Halifax Magazine Jan/Feb 2019

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On our cover The Savour Food & Wine Festival returns, celebrating Nova Scotian food, wine, and beer.

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CONTENTS

Vol. 19 No. 1 | January/February 2019

PHOTO: KELLY NEIL

PHOTO: BRUCE MURRAY/VISIONFIRE

14

36

33

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FEATURES

DEPARTMENTS

14 | “IF I GIVE UP, THOSE SISTERS WILL WIN” One woman shares her story of surviving the notorious Shubenacadie Residential School

7 | EDITOR’S MESSAGE History is always about choices. What we choose to celebrate, what we choose to omit.

Those choices say a lot about us

17 | IS IT TIME FOR UBER? Unless you’re travelling during off-peak hours, it’s notoriously hard to get a taxi in Halifax. But are ride-hailing services the solution?

8 | CONTRIBUTORS Meet the writers and photographers who work on Halifax Magazine

33 | SAVOUR THE MOMENT Sixteen years on, Nova Scotia’s biggest food and beverage festival returns with new offering 36 | SAFE HARBOUR As Halifax grows, it provides a future for an industry-leading tech company and its founders

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13 | ENTERTAINMENT Singer Dan Mangan, a new exhibition at the Craig Gallery, violin virtuoso Elina Vähälä, and more—this winter’s hottest entertainment events 38 | OPINION: THANKFUL ALL YEAR A holiday with a local family sparks thoughts of a better world

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stories?

9 | CITYSCAPE Your neighbours have to look at your house, so why not let them choose the colour? Plus: the Mellotones mark a generation in music, and how the VON does good in Halifax

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EDITOR’S MESSAGE

What’s coming up Halifax is a wonderful city but as we’ve not quite achieved perfection yet, there are some things we can improve this year. Here are a few subjects Halifax Magazine will pursue in 2019.

Road safety. Let’s start having a grown-up conversation and accept a couple oft-ignored facts. Pedestrians and drivers don’t have an equal stake in this. As countless studies show, the notion of the iPhone-entranced pedestrian staggering blindly into traffic is largely a myth. Driver-inattention causes the majority of accidents, not reckless pedestrians. Pedestrians never kill drivers.

Inattentive pedestrians endanger only themselves. Inattentive, unskilled, dangerous drivers endanger everyone around them.

We’re not going to make meaningful progress on road safety until we stop deluding ourselves and absorb these simple truths.

Bonus: Let’s also do a refresher on red lights and how it’s not OK to run them just because you really want to make a left turn.

Affordable housing. Halifax has ludicrously low rental vacancy rate of 1.6%, which means if you’re looking for an apartment and aren’t wealthy, you pretty much have to take what you can get. But what about all that new construction? Solid question. Look at the billboards: almost every one says “luxury” apartment. Halifax doesn’t just need more housing, it needs more affordable housing.

Kim Hart Macneill is already digging into this issue; look for her report in Halifax Magazine in the spring.

Transit. Transit is intertwined with the housing issue. When affordable housing is scarce, people are often forced to live far from where they work or study. This means they either get a car that they can’t really afford or they lose hours a day waiting for buses. More cars are not what Halifax needs. Even if tomorrow we started building swaths of affordable housing, that fix takes time, so the first and most effective step we can take is to double down on fast, efficient, and reliable transit. We’ve made some good moves in that direction with new and improved bus routes.

We need to do more and we need to do it faster.

Our city can’t grow if a big segment of our population is hamstrung by ineffective transportation.

Council. The next municipal election is still a couple years away, but it’s never too soon to start thinking about it. Is Council providing effective leadership? Are Councillors staying true to their principles and promises? Is

Mayor Mike Savage leading Halifax to be all it can be?

Immigration. Every day, more newcomers arrive in Halifax. This means that sometimes people will wish you “Happy holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.” You will have neighbours who don’t necessarily share all your personal beliefs and philosophies. There will be a growing demand for food, art, and culture that you don’t recognize. And this is good. Diverse cities have stronger economies and more vibrant arts scenes; newcomers make cities better for everyone. So we’ll keep telling the stories of the people transforming Halifax. To that end, we recently invited Marianne Simon (who comes to Halifax from Port Blair, India) to join our team as an opinion columnist. See her latest work on page 38.

And what’s on your wish list for Halifax?

What stories do you think we should focus on in 2019? Email tadams@metroguide.ca and share your thoughts.

PHOTO: TAMMY FANCY

BY TREVOR J. ADAMS

tadams@metroguide.ca Halifax Magazine @HalifaxEditor @HalifaxMagazine

CORRECTION: In the print edition of the story “Government for the people” (Nov. 2018), Jackie Barkhouse’s name was omitted from the section “Systematic racism and sexism,” due to an editing error. She is also a founding member of Equity Watch. Halifax Magazine regrets the omissions.

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CONTRIBUTORS RICHARD WOODBURY “Is it time for Uber?”

Richard is a writer and editor from Halifax whose work has been published by CBC, Reuters, and the Chronicle Herald. richardwoodbury.ca

MARIANNE SIMON “There’s no place like home” Marianne is a freelance writer and subeditor and has published many children’s stories, articles and poems in magazines and newspapers. Her interests include teaching and conducting Englishconversation classes. mariannesimon777@gmail.com

KIM HART MACNEILL “Savour the moment” Kim is a freelance journalist and editor of East Coast Living. Read her beer column on HalifaxMag.com. @kimhartmacneill

ROSS ANDERSEN Cityscape A freelance journalist based in Halifax, Ross previously studied journalism at the University of King’s College and in Oakville at Sheridan College.

His beats range from music to community news and everything in between.

CHRIS BENJAMIN “If I give up, those sisters will win” A freelance journalist and editor, Benjamin is the author of three award-winning fiction and nonfiction books plus short stories published in journals and anthologies across Canada. He is managing editor of Atlantic Books Today.

MARGO GRANT Cityscape Margo is a freelance editor and graphic designer.

She has a keen interest in urban planning and has served on the Halifax Heritage, Regional Plan, and Peninsula Planning advisory committees. She also plays euphonium in Halifax and Dartmouth concert bands.

BRUCE MURRAY Photography for “Is it time for Uber” and “Safe harbour” Bruce Murray has been creating food and lifestyle photography for more than 20 years in the Maritimes and in his original studio in Vancouver.

He delivers compelling images to a diverse clientele. visionfire.ca @VisionFire

AVERY MULLEN “Safe harbour” Avery is a student at the University of King’s College and freelance journalist with a focus on business and technology. Find him on Twitter @ mullenreporting.

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CITYSCAPE COMMUNITY

Point of view switcheroo

PHOTO: MARGO GRANT

BY MARGO GRANT

Those of us who live in dense urban neighbourhoods don’t have much choice about what we see when we look out of our windows. The houses and yards that surround us are pretty much it.

If we’re lucky, the properties are wellmaintained and there are trees and shrubbery to buffer any unpleasantness. At worst, we contend with unsightly premises.

More often, it’s just plain blandness.

If you happen to have a neighbour like Kate Moon, it’s a different story. Moon is a community developer with Halifax Regional Municipality. Have you seen those mandala-painted intersections and laneways around town? That’s some of her work.

She organizes community-building events that get folks of all ages out meeting their neighbours, tapping their creative veins, and hatching friendly new co-operative networks.

Participants in these events brainstorm and collaborate on how best to express the essence of their neighbourhood with paint on asphalt. The result is some pretty

colourful streets, not to mention congenial relationships.

Moon recently offered something like this shared-experience approach to her own neighbours. She owns a circa-1940 house in Central Halifax, which was a ho-hum white with dark green trim when she bought it eight years ago.

For an unorthodox person like Moon, that just would not do. But money was tight, so she made a four-year plan, in which one side would be finished each year. She started with the back; it became olive green with red, yellow, orange, blue, and purple trim around the windows and doors.

Cathy and Dale Hirtle’s back yard faces this side of Moon’s property. They were dubious about the colour scheme. “The kids like it,” said Dale.

The following year, the front of the house got a relatively staid treatment of khaki green with cream trim, but with a concession to artiness through purple bannisters and burnt orange doors. Moon’s not completely happy with this combo and wants to redo it.

This year, however, it was third time

lucky. She decided to let the neighbours to her north choose the paint colours for that side of her house. (Full disclosure: that’s my husband and me.)

“You have to look at it all the time,” Moon told us. “You should get to choose what colour it is.”

For the past few years, the view through our kitchen’s large window had featured a rather dingy, peeling expanse of Moon’s house, as well as our next-door neighbour’s crazy-quilt of a back yard (but that’s another story.) We spend a lot of time in our kitchen and looking out of this window, so, to us, this magnanimous offer was gold.

We chose the new palette based on what we liked, and what we thought would appeal to Moon’s unconventional taste.

She’s as delighted as we are with the result.

Now we all anticipate ourselves toasting neighbourly co-operation on our back deck a little more often.

tadams@metroguide.ca Halifax Magazine @HalifaxEditor @HalifaxMagazine

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 halifaxmag.com | 9

CITYSCAPE PITCH

VON Greater Halifax

In this space, Halifax Magazine shares the story of non-profit organizations and community groups working to build a better city. If you’d like to suggest an organization to feature, email tadams@metroguide.ca.

VON Greater Halifax is a part of VON Canada, Canada’s largest not-for profit charitable home and community-care organization. In addition to our high-quality in-home nursing services, we also offer six community-support programs throughout HRM and Windsor.

We work with staff, clients and families, and over 150 caring volunteers to keep seniors as independent as possible, so that they may remain in their own homes. We offer an assisted transportation program so that seniors may attend medical appointments or go grocery shopping; we provide meals delivered directly to the door so that seniors can eat healthily.

We offer a Volunteer Visiting program, whereby caring volunteers are paired with a lonely, isolated senior to provide friendship. Through our partnership with the Department of Seniors we provide a Senior Safety Program, helping seniors to address their safety concerns.

Finally, we offer respite to caregivers of those with memory or functional difficulties through our Breakaway Adult Day Program. Their family members can enjoy an afternoon out in a safe, stimulating environment.

To learn more, donate, or volunteer, contact 902-454-5755 or von.ca.

MUSIC

A band of brothers

BY ROSS ANDERSEN

For two decades, the Mellotones have been bringing high-energy funk to Halifax audiences.

10 | halifaxmag.com JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

When Jeffery Mosher was a first-year music student at Dalhousie University, pursuing a career in the competitive music industry seemed far-fetched.

His classmates felt the same way in the late ‘90s, when making ends meet through music seemed near impossible. But some of them were starting to earn a few hundred bucks on the side playing gigs with a new band called Tony Smith and The Mellotones.

Mosher was barely old enough to get behind the wheel of a car when he first saw the band. It was in the late fall of ‘97 during a matinee performance at the long-closed Blues Corner bar. Tony Smith and The Mellotones had just formed one of their first shows. Even some of the musicians’ parents showed up.

“At that point, I knew it was exactly what I wanted to do with my life,” says Mosher.

Tony Smith, a Halifax vocalist with more than two decades of music experience over his band mates, fronted the ensemble. “Tony was like a father figure to us at the time,” says trumpeter and vocalist Jody Lyne. “He’s the one who started everything,” It didn’t take long for the high-energy funk band to gain attention. From weekly

bar gigs to playing university campuses, they soon became one of the city’s most popular party bands. They got their reputation by digging up funk and soul tunes from the past, digging into the catalogues of artists like Otis Redding to Marvin Gaye.

After a couple years of gigging, and an invitation for a few cameo appearances by Mosher and his keyboard-playing brother Ian, it was finally his opportunity to join the band. He’s playing with those same classmates 21 years later.

Their last public show as Tony Smith and The Mellotones was at the Marquee Ballroom in December 2001. Smith then went to pursue other projects, including forming another band called Soul Finesse.

He still keeps in touch with Mellotones.

Twenty years later and after some band shuffles, it still surprises him how far The Mellotones have come as an established eight-piece band. They’ve made successful careers from performing and became music teachers. Bassist Mike Farrington teaches private lessons; Lyne is a full-time

band director at Bedford Academy and instructs an R&B ensemble at Nova Scotia Community College.

“Everything I do is music, and I’ve always wanted to make sure that’s how it was always going to be,” said Lyne.

Thursday nights are a ritual for the band.

For the past 15 years of weekly Thursday night performances, many of the venues where the band played have either shut down or changed locations.

The now-gone Thirsty Duck, Hell’s Kitchen, and Stage Nine were all regular venues. According to Lyne, he’s able to count on two hands how many Thursday performances he’s ever missed.

“We’re a band of brothers, both literally and figuratively,” Lyne says. “We see each other three or four times a week; everything we do is together.” Most of them met their girlfriends or future wives at these shows, so those shows have become more meaningful, he adds The Mellotones have gone from touring cross-country with New Brunswick bluesman Matt Andersen, to playing a

Thanksgiving show at the legendary Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto, and more recently, performing a soft-seater at Neptune Theatre. Playing at Atlantic Canada’s biggest theatre was a first for the band.

Being the longest playing weekly band in Halifax, Mosher thanks fans for how far they’ve come.

There’s no secret as to why the music is so popular. The work of songwriters like Marvin Gaye and Wilson Pickett is timeless and that’s why it resonates just as much today as it did then. “Halifax has done a great job in supporting the entertainment industry, and we’re grateful for that,” says Mosher.

tadams@metroguide.ca Halifax Magazine @HalifaxEditor @HalifaxMagazine

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ENTERTAINMENT The hottest things to see and do in Halifax this winter

JANUARY 11 & 12

LIVE ART DANCE With Man, Norwegian choreographer Sølvi Edvardsen marries his Nordic culture with the vibrancy of Southeast Asia. Live Art presents Indian dancer Sudesh Adhana in a unique and provocative solo performance at the Dalhousie Arts Centre on University Avenue. He explores the concept of “man” in terms of masculinity and humanity as a whole. liveartdance.ca

JANUARY 12

NOVA SCOTIA MASS CHOIR Every year, the Nova Scotia Mass Choir honours the work of Martin Luther King Jr. with The Dream Continues, a special concert at the Dalhousie Arts Centre featuring a selection of established and rising local musical talents performing music to stir the soul. artscentre.dal.ca

PHOTO: ADAMS PHOTOGRAPHY

JANUARY 24

DAN MANGAN From festival to solo shows, two-time Juno winner Dan Mangan is always a Halifax favourite. See the West Coast indie-rock singer/songwriter this time in the cozy confines of the Marquee Ballroom on Gottingen Street. sonicconcerts.com

FEBRUARY 24

CECILIA CONCERT SERIES Halifax pianist Marc Djokic returns to his hometown stage at the Maritime Conservatory of Performing Arts on Chebucto Road to join forces with Trio Tangere. Cecilia Concert Series presents the matinee concert, featuring works by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Astor Piazzolla, Claude Debussy, Christine Donkin, Matthias Maute, Béla Bartók, and Clarice Assad. ceciliaconcerts.ca

Trio Tangere

FEBRUARY 7 TO MARCH 3

THE CRAIG GALLERY

Elina Vähälä

JANUARY 24

Visit the gallery at Alderney Landing in Dartmouth, where the Halifax Transit ferries dock, to discover art in a variety of media by talents from around the region. In February, it hosts Cellular Expressions, an exhibition of paintings and drawings by Maria Doering. alderneylanding.com/gallery/

SYMPHONY NOVA SCOTIA A very busy month for the Symphony continues with a treat for classic purists, as Finnish violin sensation Elina Vähälä joins the Symphony at the Dalhousie Arts Centre for Superb Sibelius and Great Schubert. Simon Rivard conducts an ambitious program that climaxes with Schubert’s majestic final symphony The Great. symphonynovascotia.ca

tadams@metroguide.ca

Halifax Magazine

@HalifaxEditor @HalifaxMagazine

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 halifaxmag.com | 13

| FEATURE |

“If I give up, those Sisters will win” ONE WOMAN SHARES HER STORY OF SURVIVING THE NOTORIOUS SHUBENACADIE RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL AS TOLD TO CHRIS BENJAMIN BY IRENE BERNADETTE EISENHOWER

TRIGGER WARNING: This article contains strong language and references to sexual assault and violence that may be triggering to survivors.

More than a year ago a librarian contacted me saying a reader of my book, Indian School Road: Legacies of the Shubenacadie Residential School, wanted to share her own story of surviving Nova Scotia’s residential school, which operated from 1930 until 1967. I’ve met with Bernadette several times since to listen and occasionally ask a question. Her story is shocking; her survival and courage inspiring.

Below are her words, edited for length and chronology.

At the end of the summer of 1961, when I was five, my mother was doing our laundry and packing. She was crying. She said, “You’re going to be put in this school where they’re going to feed you.”

My brothers and sister and I planned to run and hide in the woods. But when they came, we panicked and ran off in different directions. They grabbed us and took us onto the bus.

At the school, the Sisters and priests made us stand in line, girls on one side, boys on the other.

Sister Lilberta lectured us.

“Welcome. If any of you try to run away you will be severely disciplined. If we see you trying to talk to a cousin or brother on the boy’s side, you will be disciplined.

“If you try to speak your own language, you will be disciplined.

Your language is gibberish.

“You are here to be civilized. You are savages. Monkeys are smarter than you people.

“Even though you will be educated here, don’t think you’re going to be better than white people. We are the ones in power.

“You are here because your parents are uneducated alcoholics

14 | halifaxmag.com JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

and can’t afford to feed you. You’re going to have your meals and we’re going to clothe you and shelter your.”

They gave us a taste of what we were in for. They made us put our hands out and strapped them.

We were marched into the school. I wanted to look back at my brothers but I couldn’t.

An older girl was made to give me a bath. She scrubbed me with this four-inch brush with thick bristles.

I said, “That hurts, stop it!”

She said, “Sister told me I have to do it.”

I bit her.

A Sister came in and said, “We can’t tell if you people are clean or not. Your skin is so dark.”

We went into the other room where all the sinks were, older girls on one side and younger girls on the other, no clothes on. We all got another strapping, ten times on each hand.

They checked our heads for lice. Someone put a bowl over my head and cut the hair around it.

At supper was the first time I had beets. I put one in my mouth and felt sick. I threw up in my plate.

The Sister came over and grabbed me by my ear and pulled me so I was a few feet off the chair. She said, “You ungrateful little savage. Eat that.”

I tried to eat it again, even with the vomit. I threw up again. She made me apologize to the cook and gave me 10 strappings on the hand.

YEARS OF ABUSE You could be as good as gold and you still get a strapping or your ears pulled or your nose pulled. My fingertips started to get bruised and bleeding and had pus and were covered in sores.

There was this other girl who knew how to speak Mi’kmaw very

PHOTO: CHRIS BENJAMIN

Outside the now-derelict school building, a memorial remember what students endured.

well. She said, “We shouldn’t forget our language.” She said some words to me.

The Sister caught us and took us into the bathroom, strapped us and stuck a big bar of soap in our mouths. They wanted us to forget our language and anything about our culture.

We had to say our rosaries and prayers every morning, noon, and night. If you twitched they’d use a long ruler and whack you across the legs or your back.

From the first night I was there, somebody always managed to get their hands underneath my blanket and sexually touch me. I would wrap myself up in the sheets as tight as I could but this did not stop the abuse.

I used to screech. The nuns would come running and ask who screamed. I would tell them it was me and receive the strap.

There were three teenaged girls who sexually abused me in the bathroom stall during the daytimes. The first one asked me to come in there and I thought she was going to tell me something important.

She pulled me to have sex with her down below. I didn’t like the smell and I knew it wasn’t right. I bit her.

She punched me in the stomach. I almost lost my breath.

My older sister found out what was going on and she and a friend went after them. A Sister found out but I wouldn’t tell. I felt ashamed, like it was my fault. At no point did the school do anything to stop what was happening.

SICKNESS AND ESCAPE Around March 1967 I came down with German measles. There was snow outside.

I was in the dormitory in my pyjamas by myself. I thought, “If I go outside and put my bare feet in the snow I could get sicker.” That was a way out of the school.

I snuck down the stairs. I rubbed my feet in the snow as long as I could and got my feet so cold I could stand no more. I didn’t want to die, just to get sick, but I was saying goodbye to the fresh air and snow just in case.

The following night my temperature went so high, I must have been hallucinating. I saw what looked like a demon, hands folded, fingernails sharp, and looking down at me.

I ran and I fell and rolled down the stairs, screeching. I blacked out.

Everybody in school thought I died that night. I was in a coma for a long time.

When I woke, I was in a Truro hospital room. I’d had a terrible nightmare, again about a terrifying demon, and I was determined to get out of there. I swung myself onto the floor. I tried to get up on my feet and couldn’t. My legs were like jelly.

I slithered like a snake to the door and pulled it open. The doctors and nurses said, “How did you get out of that bed?” They’d thought I’d never wake up.

They were so happy and I was afraid of them because they were white. I felt ugly and ashamed. I could hear the voices of the nuns in my head: “You’re no good, ugly, stupid; you’ll never be better than a white person.”

I had to use a wheelchair and progressed to walking with crutches and braces on my leg, and I eventually learned to walk again. I had to learn everything all over again, how to count, the colours, ABCs. At this time the federal government started investigating the school. The Sisters called us all in the recreation room and said, “We want you children to put on a good front when these important people come.”

The government people came around and I whispered to one of the women, “They’re hurting us.”

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 halifaxmag.com | 15

| FEATURE |

I still wanted to run away. This girl whispered to me, “I did the lockup. I left a door open downstairs.”

I snuck down the hill to the bank of the Shubenacadie River and made a run for it. The water looked so clear. I got halfway down the riverbank and started sinking in the mud. It was like quicksand.

A lot of students tried to run away from that school, God bless their souls; they tried to swim across there too. I could have been one of the victims in that river. But something told me, “Don’t panic.

Just roll.”

I got down and reached for a branch sticking out from up the riverbank. I dug in with my fingernails. It hurt like hell and it was cold.

I pulled myself up and said, “Thank you God.” I was covered with muck but I was free.

I went to a house and convinced the woman there to drive me to the edge of the reserve, where I had a friend I used to play with.

She let me spend the night.

When I went home to tell my mother I ran away from school, she said, “You got to go back.”

But the next day I heard the school was closing down.

TEEN YEARS The sexual abuse left me feeling ashamed, guilty and confused.

I had nightmares for 30 years.

I first discovered alcohol in my mother’s house. Pills and alcohol made me forget and helped me sleep.

My mother didn’t want me or my older sister around at all, because Mum was with this younger man and we were growing into young women. She started putting me into foster homes. I was about 14, in Mount Uniacke on a farmhouse. There was an older boy there who tried to sexually abuse me.

I took some Aspirin and wine and ran into the woods. When they found me I threatened to kill myself and they put me in the NS [psychiatric hospital] for 14 months.

They wanted to do some electric-shock treatments to make me forget the school and stop my nightmares. I said no way.

I went home when I was 15. Then I was being abused by my stepfather, my mother, my brothers. I didn’t feel safe, especially when my parents had parties. Drunken old men would try to get at me. Many times I had to sleep in the field or under the steps to avoid them, and I was terrified of the dark from the Shubenacadie school.

I went to Halifax and stayed at the [Mi’kmaw Friendship] Centre and tried to go to school. I had my first job at a restaurant on Bayers Road as a dishwasher.

It was hard working with non-natives. Sometimes I would put powder on my face to try and make myself look white.

more ashamed of myself, told me I must have enjoyed the abuse and called me a stupid squaw.

My children heard him. I said, “Don’t you listen to him. You’re worthy. Don’t feel ashamed.”

I finally opened up to a doctor and told her about my history.

She wanted me to put my babies in a home until I got better. I refused.

But seeing the doctor was giving me confidence. I’d experienced so much abuse I thought it was normal. She told me to get away from my husband.

One day I came home and told him, “Get the hell get out. I don’t want you in my life. I need to get better.”

He was having an affair for five years. I was working, trying to take care of my children. He got me fired from a couple jobs. He wanted me to depend on him.

When I finally left he still didn’t leave me alone. I was in the middle of the process of getting a residential-school settlement from the federal government. I think that’s why he was trying to hang on to me.

He died of cancer in 2002. I was glad but I also drank a lot before I realized I couldn’t go down that road again.

I prayed. It released the hate and anger and helped me get better.

Nowadays people are trying to find their own ways of praying. I light candles. When I’ve gone to church I look at the priests and say, “You phonies.”

The other thing that turned my life around is my work looking after people. I took courses and worked in long-term care in Dartmouth, then at Victoria Hall on Gottingen Street for three years and afterward at Shannex for three years.

It’s a good feeling when women and men you’re taking care of thank you and tell you how good and kind you are. The appreciation and love, that’s helping me to have more self-respect.

It was harder when I was caring for nuns. When they first sent me over to the Motherhouse in Bedford I said, “Are you kidding me?” One of the people in care was a Sister who had been at the school while I was there. I prayed: “Let me be kind to these people.”

My first client was this Sister. When I walked into the room she said, “Evil just came to the door.”

I said, “Do you want me to pray with you?”

She had a little dementia. I had to go along with it. I said some prayers with her and I said, “How can I help you?”

I have taken care of several Sisters and some priests as well. I would look at them and think of my brothers. I wanted to call them phonies and dirty pigs. But you can’t. Just like I don’t want to be called a savage or squaw.

I do private care now, looking after a man who can’t walk, talk, or feed himself. That reminds me of the helplessness I felt when I was in the Shubenacadie school. It’s a healing process for me.

I’ve talked to my children about my experiences at the school. If I was mean to them in any way they understand and forgive. We have a good relationship. I don’t feel ugly or ashamed of myself anymore.

There are times I want to give up my job, go back to drinking.

But if I give up, those Sisters will win. They said we were no good, we’d never be anybody. I know I’m somebody.

I PRAYED. IT RELEASED THE HATE AND ANGER AND HELPED ME GET BETTER.

MARRIAGE AND AFTERWARD I met my husband of 28 years—another abusive man—at the old Misty Moon. We had two baby girls and a baby boy.

I told my husband about the Shubenacadie school. I was about five months pregnant. I woke up one night on top of him, twisting his nose around. I’d dreamt a Sister was twisting my nose and I was fighting back.

He threw me off of him, said, “What the fuck are you doing, you bitch?”

When I opened up to him he used it against me, made me feel

16 | halifaxmag.com JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

tadams@metroguide.ca

Halifax Magazine

@HalifaxEditor @HalifaxMagazine

| FEATURE |

IS IT TIME FOR

UBER?

HALIGONIANS HAVE LONG BEEN FRUSTRATED WITH THE CITY’S TAXI SERVICE, BUT IS RIDE-HAILING THE ANSWER?

PHOTO: BRUCE MURRAY/VISIONFIRE

BY RICHARD WOODBURY

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 halifaxmag.com | 17

PHOTO: BRUCE MURRAY/VISIONFIRE

| FEATURE |

While many Haligonians have stories about dozens of fruitless calls to taxi companies, Halifax Regional Municipality Taxi Association president Dave Buffett says the industry “works pretty well for the most part.”

It

was a cold and miserable night when Emily Dexter found herself in a situation a lot of Haligonians have experienced: she couldn’t get a cab. Dexter and some friends were at the Marquee Ballroom on Gottingen Street and tried to leave at around 2 a.m. on a Sunday.

“The weather was awful,” she recalls. “It was raining. You’re standing outside. There’s nowhere to go and you couldn’t get a cab and the buses weren’t running at this time of night, so it was really super frustrating.” Dexter’s phone log revealed 32 calls to Casino Taxi, none of which got through. Frustrated at her inability to get a cab, she and her friends headed in opposite directions and walked.

It took Dexter about 25 minutes to get home.

Dexter’s cab woes actually began earlier in the evening when she and her friends tried to get to the Marquee. She says calls to Casino Taxi and Yellow Cab also went answered. Even attempts to use taxi companies’ apps proved fruitless.

Later that day, Dexter posted an image of the call log to Twitter and explained her situation. She says this wasn’t the first time she’s had a hard time getting a cab in the city. “They just aren’t available when you need them,” she says. “They don’t prepare themselves for the busy nights. They know it’s going to be a busy night and they don’t have extra cabs out on the street.”

It’s experiences like this that has Dexter clamouring to have Uber in the city. The web-based ride-hailing service allows people to book rides using an app. Before selecting a driver, users can see how they’ve been rated by other riders. As well, because the user fills in where they’re headed, the fare is calculated and the rider knows how much they’ll be paying. No cash changes hands; payment is via credit /debit card through the app.

A survey released in August 2018 by Corporate Research Associates suggests many Haligonians feel like Dexter does. The 18 | halifaxmag.com JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

survey suggests 67 per cent of Halifax residents support having ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft. The telephone survey included 400 residents and is considered accurate to plus or minus 4.9 percentage points, 95 out of 100 times.

At present, Uber isn’t outlawed, but licensing and regulation requirements prevent it from getting a foothold. Cabbies need two things to be in business: a taxi driver licence (the number of which isn’t limited by the city) and a taxi owner licence (which is capped at 1,000 and all are in use). “This licence is what permits a vehicle to have a roof light,” writes city spokesperson Erin DiCarlo in an email.

There’s a waitlist of 800 people waiting to get a taxi owner licence, and the expected wait time is at least 10 years, says DiCarlo. Taxi drivers who have both licences could operate as Uber drivers if Uber was to operate as a dispatch service, similar to companies such as Yellow Cab and Casino Taxi.

The current licence cap in Halifax helps inflate demand for taxi drivers. In other markets, Uber largely operates without there being limits to the number of Uber drivers, which reduces demand for existing taxi drivers.

The groundwork for allowing ride-hailing services like Uber appears to be in the works. Last spring, HRM Council asked staff to review the taxi and limousine industry. In September, the city launched a survey to get people’s thoughts, which included the question, “Would you use an Uber or Lyft app?” The city received over 13,400 responses, which DiCarlo says is a “high” level of engagement compared to most surveys the city puts out. She says the survey results and a staff report are expected in 2019. Uber shared the survey link with Haligonians who have Uber accounts from using it in other cities.

Matt Whitman, the councillor for District 13, Hammonds Plains– St. Margarets, says it’s “unavoidable” that Uber will begin operating

in the city. “We’re becoming a big city and we need big-city technology to keep us competitive,” he says. Whitman was in Toronto in October on a four-day trip and says he took about 15 Uber rides. He quizzed the drivers about the Uber life and walked away impressed. “It’s pretty cool that you know what you get from an Uber driver before you get in the car,” he says.

Arguably one of the biggest reasons why people want Uber in Halifax is because it would make it easier to get a ride. Dave Buffett is the president of the Halifax Regional Municipality Taxi Association. “You cannot retool an industry because six or eight hours a week, there’s an unusually high demand … you have to gear it around what’s acceptable,” he says. Outside of inclement weather and a few hours on Friday and Saturday nights, he says it’s not hard getting a taxi.

Buffett says the biggest challenge facing the local taxi industry is the struggle to serve people with disabilities. Besides a shortage of vehicles equipped for the job (there are only 18 accessible taxis in HRM) he says the calls aren’t profitable. “It takes longer to pick up and drop off a person with a disability,” says Buffett. “You can easily add 15 minutes to the trip, conservatively.”

Buffett says that on top of the fares collected by taxi drivers on these calls, Halifax Transit should also pay the drivers for taking the call as the taxis are doing some of the work provided by the Access-a-Bus service.

He says the taxi industry has done a good job of adopting modern technology, such as apps that allow you to book cabs. He notes the major local players (Casino Taxi, Yellow Cab, Bob’s Taxi, and Satellite Taxi) all offer apps. Vehicles are equipped with GPS, which allows app users to know where the vehicles are coming from. “I think the industry works pretty well for the most part,” says Buffett. “It’s always a crisis if someone can’t get a cab five minutes after they called one. If I want furnace oil, I call my oil provider and they say, ‘Look, we’ll be in your neighbourhood Tuesday or Thursday or Monday,’ it’s not right away.”

Dexter isn’t impressed with that line of thought. “Well, that’s kind of ridiculous. I understand there are delays,” she says, noting the delays many people experience are lengthy and not just five minutes. Besides having more cabs on the roads late at night on weekends, she thinks Halifax Transit should have a late-night bus route running between the south and north ends of the city that would at least help get people closer to their destination.

As for Uber, Buffett sees it as inevitable, but he doesn’t think it’s

PHOTO: BRUCE MURRAY/VISIONFIRE

PHOTO: BIGSTOCK/YASTREMSKA

Halifax Regional Municipality Taxi Association president Dave Buffet says the struggle to serve people with mobility issues is the biggest challenge facing the local taxi industry

a good idea. He has concerns about the background checks they do on drivers and thinks Uber drivers don’t have much incentive to provide good service because he believes it’s not their main job.

“Uber will tell you tell it’s something to do, you know, on your way to work … after work, if you want to pick up some money for Christmas, drive for Uber.” According to Uber’s website, more than half of drivers work between one and 15 hours each week; 80 per cent drive for fewer than 35 hours per week.

There’s no doubt if Uber comes to Halifax, getting from A to B will become much easier. “They’ve been a quick fix to long-standing problems for taxi service,” says Bruce Schaller, a New York-based consultant who formerly worked for the city’s transportation department and the city’s taxi and limousine commission. Last summer, Schaller released a report titled The New Automobility: Lyft, Uber and the Future of American Cities, which looked at the impact ride-hailing companies are having on cities.

Two of the impacts are reduced public transit use and increased traffic. According to researchers at the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies, ride-hailing has resulted in a six per cent decrease in public transit use in major American cities. The most common reason cited among survey respondents for why they were ditching transit for ride-hailing was because transit “services are too slow.”

Schaller says this puts cities and individuals in a somewhat conflicted position .“The tension here is the city needs to bolster its public transportation system to absorb the growth [in traffic] … but what people individually find beneficial is to use their phone and get an Uber or Lyft,” he tells Halifax Magazine. “It works for the individual, but it doesn’t work at scale for the city.”

Uber did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

While researchers are getting a better grasp on the impact of ride-hailing services, it will take time to fully understand what they are, much like it has with other technological innovations. “Airbnb’s goal was to help apartment dwellers make some money renting out a spare bedroom but was eventually perceived to fuel higher rents and gentrification,” says Schaller’s report. “Similarly, Facebook’s goal of connecting people around the globe eventually led to its use by a foreign government seeking to interfere with an American presidential election.”

Halifax’s current taxi system needs change. Besides the difficulty in sometimes getting a ride, the industry’s reputation has been battered by negative press from sexual assaults committed against female passengers by drivers, both proven and alleged.

In one case, former taxi driver Saher Hamdan was found guilty after he tried to kiss a woman and touched her without her consent in July 2016. In a much-publicized case, cabbie Bassam Al-Rawi was found not guilty of an alleged March 2015 sexual assault in which police found a 26-year-old woman in the back of his car who was unconscious, intoxicated, and partially naked, while Al-Rawi’s pants were halfway down.

Of the 1,463 taxi driver licences in the city, 97.2 per cent belong to men.

Schaller says ride-hailing companies largely entered Canadian markets after the American ones, which means Halifax has a better shot at developing an approach that could mitigate some of the negative impacts if ride-hailing is permitted here. “The Canadian cities have benefitted by having the U.S. go first and seeing what happens in both the short term and the longer term,” he says. tadams@metroguide.ca

Halifax Magazine

@HalifaxEditor @HalifaxMagazine

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 halifaxmag.com | 19

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BRIDES 2019 ‘A ONE-STOP SHOPPING EXPERIENCE’

BY HEAT HE R L AU R A C LA R KE Instead of traipsing all over the city to a dozen different appointments with potential vendors, local couples are about to have the opportunity to meet everyone on the same day, in the same place.

Brides 2019, Atlantic Canada’s largest wedding show, returns to the Halifax Convention Centre on Jan. 20 between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.

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Brides 2019 will feature more than 135 exhibitors, including ceremony and reception venues, wedding planners, decorators, invitation printers, bridal and formal wear, music services, photographers, bakers, florists, jewellers and more. This year’s show will even feature “off-the-grid” ceremony and reception options.

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All brides attending the show will receive free gift bags, and everyone who attends has the chance to win thousands of dollars in door prizes, including a vacation in Barbados.

Fennell says couples will walk away with plenty of ideas and inspiration after meeting with so many wedding experts in one place. The key is to relax and take your time strolling from booth to booth.

“There’s so much to see, so try not to feel overwhelmed,” Fennell says.

“With a little advance planning, you can make the most of your time at the event and have a lot of fun!”

How to make the most of your day at Brides 2019 Come with a plan of what you’re hoping to get out of the show. If you’re looking for a photographer, for example, it helps to research the vendors in advance and see who’ll be attending. Prepare any questions you have for the vendors, so you don’t forget something important when you get a chance to chat with them.

Take notes and/or photos. It’s helpful to document what you’re seeing so you can remember it all later in the planning process.

There will be a lot of prize draws to enter, so savvy brides bring along pre-printed labels with their name, mailing address, email address and phone number. This saves lots of time because they can attach the labels to ballots instead of filling them out by hand.

Bring someone with you. Shows like Brides 2019 are much more fun when you attend with a friend or family member, especially someone who’s involved in the wedding. You can bounce ideas off them and bond over the excitement of planning.

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TWICE THE BRIDES, TWICE THE FUN

The couple plan to marry in Halifax in the fall and have enlisted Amy Brace of Kiss The Bride to help plan the big day.

“Planning was slow at first, but now that we have Amy, she’s so great at pushing us along and helping with all of the details,” Conway says.

BY HE AT HE R L AUR A C LA R KE

“Sam is way more into the planning than I am, I’ll be honest. I have a hard time making decisions, so I’m glad Sam is loving it!”

So far, they’ve decided on a lot of greenery and a natural feel with earth tones. They haven’t picked their dresses yet. Conway says they’ve met with many vendors so far and thankfully haven’t experienced any discrimination for having a same-sex wedding.

When Allie Conway and Samantha Kwiatkowski shop for wedding supplies or meet with vendors, it’s often assumed they’re organizing a double wedding—or that one of them is the bride and the other one is her bridesmaid.

“But once we explain, people are usually pretty good,” Conway says.

Kwiatkowski recently posted on Coastal Curiosity that she and Conway “don’t see the point” in following structured wedding traditions because two women getting married is already “pretty untraditional.”

But they’re marrying each other.

The Halifax couple is well-known on social media for their booming Instagram account, @allieandsam, which has more than 85,000 followers.

Together they run A&S Social Media Marketing, and Kwiatkowski writes a lifestyle blog called Coastal Curiosity.

“Gay marriage hasn’t been legal for that long and is still not legal in a lot of the world, so I feel like we have

Conway proposed to Kwiatkowski in Point Pleasant Park this past July, after they’d been dating nearly four years.

“I always told her I’d never pop the question,” Conway says. “She was absolutely shocked, but was so excited!”

Kwiatkowski then proposed to Conway at the end of November in a different section of Point Pleasant Park with their Golden Retriever, Lily, in tow. They shared photos on Instagram the next day with a caption that included the line, “Now we’re fully engaged instead of half!”

“I am so excited to finally have my own ring to show off,” Conway says.

22 |

BIGSTOCK/GEOFFGOLDSWAIN

The emotional proposal video on their YouTube channel has racked up nearly a quarter of a million views.

a lot less pressure on us to follow wedding traditions,” Kwiatkowski writes. “It feels so freeing to know we can just do whatever we want.

But remember, everyone has this freedom! No one is in charge of your wedding day except for you and your partner, so do what’s going to make you happy.”

Instead of diamond engagement rings, Kwiatkowski and Conway ordered vintage-inspired rings featuring alternative gemstones from Vancouver jewellery boutique Evorden. They won’t wear garters and don’t plan on carrying each other over the threshold, either.

“Let’s be real. Neither of us is really strong enough to do that,” Kwiatkowski jokes.

As they get closer to their big day, Conway says they’re focusing on making decisions that make them both happy and not worrying about anyone who disagrees with their nuptials.

“The biggest thing we’ve been doing is reminding ourselves not to take in other’s opinions,” Conway says. “We just keep in mind the reason behind the day: our love.”

| ADVERTISING FEATURE |

CINEMATIC WEDDING VIDEOS ON THE RISE B Y H EATHER L AUR A C L AR KE

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but wedding videographers Kristen Brown and Jane Nicholson believe a carefully crafted film is worth millions.

Instead of slapping together a threehour video that documents every moment of a couple’s wedding day, they take a more creative approach.

“Cinematic wedding films will preserve and represent your day in a way like no other,” Nicholson says. “It will, with 100 per cent certainty, bring you back to that day so you can relive it over and over.”

Brown and Nicholson met at NSCC while both majoring in broadcast journalism, and both fell in love with the art of storytelling through video.

“We became obsessed with beautifully told stories combined with powerful visuals and natural sounds,” Brown says. “We would always pair off together after classes and stay late at the campus doing extra projects and making use of all the equipment we had at our disposal.”

Before they’d even graduated, they’d started their business: Arrow & Knot Productions. They operate fulltime out of the Hydrostone Market and are booking well into the 2019 wedding season.

Clients can customize what they’d like Arrow & Knot to prepare, from a fiveminute “highlight reel” set to music, to a longer edit that includes the full ceremony and all the speeches.

Nicholson says they truly feel they have “the best job ever” because they get the honour of capturing one of the biggest days in someone’s life.

“There are some things that can’t be heard in photos, like the laughs of family members that have since passed away, or the jitters and excitement while you were getting ready in the morning,” Nicholson says. “You get to experience the look and feel of your wedding, and all of the personal and special moments in between.”

While Brown says any wedding video is invaluable, the old-school approach

of having a friend or family member running a camcorder in the corner of the room “doesn’t tell your love story as it happened.” That’s where the magic of editing helps.

“People often associate editing with fabricated storylines, but what editing does for a cinematic wedding video is it authentically takes you back to your day as if you were there all over again,” Brown says. “We’re able to sequence shots in a way that’s natural, like

“There are some things that can’t be heard in photos, like the laughs of family members that have since passed away, or the jitters and excitement while you were getting ready in the morning,”

| 23

| ADVERTISING FEATURE |

showing the groom’s facial expression as he watched his bride walk down the aisle, and then cutting back to the bride’s facial expression as she walked toward him.”

While wedding videos were a top priority for couples back in the ’70s and ’80s when the technology was brand-new, Halifax wedding planner Katelyn Bellefontaine says they slowly became less popular.

“Everyone became so focused on the photography, and it’s only in the last three to four years that more couples are choosing to invest in videography as well as photography,” Bellefontaine says.

She says about half of couples in Nova Scotia are hiring videographers for their weddings, and it often winds up bringing them more joy than anything else.

“They’re always so thrilled with their decision to invest in it once they see their video, and the couples who decided not to have a videographer say it was their biggest regret,” Bellefontaine says.

She didn’t hire a videographer for her own wedding and admits she regrets it.

“I know the memories are going to fade over time and having a wedding video lets you relive that day over and over,” Bellefontaine says. “It really is magical to be able to look back on your special day and experience those emotions that can’t be captured in photos.”

Crafting the perfect video requires a lot of preparation. Brown and Nicholson like having a coffee with couples before the big day so they can discuss the wedding and any special details that should be captured on video, such as opening gifts from each

other before the walk down the aisle, or an especially meaningful speech.

Nicholson says grooms are often nervous about the idea of being recorded, but usually don’t really notice the cameras when the big day rolls around.

“We do our best to be ‘flies on the wall,’” Nicholson says. “We know what this day means to our clients, so we film in a way that’s non-invasive and respectful to create a wedding film that will make their hearts swoon.”

Their favourite part, of course, is getting to present the finished videos to their couples and watch them relive their special day.

“What we hear the most is ‘Best.

Decision. Ever,’” Brown says. “It’s the nicest compliment we can get.”

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COUPLES DAZZLED BY THE ‘MARKLE EFFECT’ How the Royal wedding is influencing weddings in Halifax B Y HE AT HE R L AU R A C LA R KE

Nearly 30 million people watched as Meghan Markle married Prince Harry last year. While many were just happy to admire everything and be a part of history, some viewers were actively taking notes to use for their own weddings.

But since the Royal wedding took place in May, Bellefontaine says it was a bit too late for couples marrying last summer to change their plans.

“Their weddings were basically all planned, but we started to see the October and November weddings taking inspiration from the Royals,” Bellefontaine says.

She says Markle’s simple ceremony dress has been the biggest takeaway, just as Kate’s wedding dress in 2011 inspired a flurry of long-sleeved gowns.

“When I got married, I said ‘I want a dress with sleeves! I want to look just like Kate!’” Bellefontaine recalls.

“Once I tried them on, I realized sleeves weren’t for me at all. But I think a lot of brides are going to want to recreate Meghan’s wedding look, sleek, minimal, clean lines.”

Markle’s dress was designed by British designer Clare Waight Keller for French fashion house Givenchy, and it was famously sculpted using only six seams.

While some criticized the dress’s heavy fabric, double bonded silk cady, Bellefontaine says it served as a good example of how a wedding dress isn’t

BIGSTOCK/IIIEVGENIY

“There was such a frenzy and you could tell everything they did, especially Meghan’s dresses, was going to influence so many couples,” says Katelyn Bellefontaine, CEO and creative director of Elegant Productions Planning & Design in Halifax.

going to be absolutely perfect and unwrinkled throughout the day.

“You’re not just standing still. You’re up and down and moving around, and I always have to encourage my brides to let go of the idea their dress is going to look 100 per cent perfect the whole time,” Bellefontaine says.

“It’s going to get creased, it might get a little dirt on it when you’re walking outside, and tulle tends to droop when there’s the tiniest bit of moisture.

You have to be a good sport about it, because it’s real life, not a movie.”

She says everyone loved the lush floral archway that served as a backdrop for the Royal couple as they walked down the steps of St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.

But since “commoners” don’t have a limitless floral budget, Bellefontaine has a budget-friendly way to mimic that look.

“Instead of blowing your whole budget on lavish centerpieces for every table, pick one or two areas to be a statement, like that archway,” Bellefontaine says.

“That’s where the majority of your photos can be taken, and it’s a good way to stretch your budget.”

Bellefontaine says she’s also seeing more couples choose custom calligraphy or hand-lettered elements in their wedding day stationery.

The Royal couple’s entire invitation suite was hand-lettered, but a less expensive option is having just the envelopes lettered by hand.

“We’re also seeing more of an interest in fine textured paper or thick cardstock,” Bellefontaine says, who also co-owns Elegant Paper Co., a custom stationery company. “They’re wanting invitations that are not only visually pleasing, but also have a luxurious feel when handled by their guests.”

Instead of wedding gifts, Meghan and Prince Harry asked people to consider a donation to one of seven charitable organizations that represented issues they were passionate about.

“We’ve certainly seen couples here in Halifax doing the same thing,” Bellefontaine says. “When they already live together or are just incredibly fortunate and don’t need anything, they’re asking their guests to make donation instead. It’s a wonderful idea.”

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For more than 45 years, Charm Diamond Centres has helped Canadians celebrate and commemorate all of life’s biggest

moments – love, engagement, anniversaries, and every precious moment in between.

Charm Diamond Centres has grown from humble beginnings.

Founded by Richard Calder in 1972, our first store opened in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, and has grown to over 85 stores across

Canada. Proudly retailing Canada’s largest selection of Canadian diamonds, Charm Diamond Centres’ commitment to quality, value, and service has allowed us to build our customer relationships based on trust.

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The Charmed Bridal Collection features hand-selected Canadian diamonds set in 100% Canadian gold, giving you the ultimate Canadian Diamond bridal piece.

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ETERNAL BLISS Is to be Charmed by Love

From the beginning, Calder’s mission has been to, “Win the

Customer for Life.” He believes providing excellent customer

service and quality jewellery, at the best price, is the key to

making that happen. Calder has spent his life searching and creating the world’s best bridal offerings for the Canadian Bride. As a proud Canadian, Richard has also led the way in

Canadian Diamonds, being one of the first retailers to introduce them to the world. Now at the forefront of the industry, he

is introducing his signature bridal collection, Charmed by Each diamond is hand selected

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Available Exclusively at all Bedford Place Mall | Halifax Shopping Centre | MicMac Mall View the whole collection: charmdiamonds.com

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GUEST EXPERIENCE THE TOP PRIORITY AT MANY WEDDINGS Why it’s not just about the couple anymore

BY HE AT HE R L AUR A C LA R KE

and how they’re going to get around,” Bellefontaine says. “They know some of their guests may be travelling to Nova Scotia for the first time and they want to make things easy for them.”

Two people may be getting married, but it could be several hundred people who are actually getting the day of their dreams.

“We’re hearing more and more from couples that they just want their guests to have an amazing experience at the wedding,” says Katelyn Bellefontaine, CEO and creative director of Elegant Productions Planning & Design.

She says some couples are actively involved in organizing their guests’ transportation, starting from their airport pick-up. It’s becoming more common to rent vans or buses to deliver guests to the venue and drop them off after the reception.

“It’s no longer ‘I want the wedding I’ve always dreamed of.’ It’s ‘I just want everybody to have a good time.’”

They may also choose to get married at a venue with built-in accommodations, such as a hotel or resort, or even rent their out-of-town guests an AirBNB to share.

From the venue and the food to the flow of the day, she says many engaged couples are focusing on what will ensure their guests are happy and comfortable.

She says one of the best ways to ensure a great reception is to focus on what your guests are eating and drinking. That’s why there’s been a shift away from buffets and plated meals towards family-style service.

Since most weddings include guests from out of town, Bellefontaine says this often starts with the guests’ travel experience.

“Platters with chicken and potatoes and vegetables are all brought to each table and everybody serves themselves, family-style,” Bellefontaine says. “It’s great for encouraging conversation and I always say it’s the best of both worlds.

People can eat what they like, but it eliminates the stress of moving 150 people through a buffet line.”

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“Couples are thinking of how they can simplify where they’re going to stay

28 |

When it comes to alcohol, Bellefontaine says “it’s not a good Maritime wedding without a good bar.” She’s seeing more of her couples paying attention to their reception’s bar service, instead of just picking up flats of beer and cheap bottles of liquor.

“They’re thinking about signature cocktails, serving really great local

wines, and offering local craft beers from microbreweries,” Bellefontaine says.

She says companies such as The Clever Barkeep will set up a fullservice bar just about anywhere.

“You could be holding your reception in the middle of a field, and they’ll offer a Lot Six-type level of bar service,” Bellefontaine says. “Guests are going crazy for it.”

The Clever Barkeep’s menu includes posh drinks, such as a Watchman (aged rum, cynar, Italian white vermouth, bitters), an Orchid (hibiscus, orange liqueur, lime, soda) and a Sazerac (rye whisky, raw sugar, Peychaud’s Bitters, absinthe).

“It’s unexpected, and it’s another way to leave your guests thinking ‘Oh my gosh, they really care about us,’” Bellefontaine says.

As for whether guests should pay for those drinks, Bellefontaine says about half of couples are choosing to offer an open bar.

“Cash bars are still pretty common in the Maritimes, whereas in Ontario and in the U.S. it’s almost always an open bar,” Bellefontaine says. “But those weddings tend to shut down much earlier, often at 10 or 11 p.m., which makes it more affordable.”

She says Maritime weddings are notorious for going strong until 1 or 2 a.m., which makes it a lot more expensive to keep the bar open.

“If your reception goes from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., an open bar bill for 150 people is seriously scary!”

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INCLUDING CHILDREN IN WEDDINGS

BY H E AT HE R L AUR A C LA R KE

They look precious in those tiny tuxedos and fluffy dresses, but they also have the power to ruin a wedding with an ill-timed tantrum or unexpected bout of projectile vomiting.

Halifax wedding planner Katelyn Bellefontaine says including young children in weddings “is always going to be a personal preference.”

“We’ve had couples with children of their own, and of course they couldn’t imagine their wedding day without them,” Bellefontaine says, the CEO and creative director of Elegant Productions Planning & Design. “But on the other hand, having children at weddings never works out the way you want. Someone is always going to misbehave or run around or get upset.”

Whether you’re planning a kidfriendly affair that includes all the children in your life, or you’re still thinking about whether to invite 30 |

the little munchkins, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Decide early Whether the kiddos are invited or not, you need to make it clear from the beginning, so parents can RSVP accordingly and schedule babysitters, if necessary. For many families, it’s going to be the first question they think of when they hear about the wedding.

• Make it clear If children are invited, be sure to put their names on the invitation. If they need to leave the venue by a certain time (often 9 p.m., due to liquor licensing regulations), it needs to be communicated to the parents, so they can arrange to leave early or have the children picked up.

(If children are not invited, don’t assume that leaving their names off the invitation is enough. Some

parents will still assume their children are invited and bring them anyway. Follow up the invitation with a polite call or email about how it’s an adults-only affair.)

• Embrace the nuggets Talk to the venue’s catering staff about providing them with an ageappropriate meal, even if it’s a simple dish of buttered noodles. Talk to the parents beforehand to be sure you’ll have something the child will eat.

• Consider a separate party Some couples go above and beyond to make their little guests feel welcome by hiring babysitters and arranging for entertainers like balloon artists, facepainters, magicians or puppeteers.

Bellefontaine organized a Cape Breton wedding last summer with a guest list that included nearly 50 children.

When the adults sat down for dinner

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and speeches in the main reception hall, the children went downstairs to their own special party.

a whole commotion,” Bellefontaine says. “I find that’s not the energy the bride deserves.”

“We hired a DJ to play kid-friendly songs, so they could have their own dance party, and we had a buffet with chicken fingers, fries, pizza and veggie sticks,” Bellefontaine says. “They had much more fun than if they’d had to sit upstairs and eat fancy food and listen to speeches.”

By sending the kids down first, the guests can gush over their adorable outfits and laugh if they make a silly face or get distracted halfway down. Then the bridesmaids will take their turn, and the guests will have

a chance to get back into “wedding mode” before the bride walks.

“As each bridesmaid walks, it brings the energy level back down to a quieter, more emotional place,” Bellefontaine says. “You can really feel it, and it gets everyone ready to see the bride during her big moment.”

• Don’t push It can be adorable to have a tiny ring bearer and flower girl walking down the aisle holding hands, but urging a very shy child to be the centre of attention might be a decision you’ll regret.

Martha Stewart’s advice is to match the job to the child’s personality. “If a child is introverted and prone to hiding behind Mom’s skirt, that kid most likely isn’t going to love giving a public performance no matter how talented he or she is.”

• Alter the order While a flower girl is traditionally supposed to walk down the aisle after the bridesmaids, just before the bride, Bellefontaine doesn’t believe that’s a good idea.

“Even bridesmaids can feel anxious standing back there, waiting to walk, so you can only imagine how overwhelming that could feel for a child,” Bellefontaine says. “They’re also feeding off the bride’s energy, and she’s back there getting more and more emotional.”

Bellefontaine says the worst-case scenario is that the flower girl clams up at the last second and refuses to walk, which puts undue stress on the bride during her big moment. That’s why she always suggests they “send the littles first.” If a child feels shy at the last minute, they can always walk down holding hands with a bridesmaid.

• Preserve the mood “Guests get excited when children come down the aisle. There’s a lot of oohing and ahhing and giggling. It’s | 31

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Noble Grape Having a backyard wedding? Rehearsal or engagement party? Bridal shower or gift opening?

These events are the perfect time to serve your own wines. At Noble Grape we offer a large variety of delicious wines to make your day even more special as well as customizable labels and shrink tops. A bottle of custom wine also makes a wonderful keepsake and is a great way to say thank you to your friends and family. Note: In Nova Scotia you cannot legally take wines you make into a licensed establishment. Always check with the venue before making a final decision. noblegrape.ca

The Ten Spot®

THE TEN SPOT® is the original anti spa® beauty bar on a mission to make everyone #FeelLikeATen. We provide guests with a new option for efficient, yet impeccably executed beauty services with an unpretentious vibe, in a spotless environment. So, grab your gang, or come solo and let us blow you away with our sleek style and savvy service. We can’t wait to have you as our guest!

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MacFarlands Events MacFarlands Events is the premier choice for event equipment rentals in Atlantic Canada.

Whether you’re a planner, a photographer, a beautiful bride, or a gushing groom we have everything you need to make every moment special for your next event. Our experienced events team get you started with a free consultation and our friendly equipment staff deliver, setup, and clean up—all on time, on budget, and with a smile. For high quality events equipment you can count on and access to hundreds of trending items inside our open showroom in Halifax, MacFarlands has something perfect for any event or party.

1-800-465-1088 / macfarlandsevents.com / events@macfarlands.com

Wolfville Farmers’ Market The Wolfville Farmers’ Market’s turn of the century home can be dressed for rustic elegance.

Sit 150 comfortably with room for a dance floor under globe lights. Heated for winter, cooled for summer, there are many included amenities like tables, chairs, and commercial kitchen, giving flexibility for your perfect day. wolfvillefarmersmarket.ca/rentals / rentals@wolfvillefarmersmarket.ca

Taylored Memories Videography

A wedding day flies by so quickly, keep the memories alive for a lifetime by having your wedding filmed by Taylored Memories. We offer a variety of packages to ensure every client has the exact coverage they are looking for on their wedding day. All equipment is included with the price of your package, including multiple cameras, audio equipment—and extras like drones—allowing us to get complete coverage of all the details on your most important day. Serving Nova Scotia and beyond including special rates for destination weddings.

902-599-2817 / Taylored-Memories.com / info@taylored-memories.com / facebook.com/TayloredMemoriesVideography 32 |

| COVER STORY |

SAVOUR THE MOMENT SIXTEEN YEARS ON, NOVA SCOTIA’S BIGGEST FOOD AND BEVERAGE FESTIVAL RETURNS WITH NEW OFFERING

BY KIM HART MACNEILL

It takes your senses a moment to adjust when you walk into the Savour Food & Wine Show. Music, talking, and laughter fill your ears while your eyes process the sheer number of people in the room.

Everyone around you is cooking, eating, or drinking. Food smells beckon from all sides.

Don’t worry, there’s no need to choose; you can try it all.

The Savour Food & Wine Festival, climaxing in the eponymous show, celebrates Nova Scotia’s food and beverage industries. It includes five events, plus a month-long opportunity to try specially created dishes at restaurants across the province.

The Restaurant Association of Nova Scotia started the festival 16 years ago with just one event. It’s grown every year, becoming the region’s largest indoor food and beverage show. Organizers conceived of the event as a way of lessoning the doldrums most restaurants face in cold and wet February.

Gordon Stewart is RANS’s executive director. “[It’s impressive] to see the high expectations of people at the show being topped by the various food items,” he says. “Even though some of these people are foodies, they haven’t seen all of the picture yet. For a small province, Nova Scotia has a big culinary landscape.”

After all these years, Stewart says the event still finds ways to change and grow. Last year Savour partnered with Discover Halifax, the municipality’s tourism-marketing organization, to bring more visitors to the festival. This year, the partnership adds a dine-and-stay component to Dine Around to encourage turning a meal into a night in the city.

The multi-restaurant Dine Around event kicks off the festival on Feb. 1. and runs until the end of the month. Similar to Toronto’s Winterlude, participating restaurants create three-course prix-fixe menus costing $25–$45 to encourage diners to try a new spot or dish.

Stewart says it’s easy to fall into old patterns and visit the same three or four favourite restaurants time after time, even for the festival’s committee members. Dine Around offers locals a chance to break out of routine. Last year, some 30 restaurants across the province participated.

Fine wine, unique dishes, craft beer, and more—with events running through the winter, Savour celebrates Nova Scotia’s culinary scene.

PHOTOS: KELLY NEIL

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 halifaxmag.com | 33

| COVER STORY |

“EVEN THOUGH SOME OF THESE PEOPLE ARE FOODIES, THEY HAVEN’T SEEN ALL OF THE PICTURE YET. FOR A SMALL PROVINCE, NOVA SCOTIA HAS A BIG CULINARY LANDSCAPE.” —GORDON STEWART

PHOTOS: KELLY NEIL

For those who are looking to taste the bounty of Nova Scotia in a big way, the festival offers four other events awash in food and beverage.

On Feb. 7, Imbibe invites Nova Scotia’s best mixologists to take over the Lord Nelson Hotel and create sample-size signature cocktails.

You’ll see some familiar faces from your favourite Halifax bars, and mixologists compete for the audience’s best cocktail vote.

Next up is Rare and Fine. Casino Nova Scotia’s Compass Room becomes an exclusive wine bar with the added ambience of a live jazz

34 | halifaxmag.com JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

band. In partnership with the festival, private liquor store Bishop’s Cellar spends the entire year curating the list of 25–30 rare wines costing over $50 bottle and ranked 90+ points by major wine publications.

“Part of the allure for the guests is that they will be tasting wines that have been curated and haven’t been available before,” says Jenny Gammon, brand communications and event manager at Bishop’s Cellar, who like most of the store’s staff is a certified sommelier.

Bishop’s Cellar staff pour at the event and answer questions about the wines.

The wines at this event are usually impossible to buy locally, but Bishop’s Cellar will have bottles for sale. Show attendees have first crack at buying bottles through the store’s website at the show. NSLC licencing rules say the wine must be picked up at the store or delivered after the show.

“You’ll often have people tasting throughout the night and coming over to place multiple orders throughout the evening because they want to make sure they get their piece of the 12, 24, or 36 bottles that are for sale,” Gammon says. Remaining bottles are sold through the store, but most are snapped up that night.

The tone shifts for the Craft Beer Cottage Party on Feb. 16.

Organizers transform the Seaport Farmers’ Market into the province’s biggest cottage get-together. Breweries decorate their booths to fit the cottage vibe; attendees vote on who has the best display (Meander River Farm & Brewery from Ashdale, N.S. is the reigning champ two years in a row). Plaid is encouraged.

“Beer is fun and relaxed,” says Jeff Green, director of sales at Garrison Brewing Co. and a member of the Cottage Party organizing committee. “In the dead of winter, when spirits and sunlight are a record low, we wanted to create a bit of a spark and have some fun.”

Green says this year’s event will host 30-some breweries and cideries, with a focus on Nova Scotian products, in keeping with the rest of the festival. While attendees move from booth-to-booth sampling, a live band plays campfire classics and vendors serve up snacks for an additional fee.

“For me, [the event] means seeing the brewers in a different light,” says Green. He says most beer festivals offer little chance for meaningful connection. “Usually there’s a table at the front of the booth between the brewers and the people, but here that wall is gone.

It’s less branded and more Nova Scotian. More relaxed and informal.”

The festival’s signature event, the Savour Food and Wine Show, happens at the new Halifax Convention Centre on Argyle Street on Feb. 28. Over 80 restaurants, wineries, breweries, and other producers present bite-sized delicacies and sample-sized beverages to ticket holders. Last year the event sold out at 1,500 tickets, which Stewart says is limited only by the legal fire limit.

Liz Ingram-Chambers, owner of Le Bistro By Liz on South Park Street, has been a part of the show since day one. She re-creates the vibe of Le Bistro by Liz in her booth with her signature red and white checked table cloths and red patio umbrella. Over the past few years she added a lit-up miniature Eiffel Tower that’s become a magnet for those seeking selfies.

“Every year we change up the treats that we offer people,” she says.

“Last year we did pan-seared Nova Scotia scallop on a sweet pea purée topped with a bacon jam. When you have people coming by [the booth] a second and third time, you know it’s good,” she laughs.

Ingram-Chambers doesn’t leave it to chance that attendees will remember Le Bistro the next day. She hands out cards good for a complementary dessert, salad, or soup on attendees’ next visit. “I’m sure by the end of the night it’s all a blur,” she says. “They’ll find that in their purse the next day and remember me.”

On March 7, Decadence highlights how wine pairings can enhance food. Savour partners with Nova Scotia Community College’s Pastry Arts and Culinary Arts programs to produce the food for the event.

Students and chef instructors are on hand to discuss ingredients and techniques, enriching attendees’ appreciation each bite. RANS created the event as a way to bring Nova Scotia’s next generation of chefs into the fold, says Stewart.

With some much food and drink to taste at Savour, it’s key to remember that these events are a marathon, not a sprint. Stewart calls it the “full meal deal.”

Ingram-Chambers agrees. “You couldn’t go out for dinner for the cost of a ticket and get that much fabulous food and drink. And you couldn’t eat and drink any more than what you can at that festival.” tadams@metroguide.ca

Halifax Magazine

@HalifaxEditor @HalifaxMagazine

GET CRAFTY The Craft Beer Cottage Party is an opportunity for Halifax craft-beer lovers to try breweries they may have missed. Watch for these three.

Upstreet Craft Brewing Dartmouth, N.S. Known across P.E.I., this young brand added a Burnside brewery and restaurant late last year. Watch for Neon Friday, a small-batch beer that changes weekly. These energetic beers are big on hops, testing the limits of aroma and flavour.

Salt Box Brewing Company Mahone Bay, N.S. This brewery’s beer names pay tribute to local people and history. Make and Break Double IPA remembers the small gas engines produced in Lunenburg and Bridgewater that changed the fishing industry in the 1900s. It’s hop-forward and hearty at 7.5% ABV. Lunn’s Mill Beer Co. Lawrencetown, N.S. Not to be confused with our local Lawrencetown, this brewery hails from the Annapolis Valley. Taste its Anvil Porter, an American-style porter with moderate bitterness and hints of chocolate and dark fruit.

Propeller Brewing Co. Propeller Brewing Company has been a proud North End neighbour since our founding in 1997.

Stop by for a pint or flight in our Tasting Room at our Gottingen Street Brewery, with special cask releases every Friday. Full cold beer stores on Gottingen, and on Windmill Road in Dartmouth.

2015 Gottingen Street, Halifax NS drinkpropeller.ca @PropellerBeer

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 halifaxmag.com | 35

| FEATURE |

SAFE HARBOUR AS HALIFAX GROWS, IT PROVIDES A FUTURE FOR AN INDUSTRY-LEADING TECH COMPANY AND ITS FOUNDERS

A unique Haligonian startup is bridging the worlds of construction and high technology.

Harbr is the creation of Dave Kim, and husband-and-wife team Jeff and Ashley Kielbratowski. They plan to market an artificial-intelligence system that will predict and prevent delays at construction sites.

Meanwhile, Harbr offers an app that allows site managers to file digital progress reports with their employers, simplifying what is traditionally a time-consuming, paperwork-intensive process.

Casual dressers who pepper their speech with industry buzzwords, the company’s founders could easily be mistaken for recent transplants from Silicon Valley. Kim promises to seek out “new efficiencies” and Jeff Kielbratowski wears pristine white running shoes with a spare pair next to his standing desk for good measure.

But, all three entrepreneurs are long-time Nova Scotians.

Kim grew up in Australia, where he studied marketing at university, but dropped out because he found the lack of flexibility involved to be stifling. He preferred to direct his own learning.

He left Australia at age 20, spending time in England and later New York state, where he worked at a summer camp staffed by several Nova Scotians. “I was like, ‘alright, let’s go and check out this place,’” he recalls. “So I drove from upstate New York with a bunch of other camp counsellors and landed in Cape Breton… That was in 2003.”

He settled in the region and spent several years working for a local video game design company, Techlink Entertainment, before co-founding his first business, GoInstant. Two years later, Salesforce bought GoInstant (for $70 million US, according to the Wall Street Journal).

Jeff Kielbratowski is the son of local development magnate Victor Kielbratowski and spent the early stages of his career working as a real estate executive at his father’s company.

“I had a specific kind of role when it came to the Kiel Developments stuff, which was more so focused around paying attention, essentially.

It’s a family business, so you’re not there to run the show, you’re there to learn,” he says. “There were opportunities if I was to stay there, but he supported me [in founding Harbr] and said, ‘If you’re going to go, go take a big swing’.”

Ashley Kielbratowski trained as an interior designer before she began working alongside her husband at the family’s development company, where she oversaw the details of major construction projects.

“This is why Ashley is so good at a product and customer success role,” says Kim. A lot of her experience was very close to the metal,

36 | halifaxmag.com JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

boots on the ground... Her understanding of that dynamic and of the personalities is really what helps us build the right products.”

Jeff Kielbratowski adds: “Ashley can speak the language.”

The three when Kim hired Ashley to renovate his house. They began having long conversations on Kim’s boat deck about the state of their respective industries, hatching the idea of a startup that would combine their areas of expertise.

“And I hung his blinds, too,” Jeff Kielbratowski laughs.

The new project was to be a platform that would help homeowners find local contractors for renovations and home repairs. It quickly became clear, though, that a competitive landscape would have limited the new company’s growth potential.

Instead, Kim and the Kielbratowskis focused on enterprise clients: large corporations that could enter into high dollar-value business agreements. They decided to build software that would help streamline construction projects, beginning with the Harbr app, before eventually rolling out the AI system.

Harbr is not the only company to offer app-based project management services (Fieldwire is a notable competitor based out of San Francisco) but if the AI is a success, it will be an industry first.

The program will rely on a technology called machine learning, which means that it will teach itself to recognize and interpret similar types of information. In this case, the AI will use data about past construction delays to identify factors that might cause similar problems in the future. For example, it might suggest changing the order in which certain tasks are completed, to minimize downtime for workers.

Mike Ouellette and Candace Delory later joined Harbr as chief technology officer and senior engineer, respectively. Both are co-founders as well.

In characteristically technical language, Kim explains, “The goal is to be able to create high-efficiency construction schedules that will help cut costs and bring projects in on time, while delivering real-time management insights.”

Harbr’s founders believe that Halifax is key to their company’s future success. “My wife and I have two small kids,” says Kim. “They love it here. There’s great day cares and schools. We’ve really got a great life for our family here.”

Jeff Kielbratowski agrees: “It’s an interesting time for the city. It seems that our talent pool is growing, and access to good people to join our company and be impactful in our company is huge.”

PHOTO: BRUCE MURRAY, VISIONFIRE STUDIOS

BY AVERY MULLEN

PHOTO: BRUCE MURRAY, VISIONFIRE STUDIOS

PHOTO: COURTESY OF JEFF KIELBRATOWSKI

PHOTO: BRUCE MURRAY, VISIONFIRE STUDIOS

Harbr co-founders Jeff Kielbratowski, Ashley Kielbratowski, and Dave Kim have found a unique high-tech market niche.

Equally crucial for Harbr, both the construction and technologies sectors are benefiting from recent growth in Halifax. According to economist Ian Munro of the Halifax Partnership economicdevelopment organization, Halifax has been undergoing a period of sustained development, the first of its kind since the early 2000s, when development largely stagnated.

“People joke that when the cranes came up in recent years, it was the first time they’ve seen them since the late 1980s,” he says. “There have been major projects like the convention centre on Argyle Street, the King’s Wharf, and Queen’s Market. All these different things are popping up.”

One potential issue raised by the new construction is that there are currently high vacancy rates for office space, but Munro says this is common for cities that have undergone development booms. It also has the effect of lowering rent prices. For startups, this makes Halifax more competitive with major centres like Toronto and Vancouver.

Also crucial for tech companies is the steady flow of qualified employees produced by the local universities. “We’re blessed with, especially for a city of our size, great post-secondary institutions,” Munro explains.” We have a lot of universities, including graduate

programs, churning out lots of students, and all sorts of interesting and innovative programs in and around the IT sector.”

Harbr rents office space from Volta Labs, a local startup incubator that transformed the sixth floor of the ageing Maritime Centre on Barrington Street into a brightly-lit, open-concept office. Its windows look out over Halifax Harbour, with construction sites visible along the waterfront and an orange tower crane obscuring part of the view.

With the help of the networking and knowledge-sharing opportunities that Volta and the Halifax tech community create, Harbr has grown rapidly since its creation two years ago.

Last spring, the company finished raising $1.75 million from investors (mostly in Nova Scotia) and hired two new software developers. It now serves customers across Canada and the United States.

Despite this geographic reach, the founders say they’re determined to maintain offices exclusively in Halifax. “There are highly talented people here, interesting companies, and an openness that is helping everyone learn from both our successes and our failures,” Kim says. “[Halifax] is iterating as an ecosystem much like a startup would.” tadams@metroguide.ca

Halifax Magazine

@HalifaxEditor @HalifaxMagazine

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 halifaxmag.com | 37

OPINION

THANKFUL ALL YEAR A HOLIDAY WITH A LOCAL FAMILY SPARKS THOUGHTS OF A BETTER WORLD

BY MARIANNE SIMON

At times kindness and generosity reach out to us from unexpected quarters, adding a little magic to our lives. That is what happened to me and my husband at Thanksgiving.

The long weekend was aproaching and everyone was making plans about how to spend it.

One of my colleagues asked what we were doing for the holiday. “Oh, nothing special. It’s going to be just another long cooking and cleaning weekend for me,” I replied.

But things changed that evening. There was an email in my inbox from Chris Benjamin, a local editor and writer who often contributes to Halifax Magazine, inviting me and my husband to join him and his family for a Thanksgiving dinner. Why would he invite us to his home? I had met him only twice, once in his office and the second time very briefly at the Word on the Street festival. All kinds of questions were going around in my head. “When good things come your way, don’t ask too many questions. Just accept them and be grateful,” my mother used to say.

So I rushed off a note to Chris accepting the invitation and asking if it would be a formal dinner and if there was a dress code. He wrote back saying that it would be an informal get-together and there would be only a few people apart from his family.

When we arrived, we received a warm welcome from Chris and his wife. We sat on their front yard and their young daughter joined us a few minutes later. She was sporting a dress that she had planned to wear on Halloween.

After a while we all went into the house. The tastefully decorated, softly lit home had a special charm and I felt happy to be there. Their son came in just before dinner.

The lady of the house laid out a splendid spread, announcing that all the ingredients used were from Nova Scotia. “Buy local, eat local” is an idea that appeals to me.

She must have spent many long hours cooking that sumptuous meal; everything was delicious. I thanked her and expressed my appreciation for having us there to share the meal with them. Later we left bearing gifts: an autographed copy of a book written by Chris himself and a lovely drawing by his daughter that reminded me of my ancestral home in Kerala. As we were leaving, my heart silently blessed the family and wished the spirit of that thanksgiving would last till the next.

This wonderful experience made me nostalgic about the festivals we celebrate in India, especially Onam in my own province, Kerala, also known as “God’s Own Country.”

38 | halifaxmag.com JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

Onam is unique because of the endearing legend attached to it. We believe that a long, long time ago, the kingdom of Kerala was ruled by Mahabali, a just king who loved his people dearly and in turn was loved by all his subjects.

During his reign, people were treated as equals, there were no tears or sorrow, no wars, peace and prosperity blessed the land. People had everything they needed, and they were happy. A veritable utopia, indeed!

Mahabali was so well known in all the worlds that even gods became jealous of him. They knew that the king was undefeatable and so they tricked him into accepting banishment to the underworld. But he was granted a boon, that once a year he could come back to the earth and visit his people.

So we celebrate Onam to welcome King Mahabali. The harvest is in, there is celebration and thanksgiving all around. The houses and streets are decorated with flowers and colorful lights. Women decorate their homes, inside and outside, with intricate designs using fresh flowers and coloured powders. Swings are put up and the women decked in their traditional attire join in the fun. Everyone wears new clothes. Families come together to celebrate the festival. Gifts are exchanged by friends and relatives. Onam Sadya, a grand meal of 26 delicious vegetarian dishes, is prepared and enjoyed by all.

During the Onam week, boat races, cultural performances, and folk dances are held all over Kerala. Carnivals are a great crowd puller and children as well as grown-ups enjoy the activities. In short, the whole atmosphere reverberates with joyful sounds and we believe Mahabali is delighted to see his happy subjects again.

In Halifax, Thanksgiving is an important occasion, but not celebrated in a grand scale. Family and friends get together and share a meal and give thanks for the bounty of Mother Earth. And I was happy to be a part of that celebration. I will remember the day with joy and gratitude.

If everyone was kind and generous and accepted all people as equals, forgetting their individual differences and varied cultural backgrounds, we could create a perfect world just like Mahabali’s. A world of peace and harmony, a world of happiness and laughter. Isn’t this what we all long for in our heart of hearts? tadams@metroguide.ca Halifax Magazine @HalifaxEditor @HalifaxMagazine

BASED UPON THE NOVEL WRITTEN

BY ALICE WALKER AND THE WARNER BROS./ AMBLIN ENTERTAINMENT MOTION PICTURE Book by MARSHA NORMAN Music and Lyrics by BRENDA RUSSELL, ALLEE WILLIS, and STEPHEN BRAY “THE COLOR PURPLE was produced on Broadway at the Broadway Theater by Oprah Winfrey, Scott Sanders, Roy Furman and Quincy Jones. The world premiere of THE COLOR PURPLE was produced by the Alliance Theatre, Atlanta, Georgia.”

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