Halifax Magazine November 2017

PLUS: RED SKY AT NIGHT, DANCING DELIGHT—HALIFAX HOSTS A UNIQUE PERFORMANCE P. 16 ADMIRAL JOHN NEWTON REFLECTS ON HIS TIME AS HALIFAX’S TOP SAILOR P. 18 NOVA SCOTIA CRAFT-BEER ADVICE AND REVIEWS P. 32

Humans of Saint Vincent A local artist shares Haligonians’ stories

NOVEMBER 2017 $3.95

The Halifax Explosion served as a catalyst for the formation of CNIB On December 6, 1917, one of the most catastrophic events in Canadian history struck the shores of Nova Scotia...

When the SS Mont Blanc accidentally collided with the SS Imo in Halifax Harbour, hundreds gathered along the shorelines, while others watched from their windows, to witness the fiery aftermath. What they didn’t realize was that the Mont Blanc was fully loaded with wartime explosives, and it was ready to blow.

Twenty-four minutes later, the wreckage exploded – causing a tsunami in the harbour and a massive flash that leveled buildings for kilometres around.

It was the largest manmade accidental explosion the world had ever seen.

• 2,000 people killed • 9,000 injured • 1,000+ serious eye injuries from flying glass and debris • 250 eye removals • 206 survivors lost one eye • 260 had glass embedded in their eyes Coupled with the fact that veterans were returning home blinded after World War I, the explosion meant there were suddenly more

Nova Scotians living with blindness or partial sight than ever before.

In 2017, Nova Scotia is home to more than 13,000 people who are blind or partially sighted – and it is more important than ever that CNIB continue delivering programs that focus on improving quality of life for Nova Scotians who are blind or partially sighted, and creating a more inclusive, barrier-free society.

For more information about how CNIB is making a difference in your community or to donate, call 902-453-1480 or visit cnib.ca

On our cover The residents of Saint Vincent’s Nursing Home share their stories with a local artist.

Illustrations: Susan MacLeod.

PUBLISHER Patty

Baxter

SENIOR EDITOR Trevor

J. Adams

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Jamie ART DIRECTOR Mike DESIGN Barbara

Playfair

Cugno

Raymont

PRODUCTION COORDINATORS

Kelsey Berg, Emma Brennan PRINTING Advocate

Printing & Publishing

FO R ADV E RTI S I NG SAL E S CO NTACT:

902-420-9943 publishers@metroguide.ca FOR EDITORIAL AND SUBSCRIPTION ENQUIRIES:

Tel: 902-420-9943 Fax: 902-429-9058 Email: publishers@metroguide.ca 2882 Gottingen Street Halifax, Nova Scotia B3K 3E2 metroguidepublishing.ca halifaxmag.com S U B S CR I P TI O NS

Canada: one year (10 issues), $32+ HST; USA: one year, $32 US; overseas: one year, $42 Cdn. To subscribe to Halifax Magazine, go to halifaxmag.com.

Halifax Magazine is published 10 times a year, and is distributed to homes in select postal codes, sold on newsstands throughout Metro Halifax, mailed directly, and available at select coffee shops and grocery stores. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher.

Publications mail agreement no. 40601061 Return undeliverable addresses to Metro Guide Publishing at the address above.

East of Grafton Tavern 1580 Argyle St 902.428.5680 Eastofgrafton.com eastofgrafton@rcr.ca

Halifax Magazine is a Metro Guide publication.

4 | halifaxmag.com NOVEMBER 2017

CONTENTS

Vol. 17 No. 9 | November 2017

20

18

DEPARTMENTS

18 | HANDING OVER THE HELM For four years, John Newton had the navy’s biggest job in Halifax—at the end of his term, he reflects on the experience

7 | EDITOR’S MESSAGE Nova Scotia deserves province-spanning transit service. But how do we get it?

8 | LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Readers respond

20 | PRETTY YOUNG THINGS Development is changing the face of one of Halifax’s most architecturally distinct neighbourhoods

8 | CONTRIBUTORS Meet the writers and photographers who work on Halifax Magazine 10 | CITYSCAPE Halifax’s last Second World War tragedy, author Genevieve Graham explores the city’s history, a new song commemorates the Halifax Explosion, and more

24 | HUMANS OF SAINT VINCENT The journey of a lifetime—an illustrated exploration of lives lived in Halifax

By simply answering the questions below, you will be eligible to win $100 in product or service from the Halifax Magazine advertiser of your choice.

16 | ENTERTAINMENT International basketball, Christmas celebrations, and live music galore— our favourite things to see and do in Halifax this month

All cards must be completed fully to qualify for the contest.

Closing date: August 14, 2015.

32 | DRINK: WHAT’S IN A NAME? As Nova Scotia’s beer industry grows, who defines craft? And why does it matter?

General Contest Rules: Entries sent to any address other than the one given below will be ineligible.

Entries must be postmarked no later than August 14. Each entry must be submitted with a completed entry form. No responsibility will be taken for entries lost, misdirected or delayed in the mail, and no entries will be returned. Winner will be notified by telephone or email. Prize must be accepted as awarded, is not redeemable for cash and is not transferable.

ronment q Education _____________________

_____________________

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

34 | OPINION: PROTEST IS PATRIOTIC Sidney Crosby has a right to go to the White House and we have a right to question that decision

24

Scan Scanthis thistotocomplete answer our survey. the questions online.

PHOTO: WILL ROBERTS

ILLUSTRATION: SUSAN MACLEOD

stories?

Tell us what you want to see in Halifax Magazine.

Scan to complete oma/certificateour five-minute readership survey.

15

16

PHOTO: KIM STOODLEY

$100

PHOTO: CHRIS MUISE

PHOTO: KATIE INGRAM

10

FEATURES

32

NOVEMBER 2017 halifaxmag.com | 5

Stationery and Cards As the saying goes, “you only have one chance to make a good first impression.” How you present your business to the public is your first impression. We can help you with everything from stunning business cards to serviceable but corporate forms and labels.

Signage

Direct Mail

Get noticed with interior and exterior signage, banners, displays, decals, POP and more. From a one-off sign to a fullscale event, we will make you stand out in a crowd.

Discover how direct mail is a powerful, proven method to acquire and retain customers.

Whether you’re looking for total market coverage or a more targeted mailing, we can help.

Marketing Materials Whether you need a display and unique handouts for trade shows or want to highlight your successes in an annual report, we understand the importance of marketing.

we do that We make your life easier by providing the products and services your business needs to put its best face forward.

DARTMOUTH: 162 Trider Crescent 902-457-7468 HALIFAX: 2882 Gottingen Street 902-455-2870 PICTOU | DIEPPE | BRIDGEWATER | SAINT JOHN | ST. STEPHEN | ST. JOHN’S

EDITOR’S MESSAGE

Transit: it’s easier than we think In the last issue of Halifax Magazine, I wrote about why Nova Scotia needs transit that regularly serves the whole province (“You can’t get there from here”). I promised that this month, I’d talk about how we can get it.

I’m ruing that commitment now, though. This is going to be a tough one to stretch out over 700 words: we just do it.

This is the sort of thing we like to pretend is super-complicated and requires endless study and planning. It isn’t. Transit service that runs efficiently and links rural areas and urban cores exists all over the world. This doesn’t require Nova Scotia’s brightest minds to spend years in labs, furiously scrawling on whiteboards. Look at just about any Western European country, and you’ll find easily exportable models for accessible transit serving commuters, students, retirees, and visitors all equally well.

Obviously, any model requires tailoring to fit Nova Scotia’s geography, demographics, and needs. In my last couple of editorials, I’ve written about things I saw and liked on recent trips to Europe, things I think we should do too. Such columns usually draw the same response: “That’s fine for Europe, but Nova Scotia is different.”

If Nova Scotia is really different, it’s only in our fear of ideas like this. It’s not like one day the continents stopped drifting and Europe just sprang into existence with fully formed transit systems. They’re the result of careful planning, fine-tuning, and listening to citizens’ needs. I don’t know exactly where Nova Scotia’s transit should run, or how often, but that’s OK: there are experts who plan networks like this for a living. There’s nothing to stop us from learning from them.

“So OK wise ass, if it’s as easy as just doing it, how do we pay for it?”

I’m glad you asked. The greatest trick Premier Stephen McNeil and his fellow proausterity politicians have played is convincing Nova Scotians that this province can’t provide the basic services they need and deserve. The thinking is: we’re awash in debt, we have no money: you should appreciate what you have and certainly not expect more.

That’s an excellent tactic to keep citizens from getting too demanding, and remind them to be grateful for every crumb the government throws them.

It’s also nonsense. No matter what Nova Scotia’s finances really look like, we have money to throw at projects that are politically popular.

Nova Scotia has $160 million to help a private developer build a convention centre in downtown Halifax. Nova Scotia has apparently-endless millions to subsidize a privately-operated and woefully under-used Yarmouth-Maine ferry ($23 million last year alone). In the spring, the McNeil government promised to spend $390 million over seven years to twin highways.

We can always afford the things the government wants. If McNeil decided that province-spanning transit was a priority, he’d find money for it.

Nova Scotia’s transit wouldn’t be jammed right away. It takes time to chip away at our deeply entrenched car culture. People need to see that transit can be accessible, fast, cheap, and reliable. And when they do, all of Nova Scotia will benefit.

Workforces will be more mobile. The thousands of Nova Scotians who work in lowpaying jobs will stop working to support their cars, and be able to invest their money in improving their lives.

PHOTO: TAMMY FANCY

BY TREVOR J. ADAMS, EDITOR

tadams@metroguide.ca Halifax Magazine @HalifaxEditor @HalifaxMagazine

Retirees and seniors will enjoy more freedom. The environment will benefit, roads will see less wear and tear. Rural communities will be more attractive destinations for visitors and locals alike. There’s simply no downside to a well-designed transit system.

We can do it, and we should.

A MARITIME

Choose your favourite fresh, authentic Extra Virgin Olive Oil. No drilling required.

FREE

375 ML BOTTL * E *When you purchase 3 × 375 ml bottles.

Offer includes extra virgin olive oils, flavoured olive oils and balsamic condimento.

Valid through November 12. Does not include gourmet and truffle oils.

Fresh. Tested. True.

allthingsolive.ca

fl

  • b u NOVEMBER 2017 halifaxmag.com | 7

CONTRIBUTORS SARAH SAWLER Cityscape Sarah is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in such publications as Halifax Magazine, Quill & Quire, Atlantic Business Magazine, and ParentsCanada.

Nimbus Publishing released her first nonfiction book, 100 Things You Don’t Know About Nova Scotia, in April 2016.

BOB GORDON Cityscape Bob is a journalist and popular historian specializing in Canadian military and social history. His work has been published in The Beaver, Air Power Review, Parents Magazine, and various Canadian titles. He contributes regularly to Espirit de Corps.

SUSAN MACLEOD “Humans of Saint Vincent” Susan has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from NSCAD University and is a candidate for a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction from the University of King’s College. She’s creating the program’s first graphic memoir, a look at the long-term health-care system. Follow Humans of Saint Vincent’s on Instagram.

RICHARD WOODBURY Cityscape Richard writes for both local and national publications and his work has been published

by Reuters, Metro, and Enterprise Magazine. richardwoodbury.ca

CHRIS MUISE “Handing over the helm” Chris is a freelance reporter working out of Halifax, with a particular affinity for community journalism. Ask him about his toy-robot collection if you have about eight hours to kill.

JENNIFER TAPLIN Cityscape Jennifer covered city hall for Metro. She is now a freelance writer in Halifax and has written for newspapers across the country.

SUZANNE RENT Cityscape Suzanne is an editor and writer whose work has appeared in The Coast, Lawyers Weekly, Canadian Business, Globe and Mail, Bakers Journal, Our Children, and more. She hosts the radio show Cobequid Magazine on 97.5 Community Radio.

TAMMY FANCY Photo for Editor’s Message, Entertainment Tammy has shot for East Coast Living, Bedford Magazine, Profiles for Success, and Our Children magazines, plus two cookbooks from Formac Publishing. fancyfreefoto.com

KATIE INGRAM “Pretty Young things” Katie is a freelance journalist, journalism instructor, and author based in Halifax.

Her work has appeared in local, regional, national, and international publications. katieyingram.wordpress.com

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Forced to have a car

A different way to live

Thank you for writing “You can’t get there from here” (October 2017). I have long bemoaned the lack of public transportation in Nova Scotia and deeply resent having to pay for a car now.

When I was a little girl, one could go almost everywhere in Nova Scotia by either bus or train, daily. It is so discouraging that the government emphasis was put on everyone buying a car instead of maintaining a public transportation system.

Maybe your generation can bring it back.

Valerie Weatherby, Balfron, N.S.

Your editorial “Lessons from rural Europe” (September 2017) was brilliant and should be required reading in every classroom, municipal unit, level of government, forestry company, planning office, and architectural firm. In fact, everyone in Nova Scotia should read and heed the lessons to be learned from this small but mighty part of Austria.

The difference between their successful attitude towards all aspects of sustainability and our monetized version of the world is shockingly huge.

Syd Dumaresq, Chester, N.S

8 | halifaxmag.com NOVEMBER 2017

RESPOND To comment on something you’ve read in Halifax Magazine, email your letter (300 words maximum) to tadams@metroguide.ca.

We edit letters for grammar and clarity.

Also reach us via Twitter (@HalifaxMagazine) or Facebook (“Halifax Magazine”).

OLDER

NEW

REVERSE

yFi

Where Canada Shines the Brightest.

Glacier Fire, a premier hallmark of a true Canadian Diamond, has a respected heritage of hand selecting only the finest diamonds for its family. A Glacier Fire Canadian Diamond embodies the brilliant beauty of an exquisite diamond while supporting the values and legacy of our Canadian identity.

Proudly Canadian Owned & Operated

charmdiamonds.com

CITYSCAPE HISTORY

Halifax’s last war tragedy

BY BOB GORDON

Nautical lore has long held that it is ill-omened to begin a voyage on a Friday. Perhaps workers sealed HMCS Esquimalt’s fate when they laid down its keel at a Quebec shipyard on Friday, December 20, 1940. The ship’s short and troubled life ended in tragedy off Chebucto Head; it was the last Canadian warship the enemy sunk in the Second World War. The Bangor-class minesweepers were cheap and quick to build, with little else to recommend them. Esquimalt had a top speed of just 16 knots and was armed with a single quick-firing 12-pounder cannon mounted forward, two 20-mm cannons on the bridge wings, two antiaircraft guns, and two depth-charge launchers. It had a complement of seven officers and 64 sailors.

It was a diesel-powered variant, harder to handle than the slowspeed reciprocating-engine versions. Other problems magnified in the diesel version. Lacking a boiler, it was 6 metres shorter than steam-powered models, magnifying the tendency to bury the bow when operating in a head sea. Shallow draft increased instability.

Esquimalt launched in the summer of 1941. Problems plagued the vessel; it was another 14 months before it was ready for service.

Commissioned in October 1942, almost two years after construction began, it finally arrived in Halifax in November 1942.

Upon arrival, it needed to lay up for further repairs and only became operational on March 27, 1943. Again, May was spent in repairs. Finally, Esquimalt was assigned to Newfoundland Force, but that service was short lived.

By September it was back in Halifax for more repairs and out of service until the New Year. In January 1945, it joined Halifax Local Defense Force. On the evening of April 15, 1945 Esquimalt sailed on a routine anti-submarine patrol of the approaches to Halifax.

It was scheduled to rendezvous the next day with HMCS Sarnia off Chebucto Head. At 6:10 a.m., depth-charge crews stood down.

Daybreak revealed a long, low swell with good visibility as the watch changed. An experienced officer, Lt. Robert Cunningham MacMillan, was in command, but Esquimalt made no efforts to protect itself. It was equipped with special gear to distract acoustic 10 | halifaxmag.com NOVEMBER 2017

torpedoes, but didn’t deploy it. Nor was it following a zigzag course, a rudimentary measure to avoid submarine attack. This serious neglect of orders endangered the ship. A naval inquiry petered out in peacetime without explaining these failures.

At around 6:30 a.m., it crossed paths with the German submarine U-190. On its sixth patrol, it had left Norway in February and attacked a merchant ship in early April without success. But in the early hours of April 16, commander Lieutenant Hans-Edwin Reith brought U-190 up to periscope depth and sighted HMCS Esquimalt. Reith immediately fired a single torpedo from a stern tube and dove for the bottom. The torpedo ripped into Esquimalt’s starboard quarter. U-190 finally scored its first hit.

Esquimalt’s bad luck continued. The explosion knocked out the ship’s electrical system before the wireless operator could send an SOS. Only three minutes earlier Esquimalt had reported in to the Port War Signal Station, so no one would miss the ship for hours.

With the signalers injured and the ship listing severely to port, none of the crew fired flares. The list also prevented launching the ship’s sole life boat. Instead, the crew launched flimsy liferafts.

Four minutes after the torpedo hit, Esquimalt sank by the stern.

The few, freezing, soaked survivors could see the lights of Halifax, but no one there knew what had happened.

At 8 a.m., Esquimalt failed to rendezvous with Sarnia, but no one reported that until 9:50 a.m. Finally, a search began. At 12:50 p.m., more than six hours after the sinking, Sarnia sighted the survivors. Only 27 remained; almost two-thirds of the ship’s compliment was dead. The casualty list was published on VE-Day, lost amidst coverage of the infamous riots.

U-190 spent an anxious week lying on the seabed silently outwaiting a sustained search. The war ended before U-190 made it to port. On May 14, it surrendered at Bay Bulls, Newfoundland. The submarine was later commissioned into the Canadian navy; in October 1947, naval aircraft used it for target practice, destroying it on the spot where it sank Esquimalt.

HALIFAX EXPLOSION

A new song to mark the city’s biggest disaster

BY SARAH SAWLER

The Halifax Explosion continues to inspire artists, writers, and musicians alike. In late July, lyricist Alan Millen, a Canadian living in Switzerland and Tim Readman, a Vancouver singer songwriter, released “Song for Kate and Anthony,” about a nurse and a gravedigger who find love after the Explosion.

Millen says he’s always been a bit of a romantic, a trait that’s also inspired him to become a collector of black-and-white wedding photos he finds at yard sales and flea markets.

“I started collecting these pictures about 10 years ago,” he says. “I don’t have hundreds of them, I have dozens, let’s put it that way.

The first time I started seeing them, I thought, ‘This is kind of sad, this is someone’s wedding picture. It shouldn’t be in the flea market, it should be in an album somewhere.’ So I always felt like I was kind of retrieving them to give them a home of sorts with other vintage photographs.”

One of those photos found its way into the YouTube video for “Song for Kate and Anthony,” which is mostly comprised of archival photos that have made their way into the public domain. But when it was time to give real-life faces to Kate and Anthony, he wanted to choose just the right one.

“I went through them all, and I was looking for a couple that would be about the right age,

they just had to be sort of ordinary looking, not particularly beautiful or handsome,” he says. “I found this one picture that I used, and I have no idea who those people are, all I know is that there’s a reference on the photograph to a place called Galesburg, Illinois. So that picture is of someone’s grandparents, but I have no idea who they are. The couple represented closely enough my idea of what Kate and Anthony might have looked like.”

As Millen researched the Explosion, he was most struck by the number of people killed or injured (about 11,000 in total, from a Halifax population of about 50,000).

“I didn’t want to dwell on the horror, but I had to acknowledge it, and the song, the piece of music, is quite somber,” says Millen. “But I think in musical terms, my partner got it exactly right. It’s a somber story, but it’s also a love story, and a family story.”

Alan Millen

100 YEARS LATER December 6 marks the centenary of the Halifax Explosion, which the city will commemorate with a special ceremony at Fort Needham. For more on how the disaster continues to shape Halifax, see the December issue of Halifax Magazine.

Tim Readman

WINE

Leaving the wine at home

BY RICHARD WOODBURY

The owner of the Athens Restaurant says his eatery has the best wine list in the city. Located only 200 metres from the NSLC on Quinpool Road, it’s one of the few restaurants in the province that lets diners bring your own wine (BYOW).

Some places charge a corking fee for that but Athens currently doesn’t.

In 2007, the province amended its liquor laws to allow restaurants to offer BYOW service. Athens was on board immediately. “[It’s] a family restaurant,” says owner Evangelos Panopalis. “I was very happy to

offer just one bottle of wine. I didn’t have to worry about any inventory, tying up a significant amount of money in a wine list when there’s literally a liquor store 30 seconds from my restaurant.” Customers can place their order, walk to NSLC, buy a bottle of wine, and be back before the food is ready.

Only about 10% of restaurants offer BYOW, says Gordon Stewart, the Restaurant Association of Nova Scotia’s executive director. The association supports the practice and sees it as a way

of attracting customers on traditionally slow nights or during off-peak season.

Surprisingly, BYOW isn’t particularly popular. Stewart says one of the reasons is people dine differently today. “People used to always go out with reservations, but now hardly anybody goes out with reservations,” he says. “They just go and so if you’re just going, you’re being more spontaneous, so you’re less likely to take advantage of something like BYOW.” tadams@metroguide.ca Halifax Magazine @HalifaxEditor @HalifaxMagazine NOVEMBER 2017 halifaxmag.com | 11

CITYSCAPE IMMIGRATION

A new welcome for newcomers

BY JENNIFER TAPLIN

At about twice the size as the old digs, the new location for the YMCA Centre for Immigrant Services offers a lot more to newcomers.

The centre recently celebrated its new larger space at 7071 Bayers Road with an opening party. For about a decade it operated out of a smaller space on Main

THE PRINCE GEORGE IS THE ULTIMATE VENUE FOR HOLIDAY CELEBRATIONS. ACCOMMODATING 20 TO 300 GUESTS, OUR EXQUISITE EVENT SPACES, CATERING AND SERVICE ARE SURE TO BRIGHTEN THE SEASON.

Holiday Banquets and Events Create your own perfect festive celebration and let us work out the details!

Receptions, plated dinners, buffet dining and more...

festive lunch buffet WEEKDAYS DECEMBER 8TH TO 21ST The perfect solution for parties looking to kick start the holidays during the week. $27

festive sunday brunch SUNDAYS FROM NOVEMBER 26 TO DECEMBER 24 Enjoy the holidays with family and friends as our famous brunch goes festive. $40

nye+gio

Avenue. “It was a very cozy, homey place to be but we outgrew it and we were always juggling around for programming room,” says Jennifer Thornhill, senior manager.

“Now we have three program rooms and one with a great kitchen. This allows us to have concurrent programs running like a sewing class going on a Friday afternoon with a youth group meeting in another room.”

There’s also a lobby with a little cafe. Manager Paula Latham says the lobby allows the space for people to get together and socialize before and after programs. The new space “is a really good balance between being able to offer oneon-one services to clients and being able to do group activities as well,” she adds.

The centre operates a number of programs including conversation circles, Saturday study skills, and seniors groups. It’s also a hub for community outreach including settlement staff who work with about 30 schools, plus programming across the province. Last year the YMCA worked with close to 3,000 clients, Thornhill says.

The centre receives funding through the provincial and federal governments and has been doing settlement work for over 25 years.

Thornhill says it was one of the first to provide settlement services tailored to children and youth.

“Another niche we have is... looking at active living as a healthy tool for settlement,” Thornhill says. “When people come it can be very stressful and they want to know how they can get involved in the community and that program really helps.”

À la carte, it’s a last chance to enjoy your favourite plates of the year! For reservations call 902.425.1987

new year’s day champagne brunch

PHOTO: JENNIFER TAPLIN

Start 2018 in style! It’s the place to be, featuring live music and an extravagant selection of culinary delights. $116 including tax & gratuity

To inquire about any of our festive celebrations, please phone 902.425.1986 or email events@princegeorgehotel.com tadams@metroguide.ca Halifax Magazine @HalifaxEditor @HalifaxMagazine

12 | halifaxmag.com NOVEMBER 2017

Visit neptunetheatre.com/holidays

HOT NEW BOOKS FROM NOVA SCOTIA AUTHORS AVAILABLE AT BOOKSTORES EVERYWHERE

FOOD AND DRINK $39.95 | 978-177108-542-7

POPULAR CULTURE $29.95 | 978-177108-540-3

HISTORY $39.95 | 978-177108-529-8

Follow us online:

@nimbuspub or nimbus.ca PHOTOGRAPHY $29.95 | 978-177108-522-9

MYSTERY $21.95 | 978-177108-508-3

POLITICS $29.95 | 978-1-77108-531-1

CITYSCAPE CANLIT

Hooked on history

BY SUZANNE RENT

After her seventh reading of the Outlander series, Genevieve Graham decided to write a book. She had never been interested in history, but that series brought her around. She didn’t have any experience writing. She studied the oboe and musical performance at the University of Toronto. She played in a few orchestras, before moving on to a new career in marketing and advertising. When the writing bug bit, she was a stay-at-home mom to two daughters and was in her early 40s.

But she stored herself away in a room with a computer and wrote 25 pages in a couple of hours. She let her husband read it. “He said, ‘Gee, that’s not bad,’” Graham says. “So, that’s where it came from.”

Those 25 pages turned into 150,000 words. She connected with other amateur writers and editors. One suggested she was ready to get an agent. She found one who sent her manuscript to Penguin.

The publisher bought it and asked for a second book. That first book was Under the Same Sky and was published in 2012. A second, Sound of the Heart, followed, as did a third, Somewhere to Dream. She’s now working on a fourth.

“I was never a historian,” she says. “I slept through history class. I figured it was all from memorizing for exams. When I read the Outlander series and similar series after that, I realized not only do we have a fascinating history, but we have one so full of personalities, adventures, and personal stories, whether they are real or fictional, they can bring a story alive.”

She and her family moved to Nova Scotia in 2008, eventually settling in Musquodoboit Harbour. She loves the province’s history.

She wrote Tides of Honour after she learned about the Halifax

Explosion. It’s a love story about Danny Baker, a fisherman from East Jeddore and Audrey Poulin, an artist who “lived a wild life.”

Graham was in Calgary on a cross-country tour when she learned Tides of Honour made it to the Globe and Mail bestseller list. It stayed there for eight weeks.

Graham released Promise to Keep, set during the Acadian Expulsion, in 2017. She’s now working on the sequel to Tides of Honour, called Come From Away, which is scheduled for release in the spring of 2018. It’s the continuing story of the Baker family of East Jeddore, 20 years after the Halifax Explosion.

Graham says she hopes her books serve as a starting point for readers to discover more Canadian history. “Sure, we’re a mixing pot, but that mixing pot has brought out so many amazing stories, and to think of them being lost, we need to appreciate what we have here,” she says. “We have some really interesting people and some really interesting adventures that have happened all the way across the provinces.” tadams@metroguide.ca

Halifax Magazine

@HalifaxEditor @HalifaxMagazine

THE PITCH

Make Way—The Campaign for NSCC In this space, Halifax Magazine invites local non-profit organizations to share what they do, and how readers can help. If you know an organization that would like to share its story, email tadams@metroguide.ca.

Make Way—The Campaign for NSCC is a $25-million province-wide fund-raiser aiming to improve access to education across Nova Scotia.

Make Way is raising money for: • Student aid: providing bursaries, scholarships, urgent and emergency aid, and extraordinary learning opportunities.

• Programming: working with industry partners to address emerging markets.

• Instructional equipment: enhancing equipment, technology and learning 14 | halifaxmag.com NOVEMBER 2017

environments to ensure graduates are job-ready.

• Centres of expertise: boosting specialized training at NSCC in fields such as oceans research, culinary arts, and geomatics.

“Make Way is helping secure a strong future by investing in our province’s next

generation of leaders,” says Frank Lockington, executive director of the NSCC Foundation, the college’s fundraising arm.

Now launching publicly across NSCC’s 13 campuses, the campus appeals have a collective goal of $5.5 million. The foundation intends to engage communities across Nova Scotia served by the college, with priorities set locally and funds raised staying at those campuses.

Make Way has been quietly building support since the Joyce Family Foundation donated $4.6 million to NSCC in June 2015.

Recently, members of the Sobey family committed $6.5 million, pushing the total raised to past $21 million.

To learn more about Make Way, visit nscc.ca/makeway. To donate, go to support.nscc.ca.

DANCE

Dancing through the mountains

BY SARAH SAWLER

Dance company Red Sky Performance has performed some 2,000 times since artistic director Sandra Laronde founded it 17 years ago. Although the company is based in Toronto, it’s performed all over the world (including Cultural Olympiads in Beijing and Vancouver). On November 17, Halifax’s Live Art Dance will bring Red Sky and its Backbone performance to Spatz Theatre in Halifax.

Laronde is from the Teme-Augama-Anishnaabe (“People of the Deep Water”) First Nations community in Ontario. She has a long list of cultural accomplishments, including a 2011 Expressive Arts Award from the Smithsonian Institute and two Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards (awarded to Red Sky Performance), Laronde is the curator and director of Adizokan, a performance commissioned by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra for Canada 150.

She also worked for nine years as the indigenous-arts director Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.

This year, Red Sky is doing three back-to-back world premieres and touring four different shows. According to Laronde, the hourlong Backbone will be Red Sky’s most physical show yet. “I would compare these dancers to high-level athletes because of their endurance,” she says.

Red Sky’s website describes the performance as a “cutting-edge dance creation inspired by the ‘spine’ of the continents, charting the vast and rocky terrain of our human landscape.”

“Think about the formation of mountains and the formation of mountain bridges and everything,” says Laronde. “Imagine we’re fast-forwarding the time it took to create those mountains, it would be extremely powerful. And of epic size, so we wanted to capture that in the piece with human bodies.”

She’s trying to reveal nature and its transformational power. She explains: “People will look at mountains [on] postcards; they say ‘What a nice setting! What a nice vista!’ and all those words are really about, I think, is being removed from nature. I really wanted to bring it up close and personal, and imagine it in the creation of a fossil, the creation of the mountain ridges.”

When Laronde looks at those same vistas, she sees “Earth Mother’s spine,” a point of view that she says offers a more

intimate way to connect with nature. She wants people to relate to the mountains and the land, and make the connection to their own spines.

“What does a human have?” she says. “It has synapses, it has electricity, it has circuitry, it has so much going on in the human spine. We believe whatever happens to the Earth happens to us, because we are nature, right? We come from her and we’re going to return to her. So I’m really interested in that electrical force that’s in the spine of her, as opposed to mountains being viewed as somehow dead matter. Somehow to be consumed by the human eye, to be pretty, to be something you climb and conquer. I was really interested in looking at it differently through an indigenous lens, through an indigenous sense of mapping.”

The performance isn’t just about the big stuff though. It’s also about smaller, more precise moments.

“I have this duet, it’s basically about a fossil unfurling,” says Laronde. “We get to see what was in that fossil, what was fossilized before it became a fossil. They tell us that story through a fiveminute duet, and then it furls back up to becoming a fossil again.”

The “visceral power” of Backbone’s promo video caught the attention of Live Art Dance artistic director Randy Glynn. After seeing the piece, he contacted Laronde.

“It was masculine too, in a way,” says Glynn. “Not that dance isn’t often masculine, but it had a good sort of raw masculine power that I liked a lot. It had live music, and Live Art has been looking to present more diverse works. It’s the first season that we are presenting indigenous work, and we’re quite excited about it.”

In addition to eight dancers, the performance also features one live musician playing multiple instruments, including an electric drum kit and an electronic instrument called a malletKAT, programmed to sound like voices and flutes.

“We’re in our Canada-150 year and there are a lot of celebrations going on, but we can’t forget that we weren’t here first,” Glynn says.

“And there is some wonderful, powerful, indigenous work in the zone of contemporary dance. I think it’s always important that all people of all cultures see the art of other cultures. I think it’s part of the process of acceptance.”

NOVEMBER 2017 halifaxmag.com | 15

ENTERTAINMENT Our picks for the hottest things to see and do in Halifax this month

NOVEMBER 12

NOVEMBER 17

Cecilia Concerts

David Myles

Giants of the Piano: With multiple Juno nominations and an Order of Canada, Jane Coop is one of Canada’s giants of the piano. In this matinee show at the Maritime Conservatory of Performing arts, she performs masterpieces by Beethoven and Rachmaninoff. ceciliaconcerts.ca

He’s folksy and warm, writes good music, and has a charming stage presence, jams with hip-hop stars like Classified—there are a lot of reasons why David Myles is one of the East Coast’s most-beloved singer/songwriters. He returns to Casino Nova Scotia. ticketatlantic.com

NOVEMBER 17, 18

Symphony Nova Scotia Vocalists Cyndi Cain (right), Owen Lee, and Dutch Robinson join the Symphony for Symphonic Soul: The Music of Motown. The lineup includes funky favourites from Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, and The Supremes; expect hit songs like “Get Ready,” “Let’s Get It On,” “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” and “Dancing in the Street.” Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser conducts. symphonynovascotia.ca

NOVEMBER 18

Holiday Parade of Lights

NOVEMBER 24

Basketball World Cup Qualifier Team Canada takes on The Bahamas in international men’s basketball action, as the teams battle for slots in the 2019 World Cup in Beijing. Canada is ranked 24th in the world; The Bahamas is 82nd. ticketatlantic.com 16 | halifaxmag.com NOVEMBER 2017

PHOTO: TAMMY FANCY

PHOTO: WILL ROBERTS

This giant annual parade marks the unofficial start of the Christmas season in Halifax. Thousands will jam the downtown to see bands, floats, entertainers, and, of course, Santa Claus. It begins at 6 p.m. on Upper Water Street, continuing down Barrington Street to Spring Garden Road, then down South Park Street to University Avenue, ending at the corner of Robie Street. my-waterfront.ca/event/holidayparade-of-lights/

NOVEMBER 25

Halifax Christmas Tree Lighting The big Christmas tree in Grand Parade square comes to life in a special familyfriendly ceremony, featuring live entertainment, fireworks, and a visit from Santa Claus. The action starts at 6 p.m. halifax.ca

The

Buffet is Back!

DAILY OLDER

NEW

REVERSE

Must be a Player’s Club Member Membership is FREE and easy

yFile

| FEATURE |

HANDING OVER THE

HELM FOR FOUR YEARS, JOHN NEWTON HAD THE NAVY’S BIGGEST JOB IN HALIFAX—AT THE END OF HIS TERM, HE REFLECTS ON THE EXPERIENCE

BY CHRIS MUISE When most kids his age would gather around the TV for Howdy Doody or play stick ball down the street, John Newton’s playtime activities were more nautical. “[I] grew up in the Bedford Basin, used to build rafts out of the wood that would break free from the dump at Fairview Cove,” says Newton. “I can’t imagine that those days of building rafts, instead of tree forts like some kids do, would lead to being able to sail all the world’s oceans.”

Newton was a geologist before joining the Canadian navy in 1983. Since then, he’s risen to the rank of Rear Admiral. For the last four years, he commanded Maritime Forces Atlantic (MARLANT) and Joint Task Force Atlantic (a partnership between the Canadian Armed Forces and support agencies that work to secure Canada’s Atlantic coast). Recently, he left Halifax to become a liason with Veteran’s Affairs in Charlottetown.

As one of the longest-serving MARLANT commanders in the navy’s history, he leaves the job reluctantly. He played a big role in the life of his hometown while he was here. “I think most people in Halifax are so used to the ships just sailing in and out of harbour,” Newton says.

18 | halifaxmag.com NOVEMBER 2017

“I would hope that they expect that those ships are doing important things. From Halifax, we oversee just everything that’s important about the Royal Canadian Navy.”

Crossing a harbour bridge, one just need glance down to see how central the navy is to Halifax. “This pairing of helicopters and ships that sail forth from Halifax is the biggest piece of military capital in the country,” says Newton. “This is the premier military location in the continent.”

Under Newton’s command, MARLANT deployed ships on diplomatic missions across the Atlantic. “We’re in the business of building relationships,” says Newton. “It’s not a stagnant matter. You’ve got to go build new relationships, and you’ve got to renew relationships, depending on the regional issues, new domains, and thematics that open up and the security environment changes...just the global struggle of humanity to get along.”

He also oversaw scientific projects like cataloging the effects of “increased human activity” on ice in the north, early-threat detection efforts off the coast with sonar technology, and search-and-rescue operations.

“The last big emergency we dealt with was

the ice storms on the Acadian peninsula in New Brunswick,” he says. “ The little communities of Caraquet in the peninsula had endured a bad storm and about a week to eight days of very -10, -20, -30 temperatures, and ice-encrusted wire-ways and trees. Fuel running low, food running low, no electricity, and we brought in an army and air force task force, under my command…to give resolve to the community, give them resilience, help them restore.”

Newton is proud of the way the military upgraded in Halifax during his term, including the ongoing development of the Arctic Offshore Patrol Ship and the modernization of MARLANT’s fleet.

“Way back in 2010–11, we were just talking about starting the modernization of the Halifaxclass [frigate],” he says. “It was really hard to conceive how to follow that project through, how to do it. It’s such a big modernization in such a short period of time.”

Contractors completed the modernization ahead of schedule, giving sailors extra time to adapt to the changes. “The best tool to finish a job is sailors,” Newton says. “They’re going to tell you what the shortcomings were,

2017 | 18 SeaSon SponSor

info | tickets: 902 420-0003 or liveartdance.ca

friday, november 17 2017 8pm

leadership ethos I never sought to pass my local issues upward to superior chain of commands.”

Baines says that reflects his style. “He recognized immediately that, as the commander of Maritime Forces Atlantic, he needed to be personally involved in quickly taking action,” Baines adds. “He just exerted a tremendous amount of personal leadership.

And it was genuine personal leadership. I think that came across to people.”

Newton hopes MARLANT will stay central to life in Halifax.

“The worst thing that I could think would happen is we just become a self-licking ice cream cone—it just exists for itself,” he says.

“We want people to pull us, we want people to want to have what we are. The serviceman is as much a foundation of Canadian wealth and peace and prosperity as any other element of business or industry. Having the community behind us, and challenging us and asking us to be darn good at who we are, is important. A vibrant relationship is important to sailors and soldiers feeling motivated, and that the people are behind them. They’ll do anything, then.”

spatz theatre | one night only!

PHOTO: CHRIS MUISE

they’re going to tell you how it best operated, and how to modify our procedures to all the new technology...we’ve got in our hands now a ship that’s way more capable, and crews that are way more confident than we could ever have foreseen.”

Rear Admiral Craig Baines is replacing Newton as the commander of MARLANT, after serving under him for three years. He says Newton’s leadership makes him better at his job.

“Admiral Newton was the most creative leader I have ever worked for,” says Baines. “He would look at a problem from a completely different lens than almost everyone else.

Everything he did always had a people nexus to it. He was just so interested in how decisions would affect people.”

One of Newton’s toughest tests came near the end of his term: the Proud Boys incident, when several men under his command (as part of the racist Proud Boys group) publicly confronted native protestors.

“I knew I had to address concerns of the public immediately,” said Newton in an email in October. “I wanted to own and respond to the issue myself, in my own words, and using my own moral compass. As a personal

Show SponSor

tadams@metroguide.ca Halifax Magazine @HalifaxEditor @HalifaxMagazine NOVEMBER 2017 halifaxmag.com | 19

| FEATURE |

Pretty Young things DEVELOPMENT IS CHANGING THE FACE OF ONE OF HALIFAX’S MOST ARCHITECTURALLY DISTINCT NEIGHBOURHOODS

STORY AND PHOTOS BY KATIE INGRAM Young Avenue is something unique, and bit by bit, developers are changing it.

In 2016, developers tore down the Cleveland Estate and the George Campbell mansion (built circa 1909 and 1902) respectively. They were steps away from Georgia and David Piper’s house.

They say they were shocked and saddened when the demolition began, as the street’s history is one of the reasons they chose their “elegant, old” house. “It’s not just about the architecture, but the people who lived here and the people who helped create the city,” says Georgia Piper.

The couple live in the Louisa Smith Mansion, which was built in 1897. Smith was the widow of Halifax businessman Martin L. Smith of M&N Smith Limited. The house has had four owners, including the Pipers.

“You can go in the house, from room to room, and see there’s more than 100 years of history before your eyes,” says Georgia Piper. “You don’t find it in what we are building now.”

If the couple ever sells, they worry that the house could end up like its neighbours: a twisted iron gate and an empty lot the only reminders the home existed.

S H E L B U R N E , N O VA S C O T I A

B OXINGR OCK . CA

20 | halifaxmag.com NOVEMBER 2017

Developer George Tsimiklis and his brother, Steve of Tsimiklis Holdings Ltd. bought the Cleveland Estate and George Campbell Mansion, with plans to build a subdivision.

Along with the Pipers, other worried Haligonians have been trying to raise awareness about the street. Their efforts include the Young Avenue District Heritage Conservation Society and a Facebook page, Save Young Avenue.

Among the concerned is Peggy Cunningham.

“It’s [redevelopment] corrupting the street’s heritage and history,” she says. “It was designed to be a grand avenue that led the public to Point Pleasant Park.”

George Tsimiklis’s solicitor, Michael Moore said in an email that Young Avenue and the surrounding area have changed before. So, his client’s decision to create a subdivision isn’t a radical idea.

“The character of Young Avenue has already changed as some houses contain a number of residential apartments and newer smaller homes have already been constructed,” said Moore. “ There are also some newer contemporary designed homes on Young Avenue which are not consistent with the design of most older houses on Young Avenue.”

Both the Pipers and Cunningham believe there are ways to keep the neighbourhood fresh without losing its unique character. For example, the Pipers house used to be located near the railroad tracks, but was moved to its current location, instead of being torn down when that construction began. Cunningham says the previous owners of her home decided to sell to her because they wanted people living in the house, instead of tearing it down.

“There’s development that moves ahead, but also respects heritage and incorporates and repurposes it and there’s development that just gets rid of it,” says Cunningham.

Aaron Murnaghan is a heritage planner with HRM. The Centre Plan “does identify that area as what we term a possible future heritage landscape,” he says. “We’ve also really been trying to encourage individual

heritage property owners to register their properties for a while now.”

Currently, one Young Avenue home has municipal heritage status, one has provincial heritage status, and two have federal status.

Moore said at the time of the sale his client was within his rights, as per HRM bylaws when it came to the demolition. Neither home had a municipal heritage designation. (But even heritage designation doesn’t mean that a property is safe from demolition. Owners can apply to have designation revoked. If successful, section 18 of the Nova Scotia Heritage Protection Act allows owners to demolish registered heritage properties three years later.)

“Both properties were sold on the open market after being listed for sale for a lengthy period of time,” said Moore. “There is little demand for large older residential homes due to the cost of renovating, maintaining, heating and insuring those homes.”

On Oct. 5, CBC reported that Tsimiklis was appealing the bylaw changes to the Nova Scotia Utility and Review board. According to the article, he says the changes don’t “reasonably carry out” the proposed planning strategy.

“Together, we need better heritage protection,” says Cunningham. “It’s very bizarre you can get a demolition permit in a matter of a few days and it takes eight months to over a year to get heritage protection.”

On Sept. 12, Halifax and West Community Council approved amendments to the land-use bylaw which will include an increase minimum lot frontage to 80 feet, increase the minimum lot size to 8,000 square feet, the width to 80 feet and the depth to 100 feet. All of this is supposed to curb the subdivision of existing lots, but it won’t apply to any current developments or properties that fall under the 80-feet rule.

Those who want to preserve Young Avenue’s architecture feel there is still a lot of work to be done to preserve the “grand avenue” of Halifax. “If any more houses go, you lose the character of the street,” says Georgia Piper. “If you lose the character of the street, how will you create that again? You never will.”

WHAT MAKES YOUNG AVENUE UNIQUE • The Young Avenue District Heritage Conservation Society says the area is home to some 20 properties of historical significance.

• Developers demolished three, including the two in 2016.

Residents David and Georgia Piper worry about Young Avenue’s future. tadams@metroguide.ca

Halifax Magazine

@HalifaxEditor @HalifaxMagazine NOVEMBER 2017 halifaxmag.com | 21

THE STREETSCAPE IS DONE TAZ RECORDS

MARITIME HOBBIES & CRAFTS

Welcome to Maritime Hobbies & Crafts.

Halifax’s source for Music since 1983.

We are Canada’s oldest hobby shop!

Three locations serving HRM. Vinyl is

We are a general hobby store with

our specialty but you will also find a

a little bit of everything from model

vast CD selection, audio gear, and pop

trains, plastic modes, radio control, and

culture items. Tens of thousands of titles

much, much more. Maritime Hobbies

in stock including gently used classics

was started by Terry Ahearn as Popular

and brand new releases. Visit our

Specialties in 1946 on the corner of

flagship store in downtown Halifax.

Agricola and Almon streets.

1521 Grafton St Halifax, NS B3J 2B9, Canada info@maritimehobbies.com 902-423-8870

1521 Grafton St. 902-422-5976 info@tazrecords.com

GE

TON NG

ST.

YLE ARG

RI AR

OR

B

GE

ST.

ST.

N TO

AF

GR

T. NS

LE

ST.

ST.

FTO

A GR

ST.

L KVI SAC

E GYL

| ADVERTISING |

ICK

NSW

NC PRI

CA

T. ES

T. LS

AE ICH

RM

Scotiabank Centre

T. TS

KE

R MA

T. KS

IC SW

UN

BRU

ST.

BISTRO LE COQ

Bistro Le Coq is a classic French bistro in the heart of downtown Halifax with an emphasis on classic French dishes such as steak frites, charcuterie and cheese. Always over delivering in quality for price, it has a huge local following as well as supporting the theatre crowd. With a fully French speaking staff, professional yet comfortable service in a classically styled room, one is transported to “Paris” for the evening.

Bistro Le Coq 1584 Argyle St (902) 407-4564 Bistrocoq.ca bistro@rcr.ca

ARGYLE

BLACK MARKET BOUTIQUE

NEPTUNE THEATRE

GRAFTON Come and visit the newly transformed Argyle and Grafton Streetscape and support our local businesses.

You have many choices to dine, shop at one-of-a-kind stores, be entertained by live music venues and enjoy live theatre.

Rediscover your vibrant entertainment district today!

A sweet little import shop established in downtown Halifax for 30 years offers quality, hand-picked treasures from around the world. We consciously select unique and beautiful fabrics, jewelry, clothing, home decor and more from amazing artisans and families we’ve met on our travels. Our shop has something for everyone! We are the Black Market Boutique. Bought and sold with heart.

Black Market Boutique 1545 Grafton St (902)423-5724

THE WOODEN MONKE Y

The Wooden Monkey, with 2 locations, downtown Halifax and downtown Dartmouth, offers a variety of dishes made from scratch that aim to please all types of diners. From NS grass-fed beef, to unique vegetarian, gf options and multiple local craft beers on tap, we aim to offer a friendly, comfortable and relaxed dining experience for everyone!

1707 Grafton Street, Halifax 902-444-3844 305-40 Alderney Landing, Dartmouth 902-466-3100 thewoodenmonkey.ca

Open daily!

Located in the heart of Downtown Halifax, Neptune Theatre has inspired audiences with great stories for 55 seasons with two stages, a year-round Theatre School and a province-wide touring company. This year, Neptune will delight audiences with holiday production It’s A Wonderful Life and season-ending musical Mamma Mia! Visit neptunetheatre.com.

1593 Argyle Street 902-429-7070 or 1-800-565-7345 neptunetheatre.com

WORLD TEA HOUSE

EAST OF GRAFTON TAVERN

World Tea House is where old world tea traditions meet modern mixology and café culture. With plenty of room to sit, listen to the world music and enjoy a pot of tea or try one of the award-winning tea fusions. We at World Tea House are not only engaged with the great big world of tea but also deeply involved in our local community.

East of Grafton Tavern is a new arrival to the busy Argyle Street entertainment district. A classic upscale tavern with a twist, EOG presents an interesting spin on classic dishes and gastro pub fare.

An ambitious beverage program with an emphasis on classic cocktails and local craft beer, and extensive selection of affordable wine by the glass, leads to a relaxed and casual atmosphere for dining or relaxing with a beverage on the patio. East of Grafton has something for everyone.

1592 Argyle St, Halifax 902-422-8327 (TEAS) info@worldteahouse.ca worldteahouse.ca

East of Grafton Tavern 1580 Argyle St (902) 428-5680 Eastofgrafton.com eastofgrafton@rcr.ca

| COVER STORY |

Humans of Saint Vincent A Halifax artist shares the stories of the people who live at a local nursing home STORY AND ILLUSTRATIONS BY SUSAN MACLEOD

t ishes Sain el distingu ap ch e r ik -l ia eship It’s a famil te: Its spac streetscape. iz by Artist’s no e from the om H et. Cars wh g re in urs Windsor St of fers a d Vincent’s N of t en lo n g er the south d its parkin on an k n ar w m to d n n la om dow oad. ay home fr Quinpool R it on their w walking to le op pe Saint r tcut fo live inside. handy shor people who e th ail fr ow e kn ’t serving th obably don d has been an , But you pr o h le w op st pe ju 9 s about home to 14 . I got curiou y rl ow Vincent’s is n la s gu ar re ye d te erly for 50 ow, I’ve visi n ar at ye h and the eld a w than cording e. For more metimes re so , ts en calls it hom d si e re sketched th and simply with ue person, they say. em is a uniq th of g to know e n on ti e. Every of view. Get ts in po ow It uplifts m d likes, an once you kn kes and dis ilities fade ab is d y r pl ei opinions, li ee h d T re. nd they en a pleasu as equals. A em th y. them has be e sa se d to have e at heart an to what they who they ar meone listen so g in av h appreciate

Lorraine Donovan, 80, Sydney Lorraine doesn’t say much but she doesn’t need to. Her husband Tim is her conduit to the world. Faithfully visiting every day, Tim makes sure she has everything she needs, including meals that he patiently spoonfeeds her. He is quick to help others around the dining room and make guests like me feel welcome. Lorraine wasn’t happy to move to Saint Vincent’s and let people know.

Together, Tim and the staff worked to help her become comfortable and secure. Tim is one of many spouses, partners, and adult children who visit residents daily.

24 | halifaxmag.com NOVEMBER 2017

Unidentified resident

Lorraine

An Unidentified Resident This daughter brought her mother flowers one day after work and wheeled her back to her room for a chat. She didn’t share her name, but I do remember the mother’s gesture. She asked her daughter to slow down so she could tell others she’d bring them back some of her flowers. Despite hearing, eyesight and mobility challenges, I notice many residents make an effort to look out for each other.

Joyce

Joyce Clarke, 91, Annapolis Valley Joyce is a team player. She’s happy with the daily routine of the floor she’s on, content to sit quietly and watch the goings-on, adding an insightful comment when she feels it’s necessary. She participates in most activities and is a pleasant conversationalist. She entertains family and friends with her stories, and enjoys a sharp memory for names, dates and the personal history of people she’s met throughout her life.

Margie Cameron-Whynot, 73, Bridgewater Margie is a calm presence who likes to sit in a corner and quietly watch what’s happening in the common room. She smiles at strangers and sometimes becomes lively and conversational with a big smile on her face. Like Lorraine’s husband Tim, Margie’s wife Norma visits daily, helps Margie with her meals and brings photos and news from the family. When her wife’s not visiting, Margie, like many elderly women, will sometimes sit with a doll, a reminder of a vital and purposeful time in her life.

Margie was an ordained minister with the United Church of Canada.

Margie

NOVEMBER 2017 halifaxmag.com | 25

| COVER STORY |

Suzanne

Nelson 26 | halifaxmag.com NOVEMBER 2017

Jean

tadams@metroguide.ca

Halifax Magazine

@HalifaxEditor @HalifaxMagazine

Suzanne MacLeod (no relation), 77, Kentville Suzanne is hard to miss. She is outgoing and positive; no one gets by her without a conversation. “Ohhhh, my husband was a brilliant man— and tall!” she says. “I used to ask him, ‘Why are people so cruel?’ And he’d just shake his head and say, ‘I don’t know.

But we don’t have to be.’”

Suzanne, a former nurse, likes to talk about her family ties to the well-known Montreal book store, Archambault. She’s proud of the fact she supported herself through her nursing training. “I didn’t take Papa’s money. I said to him, ‘Papa, I want to do it on my own.’ And I did.”

Jean Storey, 90, Dartmouth Jean is independent-minded.

Most afternoons she comes into the dining room where other residents are gathered to watch an afternoon TV show. She prefers to be seated with her back to the TV and knit until supper. She has a lively demeanor and loves people. She takes her meals on a table that fits over her wheelchair and, while eating, casts a keen but nonjudgemental eye on whatever dining room drama is underway. Her daughter describes her as having a wonderful personality, and staff agree.

Nelson Dauphinee, 87, Lantz Nelson is not aging without protest. He’s known to loudly express his displeasure with the physical and mental limitations he faces in sudden vocal bursts that can make the unsuspecting visitor jump.

(Anyone in middle age can relate to his dismay at the insult of decline.) Nelson led an active life as a hunter and a nature-lover. His wife tells me he made beautiful flower arrangements adding, “If you needed his last $5, you would have it.” She says he had a great sense of humour and was a good husband, provider and father.

Join our Christmas tradition

ENTER TO WIN

Symphony Nova Scotia’s annual presentation of The Nutcracker is a rite of the season for generations of Nova Scotians. Here’s your chance to experience this entrancing live show: enter Halifax Magazine’s contest for a chance to win two free tickets to the December 14 performance courtesy of Symphony Nova Scotia.

Enter at halifaxmag.com Contest closes November 30, 2017

UV Shield WindoW FilmS

Family oWned BUSineSS Since 1979 | SerVing the maritimeS For oVer 130 SeaSonS

Block the rayS... not yoUr VieW! ideal for condos, homes and commercial buildings.

UV window films filter up to 99.9% of all harmful UV rays! increase comfort and energy savings year-round.

Protects furniture, floors and artwork from fading.

Professional installation and lifetime warranty.

haliFax

moncton

902-422-6290

506-855-0855

1-800-667-8468 | www.cooltint.com |

NOVEMBER 2017 halifaxmag.com | 27

| ADVERTISING |

Shop Halifax!

1 4

3

Gift ideas for everyone on your holiday list

Jigsaw Puzzles $11.95 to $29.99 Crossword Puzzles $4.50 to $27.99

2017 Annual Ornament – Seasons $20 Amos Pewter 1521 Lower Water Street, Halifax amospewter.com

A Halifax Shopping Centre Gift Card offers an endless number of choices! Available in any denomination from $10 and up, our fee-free gift cards always fit your budget and their style.

5

Le Bistro By Liz Gift Cards.

Available in any denomination.

All gift cards purchased over $50.00 receive a card for a FREE Appetizer Special or Yummy Lemon Parfait Pie for two with entrée purchase.

Ironworks Gin $43 (750 ml) Ironworks Distillery Available at select NSLC outlets 902-640-2424 www.ironworksdistillery.com

Magna-Tiles Sure to become your favourite toy Promoting Imaginative Play and Creativity Building Sets and Expansions $19.99-$164.99 Tattletales Books & Toys Penhorn Plaza, Dartmouth 902-463-5551 tattletalesbooks.ca email: tattletales@ns.aliantzinc.ca

7

6 8

2

Atlantic News 5560 Morris St (Corner Queen) Halifax 902-429-5468 l @magsstore

Wreaths/Hot mats handmade in the Valley, NS, $10–$25 Riven woodworks beautifully hand carved utensils, NS, $6–$90 Pure Labrador jams from Labrador (lingonberry and cloudberry), $9–$10 Carrefour Atlantic Emporium Historic Properties 1869 Upper Water St, Halifax 902.423.2940

10

Liquid Gold 4-Pack 4 x 120ml bottles From $40 Liquid Gold allthingsolive.ca

9

Variety of Baked Goods From $4.95 - $20.05 PEI Preserves 2841 New Glasgow Rd New Glasgow, NS 902-964-4300 preservecompany.com

Custom-Order Gift Basket, Ultra-Premium Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Balsamics and Gourmet Condiments Various prices Liquid Gold (Order in advance) allthingsolive.ca

Holiday Gift Guide 2017

11

12

Dunoon Fine Bone China Mugs & Tea Pots From $28.95 - $129.95 PEI Preserves 2841 New Glasgow Rd New Glasgow, NS 902-964-4300 preservecompany.com

14 13

Stackables from $179 Charm Diamond Centres charmdiamondcentres.com

17

16

What a wonderful gift!

See the holiday classic It's A Wonderful Life on the newly refurbished Fountain Hall stage beginning November 21.

Get 2 tickets for $99 or 3 for $150 plus service charges and HST. Neptune Theatre 1593 Argyle Street 902-429-7070 or 1-800-565-7345 neptunetheatre.com Who will you bring?

My Canada Collection $199 featuring Canadian Diamonds Charm Diamond Centres charmdiamondcentres.com

Oak Island Unearthed!

3rd Canadian Edition

By John O. O’Brien Evidence-based theory Of 1000-year mystery $22.50 148 pp, 70 diagrams/photos ISBN 9781895814583 Available in all fine book stores

15

Seafarer’s Rum Glasses $89 (10 oz) Measure: 4.5”h NovaScotian Crystal 5080 George St, Halifax 902-421-2062 novascotiancrystal.com

Specialty Food Gift Sets From $13.90 - $107.40 PEI Preserves 2841 New Glasgow Rd New Glasgow, NS 902-964-4300 preservecompany.com

19

Liquid Gold 6-Pack 6 x 60ml bottles From $36.50 Liquid Gold allthingsolive.ca

20

Historic Halifax Streetscapes, 3 walking tours

By Barbara DeLory $14.95 120 pp, 126 colour photos/maps ISBN 9781895814514 Available in all fine book stores

18 Holiday Sparkler $999, 1 carat of diamonds Charm Diamond Centres charmdiamondcentres.com

| ADVERTISING |

I

I

craft beer of Nova Scotia SaltBox Brewing Company At Saltbox Brewing Company, we celebrate the development of the skills and artistry required to create fresh, full-flavoured beer for consumption by the local community.

Our motto: “think social, and drink local”.

363 MAIN ST., MAHONE BAY, NS 902-624-0653 saltboxbrewingcompany.ca

Sober Island Brewing Company Sober Island Brewing is now available in 473ml cans!

Our flagship Oyster Stout, now referred to as Beth’s Blackout, and best-seller Blonde Ale, aka Marigold, are on shelves at Bishop’s Cellar.

Stay tuned as we stock more product in a private store near you!

22478 Hwy 7, Sheet Harbour NS 902-719-9463 soberislandbrewing.ca

Uncle Leo’s Brewery Uncle Leo’s Oktoberfest Sampler 4-pack Available October 2 - November 19 at select NSLC stores & at the Brewery Featuring: 2017 Canadian Brewing Award Gold Medal, 2014 Atlantic Canada Brewing Award Gold Medal & 2016 ACBA Silver Medal Winner Uncle Leo’s Vohs Weizenbier.

2015 ACBA Silver Medal & 2016 Gold Medal Winner Uncle Leo’s Altbier.

And introducing Uncle Leo’s NACHTical Illusion.

2623 HWY 376, LYON’S BROOK, NS 902-382-BREW uncleleosbrewery.ca

Propeller Brewing Co. Propeller Brewing Company is Halifax’s original North End craft brewery. Full cold-beer store at the Windmill road facility in Dartmouth. Packaged beer, growler fills, samples and pints available at the historic Gottingen Brewery location in Halifax.

Keep an eye out for specialty cask releases on Friday nights!

2015 GOTTINGEN STREET, HALIFAX NS drinkpropeller.ca @PropellerBeer

| ADVERTISING |

Breton Brewing Breton Brewing opened its doors in 2015 in Sydney, Cape Breton. Available across Nova Scotia, Breton’s flagship ales include Black Angus IPA, Red Coat Irish Red, Sons of Hector Brown Ale and Stirling Hefeweizen. Breton will soon launch three seasonal cans: Seven Years Pale Ale, Island Time Lager, and Storm Chaser Vanilla Stout!

364 Keltic Drive, Sydney, Cape Breton, NS 902-270-4677 bretonbrewing.ca | @bretonbrewing

SCHOOLHOUSE BREWERY Get out of the city and discover why Schoolhouse Brewery is a destination for craft beer enthusiasts from all over! Pull up a Lab stool and relax in our unique, “classroom taproom” while you enjoy a delicious pint of Schoolhouse brew.

Are you looking for that perfect gift? You’re sure to find something for the beer lover on your holiday shopping list here in our well stocked “Brew-tique”.

Happy and Safe Holidays from the Schoolhouse Brewery Faculty, Cheers!

40 Water St, Windsor, NS 902-472-4677 schoolhousebrewery.ca

Boxing Rock Since 2013, Boxing Rock has been brewing our legendary Nova Scotia Craft Beer on the South Shore.

Visit us to enjoy samples of our beer in our hospitality room - try our award-winning Vicar’s Cross Double IPA, our Hunky Dory Pale Ale, or one of our many seasonal brews. Shop in our retail store, enjoy beer samples on our outdoor deck in the summer or even stay for a brewery tour (weekends only, by appointment).

78 Ohio Road, Shelburne, NS 902-494-9233 boxingrock.ca

DRINK

PHOTO: KIM STOODLEY

WHAT’S IN A NAME? AS NOVA SCOTIA’S BEER INDUSTRY GROWS, WHO DEFINES CRAFT? AND WHY DOES IT MATTER?

BY KIM HART MACNEILL When Chill Street Fresh Beer and Cider Market opened in Elmsdale this summer, owner Barry MacLeod upset local brewers and beer fans by describing his brew as “craft.”

Chill Street holds the same microbrewery licence as established breweries like Boxing Rock Brewing in Shelburne and Spindrift Brewing in Dartmouth, but its beer-making process is different.

According to the NSLC, a microbrewery produces less than 15,000 hectolitres per year.

That’s pretty much the whole definition.

Visit any other small brewery in Nova Scotia, and you’ll largely find the same core process that brewers have used for centuries.

They malt grains, mill them and steep them in hot water to release flavouring and sugars to make wort. They then “lauter” the wort in a multistep process that removes grain particles and rinses sugars from the grains. The brewer boils the wort, adding hops and other flavour additives. Next it’s cooled, then finally fermented with yeast.

The process involves a long day of hard labour and monitoring temperatures closely. (Plus coming up with recipes and testing them out.)

Chill Street uses a system that allows it to skip a step: concentrated liquid wort, made elsewhere and imported. Chill Street’s website boasts that it uses “the finest ingredients from around the world.” The concentrate is mixed with hot water before hop or flavouring additions.

In August, Emily Tipton, founding partner of Boxing Rock Brewing in Shelburne and the president of the Craft Beer Association of Nova Scotia, sent media an open letter

highlighting the differences between Chill Street and other local breweries. Summary: small, traditional, independent.

Chill Street is small, tucked away in a grocery store, and independently owned. But it’s not remotely traditional. It doesn’t use traditional methods like making wort from scratch. Owner Barry MacLeod refused an interview but the word “craft” appears many times on the company’s website.

Tipton’s letter also says this first of its kind store is “a pilot for a much larger roll out across the province if the loophole isn’t closed.”

Tidehouse Brewing co-owner Shean Higgins thinks Chill Street could be dangerous to Nova Scotia’s still-growing brewing industry.

Just how to define “craft beer” is an endless debate amongst industry insiders. Global beer behemoth Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/ NV owns Alexander Keith’s (along with international brands like Budweiser, Corona, Stella Artois, and Beck’s). But the Keith’s small-batch brewery on Hollis Street holds the same licence as Chill Street, Boxing Rock, and the rest.

The brewery follows the same brewing method as other local microbreweries, but many craft-beer fans declared it “not craft” when it opened in 2016 because of the brewery’s access to preferential pricing on hops and malt, thanks to its big parent.

In June, the Brewers Association, a nonprofit trade American group dedicated to promoting and protecting the U.S.’s small and independent breweries, launched a symbol for breweries to indicate craft status on labels.

Barry MacLeod, Chill Street

To use the label breweries must meet criteria about ownership (less than 25% outside ownership by a non-craft entity), and how much beer is produced (6 million barrels, about 5.8 million hectolitres). A number of U.S. breweries have panned the move, as the seal doesn’t speak to the quality of the beer, while others believe no major brewery ownership should be allowed.

CBANS members have a vested interest in protecting the definition of the industry they’ve built. And well they should. In 2016 it employed 400 people, and over the last 10 years has brought new industry and interest to communities like Tatamagouche, Nyanza, Shelburne, Liverpool, and Digby.

Unless the government updates the definition of a microbrewery under the Liquor Control Act, or CBANS creates a labelling scheme similar to what the American association has done, craft will continue its march toward joining artisanal and extreme in the list of meaningless words.

In the end, regardless of how we define craft beer, the market will win out. Consumers will spend money on the beer they enjoy, and those who don’t make the cut will close.

KIM HART MACNEILL Kim is a freelance journalist and editor of East Coast Living.

Read her weekly beer column on HalifaxMag.com and follow her on Twitter. @kimhartmacneill

Must-try beers The Big Stink (IPA)

Many Hands MK-5 (Gruit)

Roof Hound Brewing, Digby, N.S. 6.5%, 65 IBU This Digby brewpub’s beers have been a mainstay on tap at Bishop’s Cellar, and now that Roof Hound is bottling, it’s starting to pop up in other stores. This beer is worth drinking as fresh as you can get it: big, sticky hop aroma.

North Brewing/Boxing Rock Brewing Halifax/Shelburne, N.S. 6.2%, N/A IBU It’s the fifth year of this annual collaboration.

Inspired by gruit, beers bittered with herbs and plants. In this one you’ll find berry leaves aplenty and four Nova Scotian-grown hops.

It’s floral and earthy with light body.

32 | halifaxmag.com NOVEMBER 2017

Every issue of Halifax Magazine reaches 43,600 of the city’s most affluent and influential readers

CONTACT US TO ADVERTISE | 902-420-9943 | PUBLISHERS@METROGUIDE.CA

halifaxmag.com

OPINION

PROTEST IS PATRIOTIC SIDNEY CROSBY HAS A RIGHT TO GO TO THE WHITE HOUSE AND WE HAVE A RIGHT TO QUESTION THAT DECISION

BY RYAN VAN HORNE If you want to honour our veterans, and those who died during the two world wars, then enjoy the freedoms they fought to preserve and use them to draw attention to injustice.

That’s exactly what NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick does by taking a knee during the national anthem. He is using his right to peacefully protest to draw attention to injustice. That injustice is that cops are much more likely to shoot black Americans than other people.

Kaepernick is not protesting the flag, or the anthem, or disrespecting veterans by using a constitutional right that soldiers fought to preserve. He is trying to draw attention to a problem, despite criticism and the harm it is causing to his career. Despite this, he remains firm in his resolve to draw attention to the injustice his fellow citizens suffer.

That is patriotism.

In Canada, many wear poppies to honour the sacrifices of soldiers. But I also know people who choose not to wear a poppy, because they feel they conflict with their pacifist principles. If you don’t also support the right of someone to choose not to do this, then you don’t truly understand why our soldiers fight.

They were not fighting to defend a society’s right to enforce conformity. Far from it. Those are the kinds of countries they fought against.

Police brutality exists in Canada, too. There are egregious examples of racial injustice in Canada, but there hasn’t been a protest similar to Kaepernick’s. No Halifax Mooseheads are taking a knee during the anthem.

34 | halifaxmag.com NOVEMBER 2017

Is it because our problems are not as bad?

Are we as Canadians more likely to protest in other ways? When will an athlete take a knee to protest the way Canada treats the First Nations?

Last month, Sidney Crosby divided Canadian hockey fans by accepting an invitation from Donald Trump to attend the White House with the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins.

Some disagreed with this decision, saying Trump’s views and behaviour are so destructive, so abhorrent, that Crosby shouldn’t do anything that gives him legitimacy. Many supporters jumped to Crosby’s defence, which is their right. But as you can see with a quick search on Twitter, most of that defence involves questioning people’s right to criticize him. Boosters accuse Crosby’s critics of envying his talent, being over-sensitive, and playing politics. “Who the heck are you to criticize Sid?” was the general tenor.

This summer, Crosby took the Stanley Cup with him on a visit to the Camp Hill Veterans hospital in Halifax. Fans often hail him for his kindness towards veterans. It’s not something all athletes do and he deserves that praise. But his fans should remember why those veterans he supports fought. Patriotism isn’t about photo ops; speaking one’s mind is a fundamental freedom.

If someone thinks that Crosby and the Penguins should not go to the White House because it legitimizes Donald Trump’s hateful divisiveness, then it is their right to say that.

It’s a right that soldiers fought to preserve, so honour their sacrifice by respecting it.

Many have used the “You’re going about it the wrong way” to criticize Kaepernick, or people who don’t wear poppies, or people who question the wisdom of Sidney Crosby’s decision to lend credibility to an authoritarian racist. But this is merely a deflection of the problem. If there is a better way, are you effectively using this method to eliminate injustice? If so, please share it with the rest of us.

This “going about it the wrong way” criticism is the attitude of someone who refuses to recognize the problem or simply doesn’t want to have that uncomfortable conversation.

What this criticism does is distract from the problem. You can support the goal of someone’s protest without having to agree with the way they are doing it.

So, if someone is protesting to end police brutality, bring clean drinking water to First Nations communities, or get law enforcement to finally do something about the pandemic of missing and murdered indigenous women, don’t criticize their methods if they’re doing it peacefully.

There are many forms of protest and the way you choose to do it is up to you.

RYAN Van HORNE Ryan is a Halifax journalist, playwright and documentary film director. His work appears in magazines and newspapers from coast to coast and at ryanvanhorne.com.