Good morning beautiful city,

This morning’s editorial is heavy and makes reference to the mass shooting, so please take care of yourself and skip this one if need be. I love you ❤️

It doesn’t seem like six years have passed since that fateful day in April, 2020 when our province was irreversibly changed. The mass shooting took away our innocence in a way; it changed us on a cellular level. We stopped being a place where “things like that just don’t happen.” Together, we continue to try to heal. But we will never be what we once were.

In the aftermath of the shooting, we got to work trying to figure out what went wrong so that we could prevent it from ever happening again—that independent investigation was called the Mass Casualty Commission, or MCC.

The MCC eventually produced a huge final report called Turning the Tide Together. It contained findings, lessons learned, and recommendations for governments, police, and other organizations. There were dozens of areas for change, covering things such as policing, emergency communications, gender-based violence, firearms and public safety.

Three years after the MCC issued its final report—which contained more than 100 recommendations—a group called the Progress Oversight Committee, or POC, was tasked with keeping everyone involved accountable and on-track with making the changes recommended in the report.

And although the committee says there is still much work to be done, they will no longer be the ones doing it. They released their final progress report yesterday.

The committee will disband, leaving organizations to oversee themselves to ensure they are still working towards meeting the recommendations outlined in the report. And that’s awesome because you know who are famously great at overseeing themselves? Police and government (*she says dripping with sarcasm*).

Long-time boot-licker and professional do nothinger—Myra Freeman—was the leader of said oversight committee and says that some of the people on it wanted the work to continue past the three-year term. Let’s see…the committee was made up of government, police, a gender-based violence advocate and family members of those who were killed in the mass shooting.

Take a wild guess at who wanted the work to continue. I’ll wait while you think. This is a tough one.

Three years is simply not long enough to have any meaningful change take place and—according to gender-based violence advocates—the culture of misogyny and violence in Nova Scotia has not improved. In fact, in my personal experience and according to the experts who are on the ground, it’s getting worse.

Here’s the crux of the problem: Tim Houston isn’t taking any of this seriously. He says he wants progress. He says he wants meaningful change. He says, he says, he says. But his actions don’t match. Allowing the one group whose job it was to keep everyone accountable to stop doing that job is yet another perfect example.

The burden now lies on the traumatized families, overburdened community advocates and journalists like me to keep RCMP, police and government accountable. And that’s just plain impossible. What Tim Houston and Mayra Freeman are really saying is: we don’t care enough anymore.

But this province is like a pressure-cooker filled with gender-based violence, white supremacy, misogyny, and intolerance like never before. And when it explodes—and it will—you better just pray it’s not your neighbourhood in the next mass shooter’s cross hairs.

But rest assured that if you do end up being the unlucky ones, you’ll get all of Tim Houston’s thoughts and prayers.

Please take care of yourself and each other.

Love and light!

– Jules

📷 @editorjulesl

p.s : I highly recommend you read our Liz LeClair’s statement on the dissolution of the Progress Oversight Committee.

Today: 🌦️ 23°

Tomorrow: 🌤️ 21°

Next Day: 🌤️ 22°

7-day forecast

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

After years of requests from customers in Atlantic Canada, Vancouver-based Purdys Chocolatier will open locations in Halifax, Dartmouth, Fredericton and Dieppe on Sept. 4.

For nearly 120 years, Purdys has operated primarily in Western Canada and Ontario. Maritimers have largely had to order online, travel elsewhere or rely on friends and relatives to bring home the company’s chocolates.

That changes Sept. 4, when Purdys opens four Maritime shops simultaneously. Permanent locations at Regent Mall in Fredericton and Champlain Place in Dieppe will be joined by pop-ups at Mic Mac Mall in Dartmouth and Halifax Shopping Centre.

The Coast’s food and drink expert Mark DeWolf details the new eastward move by Purdys Chocolatier.

🤢 A 53-year-old man has been charged after allegedly driving through a McDonald’s in Dartmouth without any pants on—Halifax police say they received a report of an “indecent act” on Sunday around 4:40pm.

⚠️ Eastlink is warning customers of a potential data breach, though it does not believe credit card or banking information was exposed—exposed information may include customer names, contact details, account numbers and PINs.

🦕 Before extinction, dinosaurs fought to survive! Dinosaur Exploration 2 is a sequel to the hit 2024 exhibit, featuring some of your favourite dinosaurs.*

🎭 The award-winning horror play, Passed Down, will be coming from Toronto to participate in the Halifax Fringe Festival from September 4th-10th. Get your tickets now!*

*Sponsored Post

Canada’s original auction house, founded in 1850, has been entrusted with countless important collections and individual works for decades. With an international network of knowledgeable collectors, Waddington’s auctions achieve record results.

Experienced specialists are always pleased to help you understand the true value of your artworks. With a major fall auction season around the corner, connect in person or virtually to discuss your Canadian, International, First Nations or Inuit art.

Contact Waddington’s to find out how simple it is to make the right decisions, when you have the right information.

🇨🇦 Nova Scotia Power says it's fixed its outage map and Lake Ontario is now listed correctly after it showed the body of water labelled as Lake America—the site joins a number of others in Canada in struggling with naming Lake Ontario after a recent executive order by U.S. President Donald Trump changed the name of the lake.

💉 Yesterday marked Overdose Awareness Day—Amanda Moore with Direction 180, a non-profit opioid treatment program, said the organization is seeing an increase in overdoses in Nova Scotia.

🛒 A man threatened cashiers at a Sobeys in Bedford and fled with a quantity of money on Friday—eh allegedly walked into the store and threatened staff with a handgun.

🚨 An inmate at a federal prison in Nova Scotia died while in custody Saturday—at the time of his death, Correctional Service Canada (CSC) says the 48-year-old was an inmate at Springhill Institution in Springhill.

🎒 As students across Nova Scotia get ready to take on a new year, the province is hoping new initiatives will help boost performances in classrooms—the Nova Scotia School Lunch Program is expanding again to include all high schools across the province and a new language arts curriculum will be introduced for Grades 3 to 6.

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

🗓 Halifax Fringe Festival: The Halifax Fringe is eleven days of live, uncensored, and uncurated performance art. It’s full of genre-busting theatre, comedy, one-person tour de forces, and so much more. You can catch everything from Shakespeare to sword swallowing, all at an affordable price and in accessible venues. | Sept 3 - 13 | 

🗓 The Australian Pink Floyd Show: Experience the music, spectacle, and magic of Pink Floyd with The Australian Pink Floyd Show, the world’s leading Pink Floyd tribute production. Renowned for its stunning musicianship and note-for-note performances, the show recreates the iconic sound and atmosphere that made Pink Floyd one of the most influential bands in rock history. | Sept 3 | 8pm | $64 | 

🗓 Trooper: With millions of records sold, dozens of hit songs, and a Juno Award for Band of the Year, Trooper has cemented its place as one of Canada’s most beloved rock bands. Universal Music has recognized them as one of the country’s top five selling bands of all time, while the Vancouver Sun has called them “Canadian rock heroes of the first order.” In 2023, the band was inducted into both the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and Canada’s Walk of Fame.| Sept 3 and 4 | 8pm | $78.10 |

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

🚢➡️ The Amber Bay tanker arrived in Halifax from Gramercy at 12:17am and departs for Houston at 11pm.

🚢➡️ The Bonita Aki tanker arrived in Halifax from Albany at 3:40am and departs at 8pm.

🚢➡️ The Atlantic Sea container vessel arrives in Halifax from Liverpool at 5:20am and departs for New York at New York at 4pm.

🚢➡️ The SL Falcon container vessel arrives in Halifax from New York at 5:20am and departs for Kingston at 6pm.

🚢➡️ The Bess vehicle carrier arrives in Halifax from Philadelphia at 5:55am and departs for New York at 4:30pm.

➡️ The Tropic Hope container vessel departs Halifax for West Palm Beach at 6am.

🚢➡️ The Sapphire Princess cruise vessel arrives in Halifax at 8am and departs at 6pm.

🚢➡️ The Zuiderdam cruise vessel arrives in Halifax at 8am and departs at 5pm.

➡️ The HMM Amethyst container vessel departs for Singapore at 9:30am

🧄 Experience the art of tableside dining as our team prepares authentic Pesto Genovese fresh at your table. www.pazzoristorante.ca.

“⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Perfect beer food.” Good Robot Robie’s Giant Burrito is sticking around into September: 1.25 lbs of burrito, best paired with Diablo.

We highly recommend adding a drizzle of hot honey to your Goat Bread at The Stubborn Goat for the perfect sweet, spicy, and savoury bite!*

*sponsored

🎸 From Nov 12-15, artists from across the province will gather in Truro for Nova Scotia Music Week 2026. Whether it's to perform, connect with fellow musicians or to potentially become a Music Nova Scotia award winner, singers and songwriters of all kinds will be gathered for four days in one town, all to celebrate local music. The Coast’s Brendyn Creamer lists every artist playing Music Week this year.

👀 The Department of Environment has laid charges following an investigation of an alleged illegal landfill on a 10-hectare property on the outskirts of Halifax—a probe that included drone surveillance and the seizure of equipment.

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