Halifax Magazine December 2019

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AN ACTOR IN TRANSITION Rhys Bevan-John brings humour and versatility to A Christmas Carol

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Contest closes Dec 31, 2019 PUBLISHER Fred

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CONTENTS

PHOTO: ZACK METCALFE

Vol. 19 No. 10 | December 2019

22

$100

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20 | COUNTDOWN TO EXTINCTION A Dalhousie researcher steps in to help the endangered Atlantic whitefish 22 | RISING FROM THE ASHES When the Halifax Explosion hit, the Hinch family lost more than most: a tragedy through the eyes of a 15-year-old

Eligibility: The contest is open to any resident of Atlantic Canada who is 19 years or older except those who are employees of Metro Guide Publishing or Advocate Printing. Your name may be made available to carefully screened companies whose related products may interest you unless you request otherwise.

The winner’s name will appear in a future issue of Halifax Magazine.

READERSHIP SURVEY

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Scan Scanthis thistotocomplete answer our survey. the questions online.

Due to a fact-checking error, our November 2019 story “The long way home,” incorrectly indicated that An Act Respecting the Regulation of Short-term Rental Accommodations was a provincial government bill. The NDP introduced the bill, which the government doesn’t support, meaning it’s unlikely to become law.

See the updated story at halifaxmag.com.

8 | CONTRIBUTORS Meet the writers and photographers who work on Halifax Magazine 9 | CITYSCAPE Hope Cottage battles the constant threat of food insecurity; a new course for businessman Dennis Campbell; how Halifax moves on from street checks 15 | ENTERTAINMENT Christmas with Boney M, Symphonic seasonal sounds, welcoming Canada’s other national sport, and more 28 | BEER: THE 12 BEERS OF CHRISTMAS Wallets grow thin at year end, but there’s plenty of affordable craft beer 30 | OPINION: SEASON OF LIGHT As Halifax celebrates Christmas, our columnist reflects on her favourite holiday from home

PHOTO: MAYA SCHWARTZ

PHOTO: BRUCE MURRAY

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7 | EDITOR’S MESSAGE T’was the night before Christmas and dreams of the mayor’s office danced in a candidate’s head

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16 | AN ACTOR IN TRANSITION The heart and soul of Neptune’s one-man A Christmas Carol, Rhys Bevan-John brings warmth and vulnerability to every performance

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EDITOR’S MESSAGE

Christmas dreams An entirely fictional poem about one Councillor’s mayoral ambitions

PHOTO: TAMMY FANCY

BY TREVOR J. ADAMS

tadams@metroguide.ca Halifax Magazine @HalifaxEditor @HalifaxMagazine

‘

T

was the night before Christmas, when all through the town, Not a Councillor was stirring, from the suburbs on down; The slogans were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes an election soon would be there;

And then, in a twinkling, the days they did pass, 2020 was going by in a flash; As voting day closed, the campaign ran its track, He bounded from Hubbards to Sheet Harbour and back.

Voters were nestled all snug in their beds, But visions of glory filled Councillors’ heads: “Christmas? Who cares? For your votes I do plead!

The election must come! It’s the mayor’s chair that I need!”

He always wore a fun tie, to show he’s a good sort, Though his rep was tarnished his campaign didn’t abort; A bundle of promises he flung about fast, Distracting voters from his… troublesome past.

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, People sprang from their beds to see what was the matter; Opening the window they said “Holy shit, man!

Outside my house: it’s candidate Whitman!”

His eyes—how they twinkled! His tweets were so merry!

He loves this city, like a big juicy cherry!

His droll little mouth made loud pleasing sounds, Any word of criticism, a torrent to drown.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow, Gave the lustre of change to the candidate below; Once blocked tweets magically appeared, “Positivity for all!” he cried with good cheer;

The mayoral dream held tight in his teeth, Ambition encircled his head like a wreath; His behaviour and judgement had been rather smelly, But now Whitman was sweet, like a bowlful of jelly.

This little bold candidate, so wily and quick, Hoped they’d forget his past with a flick; More rapid than eagles his misdeeds amassed, Retweeting racists, offering insults most crass.

He cycled and prayed, sprayed positivity around, No time for the haters, their gloom to confound; Yet doubts rattled around in his head, To lose this election would fill him with dread;

“Now, VOTERS! now, MEDIA! now, listen will you?

I make poor choices, quite out of the blue!

But how else to vote on election day?

Can you live in a city with a mayor named Waye?”

He spoke not a fear, but campaigned on and on, “I’m positive and nice,” was his endless song; But he’d aimed at Province House a time in the past, When voters unmoved, gave his hopes a cruel blast.

As dry leaves that before the Nor’easter fly, When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky; So back to Twitter, Whitman he flew, With a mouth full of words, and promises too.

He sprang to the polls, with a nervous dog whistle, He waited for results, sharp as a thistle; And they heard him exclaim, as democracy did its work, I’VE BEEN GOOD FOR SIX MONTHS, MAKE ME MAYOR, YOU JERKS!

DECEMBER 2019 halifaxmag.com | 7

CONTRIBUTORS TAMMY FANCY Photo for Editor’s Message A freelance photojournalist, Tammy has shot for East Coast Living, Bedford Magazine, Profiles for Success, and Our Children magazines, plus two cookbooks. fancyfreefoto.com

ALEC BRUCE Cityscape Alec is an award-winning journalist with bylines in local, regional, national and international publications.

He lives in Halifax. brucescribe.com

BRUCE MURRAY Photography for “An actor in transition” Bruce has been creating food and lifestyle photography for more than 20 years in the Maritimes and in his original studio in Vancouver. visionfire.ca

KIM HART MACNEILL “The 12 beers of Christmas” Kim is a freelance journalist and editor of East Coast Living. Read her beer column on halifaxmag.com. @kimhartmacneill

MARIANNE SIMON “Season of light” Marianne is a writer and subeditor and has published many children’s stories, articles and poems in magazines and newspapers. Her interests include teaching and conducting English-conversation classes. mariannesimon777@gmail.com

MICHAEL DUPUIS “Rising from the ashes” Michael has previously contributed to Halifax Magazine; in 2017 Fernwood published his book Bearing Witness Journalists, Record Keepers and the 1917 Halifax Explosion.

ANDREW WRIGHT Cityscape A British marine biologist that studies whales and dolphins around the world, Andrew is primarily exploring how human noise influence them. His current focus with Fisheries and Oceans Canada is the North Atlantic right whale.

MAYA SCHWARTZ Cityscape A second-year student at University of King’s College, Maya was born and raised in Winnipeg.

Her interests include creative writing, travel, and sustainability.

ANDREA NEMETZ “An actor in transition” Andrea has been writing about news, sports, and entertainment for over 25 years.

ZACK METCALFE “Countdown to extinction” Zack is a freelance journalist, columnist, and author active across the Maritimes. See his web-exclusive Halifax Magazine column at halifaxmag.com.

8 | halifaxmag.com DECEMBER 2019

CITYSCAPE Everyone needs hope Since 1970, Hope Cottage has been working to make life better for the people who rely on it

PHOTOS: MAYA SCHWARTZ

BY MAYA SCHWARTZ

With one in seven Halifax households experiencing food insecurity, Hope Cottage has been central to its community since opening in 1970.

Late in the afternoon before supper, the doors of Hope Cottage are locked. The plastic chairs are upside down on the long tables.

The floors are still wet and glossy from the mop. Oldies blare from the kitchen speaker until Edward Hollett, Hope Cottage’s head cook and doorman for 21 years, turns the dial and everything goes quiet.

Hope Cottage is a soup kitchen on Brunswick Street in Halifax, operating since 1970. On weekdays, it serves brunch and supper. “Hope Cottage is integral to the

community and those struggling with poverty,” says Carmen Boyko, director of fundraising and communications at Brunswick Street Mission. “It takes a village, and luckily we have a good group of organizations in the community.”

James Makita Coleski comes to Hope Cottage every day. “It means a meal and a table,” he says. Coleski and his wife are both in the Disability Support Program.

As of 2014, one in seven Halifax households are food insecure, according to Public

Health. Food insecurity at the household level means people don’t have enough access to food because of financial restraints. The main cause of food insecurity is poverty. “I don’t see any security,” says Coleski, shaking his head. “The price of groceries goes up all the time, but our monthly income doesn’t.”

Coleski’s yellowed fingers tear at a piece of beef held in his spoon. “I’d like to get up at home and eat a bowl of cereal, but I can’t afford it.” He says the cheapest place to get milk is the Guardian Scotia Pharmacy on

DECEMBER 2019 halifaxmag.com | 9

CITYSCAPE

Edward Hollett has been head cook at Hope Cottage for 21 years.

Gottingen Street, $3.50 for two litres. A young blonde woman in pyjama pants angrily nods in agreement a few chairs away. Her name is Tiffany Caines, and she also buys her milk from the Guardian.

For Coleski, the best part of coming to Hope Cottage is the food and the people.

Caines pipes in from down the table: “I was going to say seeing each other! I only come here to see you!”

Hollett says he understands the people who come to Hope Cottage. He had issues with addiction like Coleski and Caines. Hollett got help 26 years ago, and Coleski has been clean for three years. Over his stew, Coleski says, “Now I’m doing good, but I still can’t eat my cereal at home.”

Hollett remembers one man that came into the soup kitchen. Hollett asked how he was, and the man responded, “I’m here, how do you think I am?” Hollett describes pulling the man aside, explaining to him that everyone’s going through something but you still have to be nice. The man apologized for speaking to

Hollett that way, but said that honestly, he was about to go jump off a bridge.

Hollett says, “I sat him down in the office. I made him make me a promise, because I learned in a class that if someone is suicidal and they make a promise, they will keep that promise.” Hollett wrote down the number of a help line, and the man swore to call it before he jumped. “He took the card and walked out the door. I never saw him again.”

Hollett’s voice shakes, the story isn’t over.

“My sister moved into a new apartment,” he says. “She told me, ‘There’s a guy who lives in my building, and he says you saved his life.’”

Hollett wipes the tears off his face with the rough skin of the back of his hand. He stands up to get a tissue, and each step squeaks along the clean floor.

When he sits back down, he says, “It’s just nice to be here for them. Because I’ve been out there.” tadams@metroguide.ca Halifax Magazine @HalifaxEditor @HalifaxMagazine

Dennis Campbell charts a new course After building a tourism empire, the businessman gets out of buses and plans his next move on the waves of Halifax Harbour

BY ALEC BRUCE

The thing about Halifax Harbour is there’s almost too much of it. Unless you have a boat.

But not just any boat.

“I’m thinking about a high-speed catamaran,” muses hometown tourism entrepreneur Dennis Campbell, who sold his Ambassatours’ bus operation to his nearest competitor in September. “That would be cool.”

He already owns six touring vessels moored along the waterfront, including a Mississippi-style paddle wheeler. None of them are particularly swift and that’s a problem. “The future of tourism here is in the harbour,” he says. “The cruise-ship business is booming. Fisherman’s Cove is getting upgraded. McNabs and Georges islands are in for major work. TripAdvisor says we’re number four on its list of top 10 growing travel destinations in the world.”

10 | halifaxmag.com DECEMBER 2019

To jump on these opportunities, Campbell wants to ferry more people to more places, where they can eat more food and buy more stuff, as fast as the watercraft speed limit permits. Specifically, “I need a boat that can carry 200 from downtown Halifax to the harbour islands or Eastern Passage in 20 minutes.”

And so, in January, he’s going to see a man in Australia, who makes “a really beautiful product, a real world-class power cat composed of aluminum.”

He doesn’t know what something like that would cost, but another “really beautiful product” recently listed for $1.76 million US. Says Campbell: “I might buy used, or even lease…That would also be cool.” tadams@metroguide.ca Halifax Magazine @HalifaxEditor @HalifaxMagazine

The history lessons of Vanessa Fells Street checks were only the latest indignity in a long history of discrimination.

How can Nova Scotia break the cycle?

BY ALEC BRUCE

To Vanessa Fells, the Nova Scotia government’s historic announcement in October to prohibit police from conducting random street checks of Black people in the province marked the end of one era and the start of a new, urgent one.

Specifically, says the Program Coordinator of the Dartmouth-based African Nova Scotian Decade for People of African Descent Coalition (DPAD): “How can we work with the government to make sure this sort of thing doesn’t happen again?”

Fells has seen her group emerge from virtual obscurity three years ago to become one of the most organized and influential exponents of social justice in the province.

Her question isn’t idle. History keeps raising it.

“A lot of people in the community at large did not understand why African Nova Scotians were so upset about street checks,” the Yarmouth-raised university graduate in education and criminology reflects. “But understand the story of policing Black lives in this province: first enslavement, then segregation and sundown laws governing when and where Black people could gather.

Indiscriminate street checks emerged from that context. That’s why we will be meeting with the department of justice to talk about what comes next.”

If Fells and her coalition colleagues (comprising 30 groups and 100 people) have their way, it will be a future where collaboration, not contention, drives the agenda. That was the initiative’s spirit when it formed in 2016, following a presentation it made in Halifax to the visiting United Nations Working Group for People of African Descent. Since then, DPAD’s steady research, policy work and considered approach to advocacy have won support in some political circles of the province.

Although Fells emphasizes that the coalition is one chorus of voices among many (not least of whom is former Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Michael

MacDonald, whose legal decision against street checks prompted the government ban) it’s been instrumental to Susan Leblanc, NDP MLA for Dartmouth North.

“Vanessa and her work, and the work of the DPAD Coalition, is vital in helping us take action,” says the NDP’s Spokesperson for African Nova Scotian Affairs, whose private member Bill 205 for a new African Nova Scotian Justice Institute had its first reading on October 17. “These are issues that have affected the African Nova Scotian community for decades.”

Fells wholeheartedly agrees. The first step towards making real, durable change, she says, is understanding history.

tadams@metroguide.ca Halifax Magazine @HalifaxEditor @HalifaxMagazine

DECEMBER 2019 halifaxmag.com | 11

CITYSCAPE The lives of right whales Government scientists, drone racers, and strobe machines combine to shed light on the lives of the endangered mammals, their prey, and their ecosystem

BY ANDREW J. WRIGHT

Editor’s Note: In this first-hand account, Fisheries and Oceans Canada researcher Andrew J. Wright explains how he and his colleagues are working to save right whales.

PHOTO: FISHERIES AND OCEANS CANADA

What do tiny crustaceans, whale mucus, and oil spills have in common?

Last summer all three got an up close look from a group of Fisheries and Oceans Canada researchers from Nova Scotia and Quebec who crisscrossed the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence for a four-week science mission to support three related research programs.

The goal was to collect information on the ecology and physiology of North Atlantic right whales, gather data on

factors affecting the distribution of their prey (mainly copepods, a small crustacean), and assess the potential impact to right whale marine habitats through ship-based oil spills. The Gulf of St. Lawrence was chosen for the work as it is becoming an important summer habitat for right whales, but is also an active shipping and fishing area. The data will help us better understand the impacts of these activities on the whales.

My focus was on the whales themselves and how noise might impact their health. The biggest challenge in conducting this research is convincing the whales to come in for regular blood draws. (Let’s face it, nobody

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PHOTO: FISHERIES AND OCEANS CANADA

WELCOME GARY TO OUR TEAM likes needles.) Instead, we had to get creative and took to the air.

First we used an off-the-shelf drone and camera system that we equipped with an additional custom-built laser ranging unit.

That additional LIDAR system lets us accurately determine how long and fat (and thus healthy) the whales are. Effectively we were getting a body mass index from above.

We also needed to check-in on the whales’ stress hormone levels.

For that, we reached out to the drone racers of Team Canada to custom-build a drone for us based on an Australian design. The result was essentially an airborne petri dish that proved extremely capable of flying into the blow of the whales to collect mucus samples for our analyses, at least in the hands of our drone racer, Liam Olders. As a result, we could collect our samples while provoking no discernable reaction from the whales.

The plankton team also had some high-tech gear on board: their visual plankton recorder.

We tow this nifty piece of kit behind the boat, bobbing up and down through the water as we move forward.

It collects pictures of the material in the water column using a high-resolution camera system connected to a strobe light, allowing researchers to get close-up images of the tiny, less than four millimetres long Calanus zooplankton that, amazingly, make up the bulk of the diet of the whales in the area.

Finally, the team studying oil spills had their on-board experiment and filtration system.

This allowed them to test how the environment would respond to an oil spill using constantlyrefreshed local seawater and microbes, without any test oil reaching the ocean.

Now we all now have a lot of data to go through, but already these efforts are providing us with new perspectives on the whales and the ecosystem. Freshly inspired, the teams are already planning another cruise next summer.

Science never sleeps! tadams@metroguide.ca Halifax Magazine @HalifaxEditor @HalifaxMagazine

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

DEC. 1, 6–15, 20–21

Symphony Nova Scotia The orchestra has a full calendar of holiday concerts at the Dalhousie Arts Centre, starting on Dec. 1 with Christmas With Heather Rankin and Friends: Irish dancers, fiddlers, and a bevy of guests. Up next is perennial favourite The Nutcracker (featuring Mermaid Theatre and Halifax Dance) running from Dec. 6–15. As usual, things reach a crescendo Dec. 20–21 with Handel’s magnificent Messiah, featuring conductor Stephen Stubbs. symphonynovascotia.ca Heather Rankin

DEC. 18

Boney M The Euro-Caribbean vocal group is best known for the holiday staple “Mary’s Boy Child—Oh My Lord” but has a rich catalogue of songs showcasing their artful harmonies and broad range. See their Holiday Favourites & Classic Hits tour as it comes to Scotiabank Centre. ticketatlantic.ca

DEC. 21

Halifax Thunderbirds Rough-and-tumble lacrosse is Canada’s other national sport. Halifax’s new team hosts Rochester at Scotiabank Centre in fast-paced National Lacrosse League action. halifaxthunderbirds.com

DEC. 29

New Year’s Eve

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Join thousands of revellers at Grand Parade square in front of Halifax City Hall for the East Coast’s largest New Year’s Eve party. The all-ages celebration begins at 10:30 p.m., featuring live music by headliners Said the Whale and Zaki Ibrahim, followed by a giant fireworks show at midnight. halifax.ca/recreation/events/ new-years-eve

Acclaimed singer/songwriters Breagh MacKinnon, Dylan Guthro, and Carleton Stone comprise the trio Port Cities. See them in the Schooner Showroom. casinonovascotia.com

Zaki Ibrahim

PHOTO: MO PHUNG

DEC. 31

tadams@metroguide.ca Halifax Magazine @HalifaxEditor @HalifaxMagazine DECEMBER 2019 halifaxmag.com | 15

| COVER STORY |

AN ACTOR IN THE HEART AND SOUL OF NEPTUNE’S ONE-MAN A CHRISTMAS CAROL SHOW, RHYS BEVAN-JOHN BRINGS FUN AND VULNERABILITY TO EVERY PERFORMANCE

BY ANDREA NEMETZ PHOTOS BY BRUCE MURRAY

When Jeremy Webb decided to step back from acting in the beloved one-man version of A Christmas Carol he created in 2003, he knew there was only one person he could trust with his baby: Rhys Bevan-John.

“He’s younger, fitter, thinner, and funnier than me and it really pisses me off,” jokes Neptune Theatre’s artistic director. He then turns serious, adding that Bevan-John “has more soul than most performers in this town and that comes over in his performances.”

The classic holiday tale returns to Neptune’s Scotiabank Stage until Dec. 28, with Bevan-John once again bringing his playful, physical presence to more than 15 roles. The Dartmouth-raised actor toured with the show as a puppeteer bringing the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future to life in 2003 and 2005.

He took over from Webb four years ago, bringing his playful, physical presence to more than 15 roles in the haunting holiday tale.

“A Christmas Carol is a challenge that draws on all the things I’ve done: it’s classical text, improv, clowning, miming,” muses the tall, slim actor with the infectious grin. “And I like the story of A Christmas Carol. It’s about a man who sacrificed everything else to win

16 | halifaxmag.com DECEMBER 2019

capitalism. And he finds out that that’s a really miserable existence and, in fact, all the things he sacrificed along the way are actually the point of life. Being a vessel for that story is very humbling. It has informed my life choices.”

Webb, who directs the work, says A Christmas Carol requires an actor that can hold the audience’s attention for 90 minutes. “It needs someone that can improvise and work with an audience that throws stuff at you because there’s a lot of participation,” he explains. “It needs someone that has an appreciation and love for storytelling and classic-flavoured theatre. It needs someone who looks good in mutton chops. And it needs someone the audience wants to spend that amount of time almost alone with.”

Simon Henderson joins in as the puppeteer but for most of the show Bevan-John is alone on stage bringing Scrooge, Tiny Tim, Bob Cratchit, and other memorable Victorian characters to life.

Halifax stage manager Kate Redding says what makes Bevan-John so good as a performer is who he is as a person.

“He makes you feel like the sole focus any time you are in a room with him,” she says. “That’s what the audience feels. He makes every

TRANSITION

DECEMBER 2019 halifaxmag.com | 17

| COVER STORY |

“RHYS IS LIKE A FLAME THAT BURNS BRIGHTLY ON STAGE” —MATTHEW LUMLEY

18 | halifaxmag.com DECEMBER 2019

audience feel they are special. It’s a special energy that translates into performance.”

Halifax actor Matthew Lumley agrees. “When he says ‘how are you?’ he really wants to know,” he says. He recalls how Bevan-John created a space that invited a level of intimacy and vulnerability essential to the collaborative creation of The Perfection of Man, which wowed audiences at the Atlantic Fringe Festival in 2012.

Lumley directed Bevan-John and Bill Wood in another Atlantic Fringe Festival hit Two, a study of two vaudeville partners in the process of breaking up, told through song, dance, and magic interspersed with storytelling. “He was stunningly brilliant. He had the whole room in the palm of his hand. He’s an incredible improviser.”

Bevan-John honed his improv talents for eight years with the Improv Knights after Webb invited him to join the comedy troupe.

“It was evident then, back in the late ‘90s, this guy had skills,” says Webb, who taught the talented young actor in Neptune’s PreProfessional Program.

Among those skills is his ability to clown. Not red-nose circus clown, but physical comedy, French mime-style clown, funny and poignant, much like Bevan-John himself. Redding raves about the physicality Bevan-John displayed as Clown 1 in The 39 Steps at Neptune in 2016.

“He’s a classic mime-in-the-box,” she explains. “He’s so tall and has such great limbs. He’s so specific and clean, it’s fascinating to watch.”

Clown 1 earned Bevan-John a Merritt Award nomination as best supporting actor. He was also nominated for Merritt Awards for leading actor in Daniel MacIvor’s Here Lies Henry at Chester Playhouse and for supporting actor for Shakespeare by the Sea’s Much Ado About Nothing.

With Shakespeare by the Sea, Bevan-John did work he considers really seminal: an Edgar Allen Poe show, a steampunk Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Hamlet. His 2013 turn as the tortured titled character earned rave reviews, with the The Coast saying it was “quite possibly the performance of the summer.”

Though he plays leading men in theatre, Bevan-John says he’s often “the weird other guy in film and TV.” He won an ACTRA Maritime Award for the role Will in Roaming and played Andy Warhol’s spirit animal in the Daniel MacIvorpenned film Weirdos, directed by Bruce McDonald, which showed at the Toronto, Vancouver, and Berlin international film festivals, among others.

And he shone as a socially introverted video game designer in the locally shot movie Roaming.

“His ability to do character work is incredible,” enthuses Lumley, whose own character acting chops were on display this summer as Frankenstein’s monster in the Two Planks and a Passion production.

Another memorable Bevan-John creation is the Happy Hobo in Moonland, a one-man show for children about the imagination, and how play can help people grow. It was part of Eastern Front’s Stages Festival, it played at Nova Scotia libraries, and Neptune took it on tour to elementary schools across the province.

“Watching the audience watch Rhys is really special, kids in particular,” says Redding, who assisted in Happy Hobo’s creation and staged-managed the 2018 Neptune tour. “Monday to Friday, we’d be in a gym at 8:30 in the morning with kids losing their minds. He really made connections with the kids.”

Bevan-John has a simple philosophy. “When we work in theatre it’s not called a work, it’s called a play. Play is something I’m constantly

“WHERE THEATRE OPPORTUNITIES PRESENT THEMSELVES TO ME, I LEAP AT THEM” —RHYS BEVAN-JOHN

trying to figure out in work and life. How can I make this more fun than this is?”

He appreciates the sense of playfulness that infuses Webb’s version of A Christmas Carol, noting though it has an element that touches the depths of darkness of the human psyche, it’s not where it lives.

Scrooge may be an outcast, but so are all actors until they find their niche. “Rhys is like a flame that burns brightly on stage. It feels like he’s in his element. He crackles and dances,” says Lumley.

Or maybe he has more than one niche. “I consider myself a person in transition,” says Bevan-John. “Where theatre opportunities present themselves to me, I leap at them. When that’s not the case, I focus on trying to help people regulate their nervous system.”

He’s working towards opening a private practice in the New Year as a somatic coach and a TRE (tension and trauma release) provider, holistic therapies he’s been studying for about five years.

And, in his spare time, he pursues his passion for another type of play.

“I’ve played Dungeons & Dragons since I was a kid,” he says with a confessional tone, noting that while it may be cool now, “growing up, you didn’t bring your D&D books to school.” tadams@metroguide.ca

Halifax Magazine

@HalifaxEditor @HalifaxMagazine

DECEMBER 2019 halifaxmag.com | 19

| FEATURE |

COUNTDOWN TO

EXTINCTION A DALHOUSIE RESEARCHER STEPS IN TO HELP THE ENDANGERED ATLANTIC WHITEFISH

BY ZACK METCALFE

Time has not been kind to the Atlantic whitefish, once relatively common in southern Nova Scotia and now restricted to a single watershed in all the world: Petite Rivière, just south of Bridgewater.

Andrew Breen of the Bluenose Coastal Action Foundation has spent years on this watershed, administering the hands-on conservation keeping this last wild population from the grips of sure collapse, but in spite of his best efforts, it seems only a matter of time.

“It’s a countdown to extinction,” he says, pointing to the ongoing infestation of this watershed by invasive Chain pickerel and Smallmouth bass, specimens of which have carried the partially digested remains of Atlantic whitefish. One time, in the stomach of a Chain pickerel, Breen recovered two baby turtles, alive and well.

“We need to be looking at other watersheds free of invasive species where we can try introducing a few whitefish, somewhere they might persist and be safe,” he says. “They haven’t got much time left.”

Last spring such an effort seemed possible, when the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), instructed Breen to collect 28 infant whitefish from the Petite Rivière and store them at the Coldbrook Hatchery, an insurance policy against extinction and the possible beginnings of a captive breeding project.

Breen, and many in the conservation community, breathed a sigh of relief, knowing all eggs were no longer in one basket, until October of 2018 when DFO announced their intention to dump these whitefish back into their home watershed, citing a lack of space at their Coldbrook Hatchery.

“If it wasn’t for the intervention of Paul Bentzen, I think DFO would have put those fish back in the watershed,” says Breen. “I don’t know how much point there would have been in carrying on.”

Paul Bentzen is a fish ecologist, geneticist and chair of Dalhousie’s department of biology. He’s spent a career in service to fish, either shedding light on their lives and needs, or else advocating their protection to whomever will listen.

20 | halifaxmag.com DECEMBER 2019

“When I heard these [whitefish] were going back to their lake of origin, I knew I had to stop it,” he recalls. “I knew they were going to die there. The mortality rate would be very high, if not 100% because of the pickerel and bass.”

One time he demonstrated to lawmakers that a single, at-risk species of native, landlocked smelt was actually two distinct species, each in need of drastically different recovery strategies. He’s tracked the decline of Nova Scotia’s freshwater biodiversity using the fieldwork of himself and colleagues, and is presently wrangling the funds necessary for a larger, systematic study on the subject, providing context for conservation efforts across the province. The widespread loss of native Brook trout, Striped bass, and others are firmly on his radar, and with the sturdy hand of science he’s bringing these matters to the forefront.

While not always glamorous, Bentzen is keenly aware of the biodiversity crisis playing out in the watersheds of the world, and is doing everything in his power, as a scientists and educator, to turn the tide, all the while grading papers and publishing his conclusions. An academic in demeanor, he has the curious ability to make things happen, and to date, no case has garnered more attention than his rescue of the Atlantic whitefish.

He’s paid close attention to the species’ decline these last few decades, and was fast to act when the refugees of Coldbrook Hatchery were threatened with repatriation. He called DFO in October 2018 and offered to take these whitefish himself, storing them in Dalhousie’s state-ofthe-art research aquarium (Aquatron) all before securing permission from the university. Thankfully Dalhousie was on board and DFO delivered the fish in late December 2018.

With the collapse of the Petite Rivière population expected in the not-so-distant future (Bentzen puts their numbers between a few dozen to a couple hundred) these infant whitefish could represent the species’ only hope for recovery, a process Bentzen has taken upon himself to initiate.

relocate the species, but a costly ordeal in the meantime. While he hasn’t begun this second search for funding, the realities of reproduction are foremost on his mind.

Aquatron is above all else a research facility; these whitefish won’t exceed its capacity for some time, but more hatcheries will be needed to handle a full scale captive breeding project. The dozens of infant whitefish Andrew Breen captured last May were likewise transported to Bentzen at Aquatron, a standing order from DFO. “We’re the new home for these fish,” says Bentzen. “We’re going to hang onto them as long as is needed, whatever that turns out to be.

These fish are part of our natural legacy…that can’t be emphasized enough. There is nowhere else on the planet you can find these fish.”

tadams@metroguide.ca

Halifax Magazine

@HalifaxEditor @HalifaxMagazine

PHOTO: ZACK METCALFE

In 2020, Bentzen and like-minded academics intend to get funding for a sizable survey of Nova Scotia’s lakes and rivers. The primary purpose of this survey would be to determine the damage of invasive Chain pickerel and Smallmouth bass to provincial watersheds, but it would also be a search for clean watersheds into which Atlantic whitefish might be introduced, thus rescuing the species. Where this funding will ultimately come from is still an open question.

“One way or another, we will do it,” he says.

Meanwhile, these whitefish are enjoying safe captivity, with ample food, veterinary care, and the keen eyes of researchers like Bentzen, taking this opportunity to sequence the species’ genome. Aside from their exceeding rarity, Bentzen says Atlantic whitefish are an archaic species; a relatively unchanged early ancestor of several native fish, offering a window into the past.

Before long (perhaps as early as spring 2020) these whitefish will begin to multiply, an eventuality that could aid Bentzen’s intention to

“I KNEW I HAD TO STOP IT. I KNEW [THE ATLANTIC WHITEFISH] WERE GOING TO DIE THERE” —PAUL BENTZEN

DECEMBER 2019 halifaxmag.com | 21

| FEATURE |

RISING FROM THE ASHES WHEN THE HALIFAX EXPLOSION HIT, THE HINCH FAMILY LOST MORE THAN MOST: A TRAGEDY THROUGH THE EYES OF A 15-YEAR-OLD

BY MICHAEL DUPUIS

Writer’s note: When my book Bearing Witness was published for the centenary of the Halifax Explosion in 2017, I thought I had written the full story about the tragedy experienced by Canadian Press messenger boy Leo Hinch. Thanks to his descendants, I’ve learned there’s much more to tell. _______________ Leo Hinch would never forget Dec. 7, 1917.

At 9:00 a.m., the stocky 15-year-old Halifax born Canadian Press messenger boy left the second-floor news agency’s office in the Halifax Morning Chronicle on Granville Street. Like thousands in Halifax and Dartmouth, Leo was unaware that 15 minutes earlier, the Belgian relief vessel Imo had collided with the munitions laden steamer Mont-Blanc in the Narrows, a fire had erupted on Mont-Blanc and the burning vessel drifted to Pier 6 on the northeast side of Halifax.

At 9:04 Leo stood on the Chronicle’s front entrance contemplating the crisp late autumn day. His first job was to go to the Halifax Herald and Acadian Recorder and collect duplicate copies of their main stories.

He would then hand over the “dupes” to the agency’s telegraph operator who would select, edit and wire the most important local stories to newspapers across the country.

As Leo exited the building, he saw a blinding flash of light and giant fireball soar over his North End neighbourhood. Next was a horrendous ear-splitting roar and crash. Within seconds the earth beneath his feet shook, the Chronicle building swayed and he tumbled onto Granville Street. For several moments Leo lay on the ground, unable to move.

In the eerie silence that followed he slowly picked himself up from a pile of shattered glass and splintered wood.

Unhurt but dazed, Leo wondered what had caused the disaster.

German bombs from a Zeppelin or shells from a submarine? A gas-

22 | halifaxmag.com DECEMBER 2019

Leo Hinch with sister Cora Matheson (right) and sister Annie Nelson (left) in Dartmouth in the 1950s. Front row (left to right): Cora, Leo, and Annie. Courtesy Susan Nelson.

main explosion? A massive dynamite detonation from the western rail cut to the Ocean Terminals?

Of course, it was was Mont-Blanc’s 2.9-kiloton explosion at Pier 6 which would result in the devastation of a 10-square-kilometer area of Halifax/Dartmouth. Some 2,000 died, 9,000 were injured, more than 200 blinded; 1,600 houses destroyed, 12,000 damaged, more than 6,000 people made homeless, and 12,000 left without adequate shelter.

As a thick, mushroom-shaped cloud spiralled high over the North End and a black mixture of oil, soot, and water rained down, Leo had one thought: go home. As he neared North Street and the start of the working-class district of Richmond, the destruction shocked him. The roof of the North End station had fallen in and splintered glass covered the platform. Gas mains and water pipes were ruptured, telegraph and telephone lines down, railway and streetcars wrecked, trees trunks split, roads littered with debris and dead or dying horses.

The magnitude of human disaster indelibly seared into Leo’s memory. Scarred, twisted, torn, and mangled bodies, including tiny children, were everywhere: in street gutters, draped over upturned vehicles and blown onto overhead wires, telephone poles and tree

limbs. Some had heads torn from bodies, others limbs from trunks or cut in two. A few were naked. He also found victims on their back with not a bone broken or mark of an injury: the concussion killed them instantly.

Moving north along Gottingen Street, Leo soon encountered a mass of fear-stricken women and children lacerated by iron and steel shards, flying glass fragments, and splinters. Rushing from homes they were crying, bleeding, and pleading for help. Other blood-spattered and wounded survivors were hobbling to the nearest doctors’ offices and hospitals. Most pathetic were the strangely gashed and blinded victims who stumbled from ruined and burning structures crying out for help as automobiles, delivery vans, heavy wagons, wheelbarrows, and other improvised stretchers scurried by with blanket-clad bodies to temporary hospitals and morgues.

Further along Gottingen, Leo saw the devastation to the cheap, wood-frame houses covering the working class community. The blast’s concussion collapsed most of these structures, spewing pickets from fences, shingles from roofs, plaster and laths from walls and causing heavy timbers to crush whole families at once. More horrifying than instant death was the fate of the living and injured who survived the house’s collapse only to be burned alive in the ruins from toppled kitchen and hall stoves.

At the corner of Gottingen and Richmond, Leo turned south towards Barrington and the waterfront. As he approached 18 Richmond St. his worst fears were realized. Less than 300 metres from Ground Zero, his house, according to a Dec. 10 newspaper account, “was entirely destroyed, having first collapsed and then burned to the ground.”

Inside the wreckage were the bodies of his mother Louisa and brothers Harold and John, plus one year-old Catherine Matheson, his sister Cora’s daughter. No rescue attempt was possible.

Leo’s father David, a boilermaker, survived because he was away when the explosion occurred. He had the grizzly task of identifying the bodies, including the “charred remains” of his wife, and later the bodies of his brother and 10 children. According to great-niece Susan Oxford, after this experience David “was never the same”.

That wasn’t the extent of Leo’s losses. Thirty-two relatives, all in the neighbourhood near Ground Zero, also died, including four uncles, two aunts, 20 cousins, one sister-in-law, and three nieces and nephews.

The outcome at 66 Veith St., where 10 of Leo’s cousins and his uncle Joseph died, was particularly devastating. The family’s only survivor was Leo’s pregnant Aunt Mary Jean who had left the house moments before the blast. The explosion buried her under debris in a ditch across the street. Rescuers found her 24 hours later under two metres of lumber clutching her rosary. Miraculously, she had not been swept into the harbour when the blast’s eight-metre tidal wave had surged up Richmond and then back down to the Narrows.

The loss of his mother and brothers was not Leo’s first experience of death in the family. Like many other families in Richmond’s working-class district, the Hinch household was large. Married in 1885, Louisa had given birth to 11 children. Leo had watched four die: Percy with cholera and Henry of asthma; Kathleen from dysentery/ whooping cough and Agnes of broncho/pertussis.

As darkness descended on Dec. 6, the temperature dropped and snow began to fall. After midnight, a blizzard raged. The next morning, Leo found the ruins blanketed in white, temporarily camouflaging

Leo Hinch in Schenectady, N.Y. in 1965. Courtesy Susan Nelson.

the family’s crematorium. However nothing could hide the smell of burning wood, coal, and human flesh.

Leo turned 16 on Dec. 12 and soon after joined his father and sisters Cora and Ellen at Mount Olivet Cemetery to lay to rest John, Harold, and Louisa, whose coffin also contained niece Catherine. On Dec. 22 Leo also likely attended the burial of 10 cousins and Uncle Joseph at Mount Olivet. Joseph was placed in one casket and the remains of the children in another.

The Halifax Relief Commission did not provide relief directly to Leo but awarded his father a total of $2,480 to compensate for the loss of property and possessions and loss of wages for 18-year-old Harold.

Leo soon left Halifax and Nova Scotia and settled in Welland, Ont. where on April 13, 1921 he married British-born Nora Vernon. In 1924 they moved to Schenectady, N.Y. where he worked as a welder for more than 25 years for the American Locomotive Company (ALCO).

On April 13, 1971 they celebrated their 50th anniversary. Leo died in Schenectady on Oct. 2, 1979 leaving behind Nora, two children (Harold and Irene) four grandchildren and several nieces and nephews.

Following Leo’s death, Nora said to Irene, “I want to go with him.”

Perhaps willing herself to do so after nearly 60 years of marriage, on Oct. 9 Nora slipped into a coma after viewing Leo at the funeral home.

She died before his burial.

tadams@metroguide.ca

Halifax Magazine

@HalifaxEditor @HalifaxMagazine

The Hinch home was one of hundreds that the Halifax Explosion destroyed.

BOTTOM RIGHT: NOVA SCOTIA ARCHIVES ACCESSION NO. 1987-453 NO. 4341 TOP LEFT: NOVA SCOTIA ARCHIVES ACCESSION NO. 1976-166 NO. 106 / NEGATIVE: N-2373

DECEMBER 2019 halifaxmag.com | 23

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DRINK

THE 12 BEERS OF CHRISTMAS WATCH YOUR WALLET AND STOCK YOUR FRIDGE WITHOUT RESORTING TO DISCOUNT BEER. HERE ARE THE BEST LOCAL AND IMPORTED BEERS YOU CAN GET IN HALIFAX FOR UNDER $5 EACH

BY KIM HART MACNEILL

Tantoaster

Brooklyn Lager

(Baltic porter)

(amber lager)

Boxing Rock Brewing Co. Shelburne, N.S. $3.49 / 7.5% Brewed during Dorian, this beer is named for the local term for a wicked storm. This Baltic porter offers a burst of smooth, sweet malt flavours and a hit of spicy Magnum hops for clean bitterness with a hint of citrus flavour. Plus in a 355-ml bottle, it’ll fit nicely in a stocking. Find it at Local Source Market and most liquor stores.

Brooklyn Brewing Williamsburg, NY $4.50 / 5.2% While many wouldn’t recognize it as a lager because of its deep red colour, Vienna-style beer with a big malty backbone is my go-to lager style. Amid the almost sticky tasting caramel malts, you’ll discover an aggressive amount of dry-hopping, plus floral and herbal notes that pair well with its bitter finish. Drink with salty snacks or a meat dish. Find it at Bishop’s Cellar.

North Brewing Co. Cole Harbour, N.S. $4.00 / 5% One of North’s early releases from its new spot in Cole Harbour. A textbook Irish red, it offers baked fruit aromas plus caramel and biscuit flavours with a smooth finish of pine and a hint of grass. Find it at Bishop’s Cellar and the brewery.

28 | halifaxmag.com DECEMBER 2019

2 Crows Brewing Co. Halifax, N.S. $3.40 / 3.1% While 2 Crows is known for its barrel program, don’t overlook this tiny, hoppy pale ale. It packs a lot of punch into its low ABV. Dry hopping with “obscene” amounts of Galaxy, Citra, and Idaho 7 lends it notes of papaya, pineapple, and tangerine.

It has a dry finish and a touch of pine to close out each sip. Find it at the private stores and the brewery.

Anchor Steam Beer

Cole Harbour Red (Irish Red)

Matinee (pale ale)

Saltwater Joys (gose) The Church Brewing Co. Wolfville, N.S. $4.49 / 4.4% Gose as a style is known for its salty finish, and the addition of pink Himalayan sea salt accomplishes this perfectly.

Opening this can will remind you of summer afternoons on the shore. Big tropical hops bring aroma and flavour while a hint of lime zest finishes off everything perfectly. Find it at Bishop’s Cellar and the brewery.

Anchor Brewing San Francisco, CA $3.50 / 4.8% First brewed in 1896, Anchor is widely considered the U.S.’s oldest commercial beer. To this day, it’s open fermented, meaning instead of sitting in steel tanks like at most breweries, the lager bubbles and froths in open tanks, cooled by piped-in San Francisco breezes. Search YouTube for open fermentation and you’re in for a treat. This copper lager offers caramel malts and subtle toast and grass flavours with a refreshing finish. Find it at the private stores.

Christmas Ale St. Peter’s Brewery Co. Suffolk, U.K. $4.99 / 7% You know it is truly the most wonderful time of the year when the winter warmers hit the shelves. While the bottle shape is reminiscent of old-fashioned medicine bottles, what’s inside is a fruity, Christmas spiced delight. Think fruitcake soaked in dark beer. Drink it with charcuterie or holiday cookies. Find this one at the NSLC.

Freezing Spray IPA Heritage Brewing Co. Yarmouth, N.S. $4.49 / 6.5% Hop heads flock to this beer because it does exactly what it promises. Ample additions of Chinook, Ekuanot, and Citra hops bring armloads of citrus and fruit aromas with a little pine and spice to highlight a wide range of hop flavours that somehow blend perfectly. Find it at NSLC and the brewery.

Smoked Porter NZ Pils Propeller Brewing Co. Halifax, N.S. $4.50 / 5.2% Released in November, this new-world take on a classic pilsner won’t last long.

Named for the origin of its Nelson Sauvin and Motueka hops, expect aromas of gooseberry, fresh citrus, and white wine in this easy drinking refresher. Find it at the brewery or private stores.

Uncle Leo’s Brewery Pictou, N.S. $4.75 / 6.8% This bold beer isn’t for everyone. As soon as you crack the can, you’ll smell wood smoke. It pours an inky black with flavours of cocoa, coffee, and dark fruit, plus a touch of hickory. Drink it by the fire, or while dreaming of having a fireplace. Find it most anywhere you buy local beer.

Praha Bohemian Lager Grimross Brewing Frederiction, N.B. $4.85 / 3.8% This is another beer perfect for when you have gifts to wrap but want a cold, crisp beer. It features the low alcohol and clean flavour of a Czech pilsner and Saaz hops for a delicate bitterness. Bonus, pour it in a glass and you may be able to sneak it past relatives think they hate craft beer. Find it at the private stores.

Darling (English dark mild) Tatamagouche Brewing Co. Tatamagouche, N.S. 4.50 / 3.6% This beer made its triumphant return in October at Cask Days in Toronto, but now you’ll find it in cans across the city. True to style, it offers delicate flavours of toast and nuts with a hint of sweet baked fruits and drinks smooth and sweet. Pair it with a cold weather classic meal like beef stew. Find it at Bishop’s Cellar and the brewery. tadams@metroguide.ca Halifax Magazine @HalifaxEditor @HalifaxMagazine

DECEMBER 2019 halifaxmag.com | 29

OPINION

SEASON OF LIGHT AS HALIFAX CELEBRATES CHRISTMAS, OUR COLUMNIST REFLECTS ON HER FAVOURITE HOLIDAY FROM HOME

BY MARIANNE SIMON

Every time I hear “Happy holidays,” I think about the Diwali festival we celebrate back in India, in October or November after the harvest. Like Christmas in Canada, it’s a broad celebration. Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and some Buddhists celebrate it in India and the world over. Many other Indians join in, too.

The word Diwali (or Deepavali as it is sometimes called) means “row of lights” in the ancient Indian language, Sanskrit. Diwali is the festival of lights. It symbolizes the spiritual victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance.

The message of Diwali is universal. Light will always banish darkness, good will always triumph over evil, knowledge will erase ignorance, leading humanity to peace, progress, and prosperity.

This gives us hope. No matter how bad situations may seem, there is reason for rejoicing.

As with Christmas, preparations for Diwali start many days or weeks before the festival begins. People spend a great deal of time cleaning, renovating, painting, and decorating homes, and buying clothes, food, and gifts for family members and friends.

Diwali celebrations last five days. The first day is called Dhandheras. This is an amalgamation of Sanskrit words dhan that stands for wealth, and teras that refers to the 13th day of the Hindu calendar. This day is dedicated to the worship of goddess Lakshmi (the goddess of wealth) and buying objects made of gold and silver.

The second day is Naraka Chaturdasi or Choti Diwali. According to Hindu mythology, on this day, Lord Krishna defeated Narakasur, the demon king.

The third day is the main celebration. Goddess Lakshmi and Lord Ganesha (god of knowledge and wisdom, and the one who removes all obstacles) are worshipped. Adherents believe that goddess Lakshmi enters homes and blesses devotees with good fortune and wealth on this day.

The third day also commemorates the return of Lord Ram, Sita and Lakshman to Ayodhya after defeating King Ravana. In Bengal, goddess Kali’s victory over evil is celebrated on this day.

The fourth day is Govardhan Puja or Padva in the northern provinces of India. In the western states of India, this day marks the New Year as per their calendar and is celebrated as Bestu Varas (New Year in Gujarati). It’s a day for starting new business.

The fifth and last day of the festivities is the Bhai Dooj. On this day, brothers visit their sisters and perform a “tilak” ceremony. A “teeka” (a mark) of rice and vermilion is applied on the brother’s forehead, which is followed by aarti (an offering of light). Sisters pray for brothers’ long life while brothers promise to protect sisters.

30 | halifaxmag.com DECEMBER 2019

Bhai Dooj marks the end of a festival of pure joy, radiance and lights, a festival dear to every Indian.

Rangoli or Kolam is an art form originated in India thousands of years ago. It is a large, elaborate decoration made on the floor with coloured powders, rice flour, chalk, and fresh flowers. We make rangolis during Diwali and other Hindu festivals. Designs pass from one generation to the next, keeping both the art form and the tradition alive. Designs and colors vary greatly based on the regions of India. A rangoli is created at the entrance of the home to herald the coming of goddess Lakshmi.

During Diwali, people visit temples and offer gifts of sweets and flowers to their favorite deity and pray for happiness and prosperity for their families. Diwali is a family-oriented festival. People travel long distances to come home during this season and just being together is considered the biggest celebration.

As part of the celebration, special sweets are prepared and shared among family members, relatives and friends. Ladoos made of cottage cheese, coconut, moong dal, and wheat flour are very popular. Carrot halwa, corn flour halwa, and coconut halwa are some of the favorites. Different kinds of burfis, Jelebis, pedas, rasmalai, and gulab jamuns are some of the other common sweets made during Diwali.

In my state, Kerala, all the sweets and savories have the unique taste of coconut milk. (The name of the state itself means the land of coconut trees.) We use coconut in everything we cook.

Singing, dancing, and performances continue for five days.

Fireworks form a major part of the entertainment. Even children are allowed to light sparklers and play with them, while being supervised. Indians spend millions buying fireworks every year.

The pomp and splendor of Diwali surpasses every other Indian festival. What a sight it is to see people celebrate! The whole world seems to glitter with decorations. The millions of diyas (small clay oil lamps) with their soft flames gently swaying in the breeze light up the whole earth. They seem to outshine the stars in the heavens.

The fragrance of rangoli flowers fill the air and awaken sweet memories of love and laughter. The bursting firecrackers, though loud, add to the joyous spirit of Diwali and spread cheer around.

Celebrations continue till the early hours of the morning. And every heart dreams of a happier and prosperous life in the coming days and years. tadams@metroguide.ca Halifax Magazine @HalifaxEditor @HalifaxMagazine

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