🗞 Marking 106 years since the Halifax Explosion

SHIPPING NEWS

A giant load of cars and one enormous container ship arrive in Halifax Harbour this week

One hundred and six years ago, on Dec. 6, 1917, Halifax was forever changed. That morning, the SS Mont-Blanc cargo ship collided with the SS Imo steamship in Halifax Harbour—an incident that would have posed a problem for those aboard the two ships, no matter the circumstances, but was made catastrophic by the Mont-Blanc’s cargo that day: Picric acid, guncotton and TNT. The resulting explosion killed more than 2,000 people and injured an estimated 9,000.

The HRM is hosting a memorial service at Fort Needham Memorial Park this morning at 9am to mark the occasion—but it’s not the only noteworthy harbour happening this week. As The Coast’s Martin Bauman reports, Halifax is set to greet one especially large ship later this week.

Need to know

🌳 The Tree Pruning Program has begun in the HRM and will continue through March. Read more on the program here.

🏆 Best of Halifax 2023 results are out! Find them at thecoast.ca.

👶 The province has announced two new programs to “create more child-care spaces in licensed not-for-profit child-care centres and family homes.”

🎬 Support4Culture is a proud supporter of arts, culture, and heritage in Nova Scotia. From the Highland Village Museum to Neptune Theatre, see the impact Support4Culture makes here.*

🧓 More long-term care rooms are coming to the Annapolis Royal Nursing Home and to Sherbrooke’s new 48-room High-Crest nursing home (opening in 2029).

🎭 The municipality is seeking input on the Performing & Visual Arts Venue Study. Complete the survey to inform how HRM supports local arts venues.*

*Sponsored Post

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On The Coast

SPONSORED BY THE GREAT OUTDOORS COMEDY FEST

Nate Bargatze LIVE in Halifax!

Join the Great Outdoors Comedy Festival in Halifax at the Garrison Grounds to catch Nate Bargatze’s signature Southern charm LIVE in the great outdoors. Tickets on sale Friday December 8th for the wildly hilarious Nate Bargatze, Gerry Dee and Derek Stroup in Halifax on August 9, 2024. 

In other news

🥶 Residents of Gottingen Street’s Vimy Arms public housing are concerned about the lack of insulation in the building’s walls that’s leaving them with cold homes and high electricity bills.

💲 Auditor General Kim Adair has released Nova Scotia’s 2023 financial report.

❤️ If you’re looking to give back to the community this season consider adopting the Dartmouth Community Fridge for a day, alone or with a group of others. You can sign up here.

🚢 A new $100 million inland shipping terminal is planned for an area near Onslow Nova Scotia with hopes it’ll help reduce “truck traffic” in downtown Halifax.

🐓 $160,000 worth of chickens have died following a break-in at a Nova Scotia poultry wholesalers facility in the Annapolis Valley.

📜 As mentioned in yesterday’s newsletter, December 5 marked the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A newsletter reader let us know that the Universal Declaration has a pretty big Maritime connection that we thought should be shared with all of you: The author of the document, John Peters Humphrey, also known as The Father of the Declaration, was born in New Brunswick.

🕯️ A candlelight vigil in honour of the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women will be taking place at Victoria Park this evening at 5:30pm. There will be opening remarks and a group walk to the CHEB Building where there will be food, guest speakers and music.

SPORTS

How close is the Halifax Wanderers women’s soccer team to a reality?

Charlottetown’s Sarah Eden has dreams of playing professional soccer. The fourth-year central midfielder for the UPEI Panthers has grown up idolizing Canadian national team midfielder Jessie Fleming, imagining what it would be like to suit up for the likes of soccer giant Chelsea FC—or maybe Hollywood-owned Wrexham AFC, “because of Ryan Reynolds, of course,” she says. (Reynolds owns the Welsh team with It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star Rob McElhenney.) Eden was among those who travelled the farthest on Monday to make the Halifax Wanderers women’s development camp at the BMO Soccer Centre. The camp is among the first concrete steps in the Wanderers’ goal of launching a women’s semi-pro team—something the club had previously said could be ready as soon as 2024, as long as there’s a league to play in.

Talk of a women’s pro soccer team in Halifax isn’t new, but it’s been heating up in recent months.

Read more at The Coast.

🤝 Now hiring

• Event marketing specialist at Advocate Printing

• Part-time massage therapist, chiropractor and physiotherapist at Quantum Sport Therapy.

• Social worker at Adsum House.

• Naturalist Interpreter at the Museum of Natural History.

• Butcher/Butcher’s apprentice at Osprey’s Roost.

Hiring? Reply back and let us know!

Sure things

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

🗓 Chris Locke: The Toronto-based stand-up comic and actor performs at The Sanctuary Arts Centre in Dartmouth this week. | Dec. 9 | 8pm | $28.75.

🗓 Feed Folks: Head to Montes Showbar Grill in Dartmouth for a concert for Feed Nova Scotia featuring a lineup of 11 different local artists. | Dec. 10 | 4pm-9pm | $21.90.

🗓 Neighbourhood Holiday Potluck: Come with a dish, or dishless, and enjoy a holiday potluck meal at Every One Every Day’s Neighbourhood Shop. | Dec. 8 | 6pm-8pm | Free.

Find more Halifax events in The Coast listings

Shop talk

🎉 Battery Park Beerbar is turning 8 this weekend, and is celebrating with giveaways from Nova Scotian craft breweries, cupcakes and birthday-themed decorations.

Eat this

🤤 CHKN CHOP has made its buffalo chicken sandwich a permanent fixture on its menu and added a Holiday Poutine that will be available for the rest of December.

Drink this

🧊 Craving the chill even in below 0C weather? Try The 5K Cafe’s adult winter ice cream float. 

Deals

💸 It’s National Donair Day on December 8, and King of Donair is offering original donairs for $5 and specialty donairs for $6.

Have a local special we should feature? Reply back and let us know!