🗞️ Wine about it

Happy Monday Halifax,

Brace yourself for the shock of a lifetime. Are you sitting down? 

The Halifax police actually arrested men for assaulting women, and it only took them the better part of a year to do it 🤯

On June 23 of last year, Emma MacLean and her girlfriend Tori were attacked by a group of young men in the early morning hours on Argyle Street. What started as taunting and homophobic slurs escalated to the women being knocked to the ground, punched and kicked.

You can read all about that in more detail here ⬇️

When The Coast reached out to police to request an interview about the attack (AKA hate crime) in early July, Const. Anne Giffin said: “The incident remains under investigation.” Then, on August 21, new chief of police Don MacLean said in an interview with CTV that the investigation into the assault is ongoing, but he anticipates it will wrap up “soon” and arrests would be imminent.

He also took the time to explain that despite having video of the attack and multiple IDs through social media, the investigation was far too complicated for us mere mortals to be able to understand.

And now it’s March—and while chief MacLean took serious liberties with the word “soon”—arrests were finally made on Friday. Police laid charges against two adults and three youth for the attack.

On this assignment, I’m giving HRP the highest grade I’ve ever given them: C- ⭐

Have a great day out there!

– Julie

📷 @editorjulesl

🌡️ Traffic & Weather

Today: 🌨️ 3°

Tomorrow: 🌤️ 6°

Next Day: 🌤️ 6°

7-day forecast

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

NEWS

Driven to drink by Trump? Start here.

It’s mind-numbing trying to keep up with Don Trump’s tariff moves. The US president is a trade terrorist, and negotiating with terrorists is something rational people avoid if possible. To their great credit, Canadian premiers are stepping off the Trump roller coaster and going ahead with various measures to show America we most definitely have cards to play in a trade war.

Closest to home, kudos to premier Time Houston and the NSLC for taking US booze off the shelves last week, no matter where we are in Trump’s on-again, off-again attack on Canadian products. For us citizen bystanders to the chaos of international trade negotiations, the liquor store is a good place to be for a really good reason—buying Nova Scotian is a way to strike a blow for Canada in the trade war.

Buying local doesn’t mean sacrificing quality, either. Nova Scotians already know that local beer, cider and ready-to-drink cocktails (things like Blue Lobster vodka soda) are great—we drink more local and Canadian versions in all these categories than American and international versions. But when it comes to wine, we still choose the import over Canadian.

The Coast’s Kyle Shaw went on a patriotic shopping mission to find three picks—a white, a red and something bubbly—to turn you on to Nova Scotian wine.

🤔 Need To Know

💸 Facing increasing pressure to do more to address intimate-partner violence, the provincial government announced $23.7M for transition houses—the money will be distributed to the province’s 10 transition houses, which last year provided temporary shelter and services for 3,500 women and children fleeing violence.

🌱 Spend your summer gaining paid work experience in the clean economy with the Clean Leadership Summer Internship Program! Apply by March 10 at cleanfoundation.ca.*

🇨🇦 Mark Carney has been elected as the new Liberal leader—winning decisively on the first ballot with 85.9% of the vote.

*Sponsored Post

SEX + DATING

Haligonians share their worst dates

If you’ve been following the drama from the latest Love Is Blind season, you’ll have been reminded of one of life’s near-certainties: The people we date are full of surprises. (And they ain’t always pretty.) The TikTok talk of LIB contestant Ben’s alleged history of leaving business cards behind after his hook-ups wouldn’t even hold a candle next to some of the stories you shared with us in our 17th annual Sex + Dating Survey, though.

Hundreds of Coast readers filled out this year’s survey, spilling the tea on bedroom blunders, secret sexual fantasies and dating disasters. And the responses to our prompt, “Tell us a story of your worst date or hookup,” elicited a flood of replies that are too good to keep to ourselves.

🗞️ In Other News

🚨 Halifax police have arrested a fifth person in connection with the homicide of Devon Sinclair Marsman—40-year-old Mark Douglas Robert Doyle was taken into custody on Thursday morning. 

🚢 The Department of National Defence has awarded an $8B deal to Irving Shipbuilding to start building three new destroyers for the Royal Canadian Navy.

👔 MetroWorks—a Nova Scotia non-profit organization that operated for nearly five decades—has closed after filing for bankruptcy on March 6.

🏛️ Nova Scotia's newest member of the Senate is former provincial Liberal MLA Tony Ince—he'll be the second African Nova Scotian on the Senate, joining Sen. Wanda Thomas Bernard, who was appointed in 2016.

🗓️ Things To Do

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

🗓 Oodles of Noodles: Explore the noodles of the world with the only celebration of noodles in town! Discover all the tasty noodle dishes that the chefs on Quinpool Road have created. | March 5-11

🗓 March Break Family Tours at Halifax Citadel National Historic Site: Join a special winter guided tour of the historic Halifax Citadel with your family or small group—up to 12 participants per tour. Discover how the British soldiers lived in the 19th-century fort and how they survived the cold Halifax winters. Time your tour with the noon gun and experience a Halifax tradition! | March 10-14 | 11am | $67.85

🗓 Little Shop of Horrors Presented by Neptune Theatre: Feed me Seymour! Seymour is an awkward young man living in a tough part of town. He is broke and works for a cranky old man at a flower shop. Seymour is in love with a local girl named Audrey. One day, after a meteor shower, he discovers a talking plant that he names Audrey II, but soon finds out the plant is an alien that wants to eat human beings. | Opening night March 11 | 7:30pm | Pay what you can

🗓 Opera Kitchen Party Divas Edition: Bunni Lapin, Halifax's own diva-extraordinaire, will host an all-women cast to perform the best opera arias alongside music from your favourite contemporary divas. This is sure to be an unforgettable night of music, games, prizes and opera shenanigans! | March 12 | 7:30pm | $30

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

⚓️ What’s In The Harbour

➡️ The CMA CGM Hermes container ship leaves Halifax for New York at 3am.

🚢➡️ The Atlantic Star container ship arrives in Halifax from Liverpool at 5:20am and leaves for New York at 4pm.

🚢➡️ The CMA CGM Paranagua container ship arrives in Halifax from Montreal at 6:15am and leaves for Bremerhaven, Germany at 8pm.

🚢➡️ The MSV Veracruz container ship arrives in Halifax from Montreal at 6:15am and leaves for London at 11pm.

🚢 The Tropic Lissette container ship arrives in Halifax from Philadelphia at 6:15am.

➡️ The Acadian oil tanker leaves Halifax for Saint John at 8pm.

🍴 Where To Eat & Drink

🌶️ There’s a new flavour-packed appetizer on the menu at 2 Doors Down and it’s General Tao’s Brussels Sprouts: sweet and spicy sprouts, green peppers, sesame, scallions, cilantro, onion.

🍳 Breakfast + lasagna = match made in heaven, and it’s on special now at The Cheeky Neighbour Diner: layers of pasta, breakfast sausage bolognese and scrambled eggs.

👀 In Case You Missed It

👾 Coast reporter Martin Bauman ventured down Quinpool Road recently to visit a company office that doesn’t exist. He went there in search of a group of people who, despite The Coast’s best efforts to prove otherwise, don’t appear to exist either. Or at the very least, a mounting pile of evidence suggests they are not who they claim to be. Which is troubling, because they claim to be journalists and writers working in Halifax. So began a rabbit-hole chase that would stretch from a business park in Finland all the way to Canada’s West Coast, and include dire warnings from AI experts and researchers alike. And as Bauman reports, that is only the beginning of the story.

💰 Last week, the province’s top watchdog, Auditor General Kim Adair, released her report on government funding to universities. Looking back on the last five years, it called the province’s primary funding methods “arbitrary” and “unrestricted,” which could threaten the long-term sustainability of Nova Scotia’s 10 degree-granting institutions. The Coast’s Lauren Phillips examines the new audit's goals and recommendations, and discusses what universities should do next.

That’s it!

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