Festival of Music will pay tribute this year to its late founder. Chris Wilcox—who died from Parkinson’s in 2015—founded the festival in 1980 to bring classical musicians, directors and orchestras to the people of Halifax.

🚌 Transit changes are coming to Scotia Square. Learn more about the bus bay relocations starting June 17.*

🎉 Join Downtown Halifax Business Commission for the launch of the Downtown Halifax Vision 2030, Wednesday, June 5 at 12-NOON in the Queen’s Marque Courtyard.*

*Sponsored Post

SPONSORED BY HALIFAX REGIONAL MUNICIPALITY

An update on climate action in the municipality.

Click here to learn more.

EDUCATION

Dalhousie has divested before, nearly 40 years ago

Tents spread in front of the administrative building on Dalhousie’s main Studley Campus are still standing into convocation week two. The zone of tents has been renamed Al Zeitoun University by the coalition of students occupying Dal’s front lawn. 

“Students for the Liberation of Palestine - Kjipuktuk (Halifax)”–or “SLPK”–is a coalition of students from Dal, SMU, King’s, NSCAD and MSVU united in place and message. On the SLPK Instagram account, the group says they’re joined in the “struggle against [their] respective universities and their complicity in the occupation of Palestine,” and they call on their university administrations “to immediately disclose and divest” tuition-fed endowments’ ties to Israel.

Last year, student journalist Joud Chazal published an article in the Dalhousie Gazette on Dec. 1, headlined “Dalhousie Keeps Failing Palestinian Students.” In that article, Chazal invokes Dal’s divestment protocol in the 1980s, when, “along with other education institutions, [Dal] divested holdings in three companies with links to the South African apartheid regime.

The Coast’s Lauren Phillips has more on Dalhousie’s historical precedent of divestment.

🗞️ In Other News

💡 Low income customers are feeling the strain of NS Power’s 6.5% rate increase, according to the non-profit organizations trying to help them.

🚨 Halifax police are investigating a weapons-related incident in Dartmouth after shots were fired into a parked car. A man was arrested moments later and appeared in court Monday.

🔥 Hammonds Plains residents gathered one year after wildfires devastated their community. 71 families in the Highland Park subdivision lost their homes and another 38 were damaged.

🏒 The Halifax Mooseheads 2024/25 season schedule has been released. The moose will start their season on the road.

⚖️ The Parole Board of Canada has ruled that a N.S. man is still far too high a risk to be released from prison. Michael Derrick Robicheau was declared a dangerous offender and locked up indefinitely following a vicious attack on a Dartmouth gas station attendant.

🗓️ Things To Do

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

Lebanese Cedar Festival: This festival promotes and fosters Lebanese culture and traditions and provides a venue for Canadians of Lebanese heritage to reacquaint themselves with their rich roots. Guests will be able to sample delicious Lebanese cuisine while enjoying the sights and sounds of Lebanese music, dancing and more. Takeout is also available to enjoy at home. | May 30-June 2

Argyle Street Shore Party: Get ready, Halifax—Argyle Street is shutting down and lighting up for a party you won’t want to miss! Catch live performances from an incredible lineup of artists, including Ria Mae, Neon Dreams, Adam Baldwin + The Jenny Wren, Rankin MacInnis and the Broken Reeds during this open-air celebration of Nova Scotia’s vibrant musical landscape. | May 31-June 2 | Free

Sail Grand Prix Halifax: Halifax has been selected as the first-ever city in Canada to host a Sail Grand Prix. Known as the most exciting racing on water, SailGP features the world’s best sailing athletes representing national teams from around the globe competing in high-speed, hydrofoiling F50s—capable of speeds of nearly 100 km/h—racing a stone's-throw away from the shoreline. | June 1-2  

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

⚓️ What’s In The Harbour

➡️ The Zim Pacific container ships leaves Halifax for New York at 1:30am.

➡️ The CB Pacific oil tanker leaves Halifax for Quebec at 7am.

🛳️➡️ The MSC Alyssa container ships arrives in Halifax from Montreal at 6:15am and leaves for Sines at 5pm.

🍴 Where To Eat & Drink

🍕 Last chance for romance…and by “romance” I mean lemon chicken pizza at Morris East: lemon aioli, herbed chicken, roasted shallots, goat cheese, lemon zest and crispy pancetta. Only until the end of May.

🥢🌵Studio East is mixing up the flavours of Mexico and Korea with its new special: Bulgogi beef birria spring rolls with mozzarella, served with a side of housemade kimchi.

👀 In Case You Missed It

🏠 After a gruelling three-day council meeting that started on Tuesday morning last week and ended in the late afternoon on Thursday, Halifax’s city councillors unanimously voted to approve a suite of zoning bylaw changes that will allow the city to access $79 million of federal Housing Accelerator Fund money. The Coast’s Matt Stickland explains in depth and detail what these changes are and how they will impact our city. 

🎤 Lush psychedelic soundscapes. Funky melodies. Lyrics describing heartbreak and healing. Mat Elliott’s newest EP has it all. The Truro native has found inspiration across the musical spectrum for his debut record, from Tom Mirsch to Still Woozy. The Coast’s Brendyn Creamer spoke to Elliott about his debut EP and its themes of heartbreak.

🚙 Starting June 17, Barrington Street—between Upper Water Street and Duke Street—will be closed for six months for maintenance and upgrades.

That’s it!

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