Editor's Letter

By Trevor J. Adams

trevoradams@unravelhalifax.ca

Photo by Tammy Fancy

Here we go

March 2020 was a lifetime ago.

When that month started, I was soothingly reassuring friends that this COVID business wouldn’t amount to much, and cancelling travel plans would be rash and hasty.

By mid-March, I was leaving my office and putting away the files for an April issue that would never go to press.

With the majority of advertisers shuttered, it was economically impossible to print. So we hunkered down, cut spending to a minimum, and tried to serve readers online as best we could.

All the while, we plotted our return to print. And as we bided our time, the ground kept shifting. One lockdown gave way to the next. The mass shooting rocked our province. Mobs attacked Native fishers as they exercised their treaty rights. The Black Lives Matter movement forced Halifax to confront systemic racism.

Even as COVID held us in its sticky grip, everything else became fluid.

For a city, and a province, where “this is how we’ve always done it” is practically a mantra, there are fewer certainties. Suddenly, we’re seeing that there are, and there has to be, better ways of ordering our lives, of treating each other, of growing our city, of building our future.

The changes you see in this new magazine, now called Unravel Halifax, reflect that.

We want to help Haligonians understand their city and where it’s going, amplify the changemakers, question, and explore. We’ll still celebrate the things that make this city special. We love Halifax as much as ever, but love needs honesty. We’ll challenge our city’s assumptions, prick its hubris.

In this first issue, our cover story by Janet Whitman on page 32 sets the stage. We’ve convened a panel of disruptors and changemakers. These aren’t your usual Halifax talking heads — there are no pollsters, business insiders, or politicos. Instead, we’ve invited the people, regardless of age or background, who challenge the establishment.

In a free-spirited discussion, they discuss where our city is going, how we get there, and if it’s really where we want to be.

And we also want to hear from you.

What do you want from this magazine? What are Halifax’s important untold stories? How can we best serve you and your city? Email your thoughts to trevoradams@unravelhalifax.ca.

Unravel ONLINE

Visit unravelhalifax.ca for photo galleries, video interviews, web exclusive reports, and more. This month, highlights include behind-the-scenes footage from our cover story roundtable, and a historical timeline to complement the story on page 13, looking back at Halifax’s transit history.