🗞️ Border agents seize coke at Port of Halifax

Good morning!

Long before I moved to Halifax, I’d heard stories about The Khyber. It existed in the lore of the city’s arts and music scene, offering a venue for up-and-coming talent and a community for people who, many times, existed on the margins. That it was a stomping ground for artists like Joel Plaskett, Jenn Grant and Ghettosocks over the years only added to its appeal.

And it’s still a platform for artists today—even if the building itself is in need of repair.

Until the end of the month, the Khyber Centre for the Arts is running a fundraiser exhibition to help the centre “obtain tools that can … assist early career, emerging and established artists” in Halifax. It runs Tuesdays to Saturdays from noon to 5pm. And the artwork on display is pretty cool.

– Martin

🌡️ Traffic & Weather

Today: 🌤️ 7°

Tomorrow: 🌧️ 3°

Next Day: 🌤️ 3°

7-day forecast

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

EDUCATION

How to report on Indigenous issues? At King’s, journalism students are learning firsthand

Head up the staircase toward the journalism school on the third floor at the University of King’s College, and you’ll pass a poster on the wall. It’s impossible to miss—not least of which because, in all odds, it’s larger than you. There are more posters like it on campus, but this one related to what’s through the door at the top of the stairs. Call 86 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s 94 calls to action reads as follows:

“We call upon Canadian journalism programs and media schools to require education for all students on the history of Aboriginal peoples, including the history and legacy of residential schools, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaties and Aboriginal rights, Indigenous law and Aboriginal-Crown relations.”

Message received at King’s.

The journalism program has implemented a new course—“Indigenous Peoples and Media”—mandatory for all students in the program.

Assistant professor Trina Roache, a member of the Glooscap Mi’kmaw community, tells The Coast the course is a long time coming.

“Anything you learn … whether it's Mi'kmaq specific, those fundamental principles are going to apply no matter where you are,” Roache says. “You don’t have to know everything; you just have to know what you don’t know—and then know how to find that out. That’s what we do as journalists.”

🤔 Need To Know

🚢 Border Services officers seized more than 1.5 tonnes of cocaine from a shipping container in Halifax earlier this month. Agents say the shipment came from Californina and was destined for Europe.

⚖️ A Bedford-area teen has pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated assault after a stabbing last March at Charles P. Allen High School sent two staff members to hospital.

🩰 Live Art Dance presents Ballet Edmonton this Friday at the Spatz Theatre, sharing their excellent mixed program of ballet. Tickets are selling fast!*

💉 Nova Scotians at high risk for severe COVID-19 illness can now book appointments for a spring booster shot.

🚨 Mounties are looking for a man who allegedly approached a girl at a Lake Echo playground on Monday afternoon and asked her to come into his van.

*Sponsored Post

CITY HALL

How a new speed limit in downtown Dartmouth exposes design failures

Editor’s note: An incomplete version of this story ran in the Coast Daily’s Monday issue. Here it is, in full.

Halifax has been trying—without much success—to get the provincial government to lower posted speed limits all over the HRM, which makes the soon-to-come speed-limit changes in downtown Dartmouth all the more interesting.

Nova Scotia’s government green-lit Halifax’s request to reduce the posted speed for several downtown streets from 50 km/h to 40 km/h—which, based on the best available evidence, will have negligible to no impact on the commute times of people driving through Dartmouth’s core. (It will have a positive impact on lessening the likelihood of a deadly collision.)

Halifax would like to see similar changes elsewhere, but council hasn’t been able to convince the province—which governs speed limits on all public roads—to make the switch. The reason? The province says Halifax needs to design slower streets first.

As The Coast’s Matt Stickland writes, there are lessons to be learned about why Dartmouth succeeded where other road requests have failed.

SPONSORED BY CANADIAN MUSEUM OF IMMIGRATION AT PIER 21

#HopeAndHealingCanada, by Métis artist Tracey-Mae Chambers

#HopeAndHealingCanada, a live installation by Métis artist Tracey-Mae Chambers

The Museum is currently hosting Hamilton-based Métis installation artist Tracey-Mae Chambers and her exhibition #HopeAndHealingCanada. 

Chambers creates her live installations by stitching together intricate and complex designs with thousands of meters of red yarn, and the goal of starting a conversation about decolonization. The red yarn is reused at subsequent installation locations to act as a way of creating a visual and tangible image of connectivity.

Chambers' artwork will be on display at the Museum until August 29 and will then continue to tour throughout Canada.

Visit our website for more information.

Join The Coast team!

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🗞️ In Other News

📺 A Halifax man faces $7.1M in penalties in the wake of his illegal TV streaming service drawing the attention—and ire—of some of the world’s largest entertainment companies.

🏥 Nova Scotia Health says it’s still assessing the damage to a Halifax mental health and addictions inpatient unit after a water leak last week. In the meantime, the province says there will be a “temporary reduction” in inpatient spots available across Nova Scotia.

🥀 Parents of a 6-year-old Dartmouth boy are speaking out after their son passed away earlier this month following an aggressive bout of strep A. The province says cases have been on the rise.

🌊 Some Nova Scotia coastal property owners are taking issue with the province’s decision to do away with the Coastal Protection Act, saying they weren’t consulted in a recent survey.

🪱 Fishery officials say they’ve arrested 26 people for out-of-season elver fishing in Nova Scotia since Mar. 6—and seized more than 6.5 kilos of the baby eels.

🏠 A 19-unit tiny shelter village in Lower Sackville is up and running, the Canadian Press reports. And now, its volunteer stewards hope to change public perception.

SPONSORED BY 2024 HALIFAX JUNO HOST COMMITTEE

Get your free ticket to JUNO Block Party

The JUNO Block Party is a concert-style showcase featuring a diverse range of Canadian talent and emerging artists. For three electrifying nights, fans will be able to experience unforgettable performances by some of their favourite musicians and JUNO-nominated artists at Foundation North Parking Lot in a giant tent. The JUNO Block Party is free to attend, but a ticket is required for entry. Tickets here.

🗓️ Things To Do

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

🗓 Anna Maria Tremonti at Dal: The longtime national news reporter speaks about “unbraiding shame, blame and pain” and surviving an abusive marriage during a special guest lecture at Dalhousie’s Student Union Building tonight | Mar. 20 | 7-8:30pm | Free

🗓 The Wall Between: Authors Jeffrey Wilkinson and Raja Khouri speak at King’s about their latest book, What Jews and Palestinians Don’t Want to Know About Each Other. Wilkinson is a self-described “American Jew in Canada” who writes about the Israel/Palestine conflict, while Khouri is the founder of the Canadian Arab Institute | Mar. 21 | 7pm | Free

🗓 Allison Russell & Aysanabee: The JUNO-nominated singer-songwriters visit Halifax’s Light House Arts Centre for a show this Thursday | Mar. 21 | 8pm | From $44.45

🗓 Punks for Unhoused Haligonians: Catch local artists Customer Service, Postfun, Pavel Stroke and Bill Ricky perform a benefit concert for Mobile Outreach Street Health this Thursday | Mar. 21 | 8pm | $8 advance, $12 at door

Find more Halifax events in The Coast listings.

⚓️ What’s In The Harbour

🚢 The 294-metre-long MSC Shristi container ship is due in Halifax between 3am and 6:15am from Sines, Portugal. It departs for Montreal by 6pm.

🚢 The 159,614-tonne CMA CGM Symi container ship is expected to arrive in Halifax between 4:30 and 5:45am. It’s inbound from Tanger Med, Morocco, and heads onward to New York at 11pm.

🚢 The East Coast oil tanker is slated to reach Dartmouth’s Irving Oil Terminal around 7:40am. It arrives from Saint John, NB.

🚢 The 193-metre-long Oceanex Sanderling ro-ro/cargo ship is due in Halifax around 10am from St. John’s, NL.

🍴 Where To Eat & Drink

🍽️ Halifax’s Highwayman has a cold-smoked salmon with crème fraîche, poached raisins and shaved fennel and watercress that even Gordon Ramsay would have to smile at.

🌯 The Halifax Brewery Market’s da’banhmi is getting buzz for its generous Vietnamese sandwiches and spring rolls.

🍝 Peggy’s Cove’s Rhubarb Restaurant makes a tasty-looking pappardelle ragu with goat cheese and dill pickle.

👀 In Case You Missed It

🎵 In yesterday’s Coast Daily newsletter, we brought you the story of one of the fastest-rising stars in Canadian music—and how his path began with a near-death experience on a frozen river.

🐟 A group of Dalhousie students is fighting to raise awareness about an endangered fish species found only in Nova Scotia.

That’s it!

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