🗞️ Did a homicide kill the Alehouse?

Good morning!

It’s the last time we’ll be in your inbox in 2024. I hope it’s been a good year to you. (If you’re itching to kiss the last 12 months goodbye—I’ve had some of those days—then I hope 2025 greets you kindly. The daylight hours are already getting longer.)

It’s been a while since I’ve been on The Coast Daily newsletter beat. Most of my 2024 has involved ferrying my seven-month-old son around and wiping his hands, face and butt clean of various bodily fluids. Turns out babies produce a lot of those.

I’m honoured to be back sharing stories with you again. This morning’s Coast Daily issue brings breaking news surrounding the Halifax Alehouse, two years after Ryan Sawyer was found unresponsive outside the Brunswick Street bar. It’s the kind of long-form reporting that wouldn’t be possible without the support of our Coast Insiders, who help us keep local, independent, no-holds-barred journalism alive.

Today’s issue also looks back at The Coast’s biggest news stories of 2024, from solar eclipses to police critiques to powerful op-eds about a province-wide epidemic on gender-based violence.

We look forward to bringing you even more of Halifax’s biggest stories in the New Year, starting Friday, Jan 3. Until then, Team Coast wishes you happy holidays.

– Martin

🌡️ Traffic & Weather

Today: ☀️ -7°

Tomorrow: 🌨️ -2°

Next Day: ☀️ 0°

7-day forecast

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

NEWS

Two years after Christmas Eve homicide investigation, Halifax Alehouse’s future in the dark

Two years ago, Ryan Sawyer left his parents’ Fall River home to watch a World Junior Hockey Championship pre-tournament game at the Scotiabank Centre with his brother. He never returned. Police found him “unresponsive” outside the Halifax Alehouse in the early morning hours of Dec 24, his body near the corner of Prince and Brunswick Streets. First responders brought the 31-year-old Ajax, Ont. native to the QEII hospital, where he was pronounced dead on Christmas Eve. Within days, the Nova Scotia Medical Examiner Service ruled his death a homicide—but to this day, Sawyer’s family awaits closure.

Eight months after Sawyer’s death, 38-year-old Alexander Pishori Levy—a bouncer at the Alehouse at the time of the incident—turned himself in to Halifax police on charges of manslaughter and criminal negligence. In January 2024, Levy pleaded not guilty to both charges before a judge. His trial resumes next September.

As both Levy and Sawyer’s family await the trial’s resumption, the bar where he worked has just finished a forced 45-day closure stemming from charges under the Liquor Control Act. And as The Coast’s Martin Bauman reports, there’s mounting speculation—and evidence—that the Alehouse may have shut its doors permanently.

🤔 Need To Know

🏥 The IWK Health Centre says it’s seeing an uptick in walking pneumonia cases this year—a roughly tenfold increase from 2023.

🧑‍🏫 Interested in learning French? Check out our wide range of courses at Université Sainte-Anne (online or in person)!*

🔎 Halifax police are still looking for answers about who killed 8-year-old Lee’Marion Cain, who was shot while sitting in a car with an adult on Dec 21, 2021.

✨ Experience the stunning light displays of DELIGHTFUL DOWNTOWN this holiday season, including a “New Year’s Light Show” at Grafton Park (corner of Spring Garden Road & Grafton Street).*

❄️ Environment Canada has issued a special weather statement for Halifax, warning that “significant amounts of snow” could fall Christmas Eve.

📰 Stop by Atlantic News on the corner of Morris and Queen for your last-minute holiday shopping. Open 9-8 today and 9-4:30 Christmas Eve.*

*Sponsored Post

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Thank You For Voting Us "Best Winery" Halifax!

Benjamin Bridge Winery invites you to explore their vineyard wonderland of holiday lights with local wines, festive cocktails and hot cocoa, complete with cozy fireside seating. Only one hour from Halifax and five minutes from Wolfville. Lights will be up until Sunday, January 5th. See the winery's website for holiday hours and more information about visiting.

CITY HALL

Halifax considers defunding the police

Believe it or not, The Coast’s Matt Stickland reports, but defunding Halifax’s police service has already begun. It just might look subtler than you’d have thought.

Last Wednesday, the Board of Police Commissioners met to discuss the police budgets for the next fiscal year. In years past, the HRP’s involvement (or lack thereof) in the budget process has drawn the ire of commissioner Yemi Akindoju, who’s been quite insistent that for the board to do its job, it needs to know exactly how the police are spending their money. In 2022, the HRP stopped publishing detailed budget documents after coming under scrutiny for spending almost as much on a police horse and polygraph testing as they did on the Housing First Program.

This year, Akindoju is coming away more impressed with HRP’s cooperation in the budget process: Not only have police kept their requests below inflation, but there are also fewer police per capita than a year ago.

So what will that look like for Halifax? And how is the RCMP handling its share of defunding? Stickland has you covered with everything you need to know from the BOPC meeting.

🗞️ The Coast’s Top 5 Stories of 2024

PODCASTS

The Wanderer Grounds podcast: A Christmas Extravaganza

The season of giving is here, and The Coast’s Matt Stickland and Martin Bauman are in the mood for some holiday cheer. This week on The Wanderer Grounds podcast, the two Coast reporters invite soccer reporter Josh Healey of the Wanderers Notebook for a special episode ahead of the holidays to answer the question: What gift would you give your favourite Wanderer?

The three take turns playing Santa and Scrooge in a brand-new episode—which is also the last one of 2024—that also doles out a few year-end awards for the Wanderers season. Plus, the conversation ventures into fist-sized pickles, bottomless garlic bread and 2000s-era rap battles in Newfoundland. Give it a listen and subscribe here.

🗓️ Things To Do

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

🗓 See Frozen before it’s gone: The Broadway spin on Disney’s hit musical enters its last week at Neptune Theatre. | Dec 23-29 | Times vary | $40 and up

🗓 Grab a free hot chocolate at the Bedford Library: Bedford’s public library, which oddly enough is on Dartmouth Street, is giving out free ho-cho on Christmas Eve—proof that not everything good costs money. | Dec 24 | 10-11:30am | Free

🗓 Take in some live music on the Eastern Shore: Folk duo Josh + Bex headline a special night at Seaforth Hall, with blues rocker Mike Trask joining the bill. | Dec 27 | 6pm | $22.63

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

👀 In Case You Missed It

⚖️ Last week, a Nova Scotia judge certified a class-action lawsuit against Northwood, the north end long-term care centre where 53 people died during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Catch up on Stephanie Nolen’s special in-depth report on the saga for The Coast, which won a National Magazine Award in 2022.

🎁 Need a last-minute gift idea for your loved ones? The Coast has you covered with a local gift guide that will spare you the rush to the mall.

📚 If you’re looking to cozy up with a book over the holidays, why not go local? The Coast rounds up 12 of the best books by Halifax authors in 2024.

That’s it!

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