The Chronicle Herald (Metro)
EYES IN THE SKY
There are more than a few sentimental thoughts as the last of the Hercules CC-130H Hercules aircraft prepares to take off from 14 Wing Greenwood in the Annapolis Valley for the final time. The last of the Hercs, which have been at Greenwood since 413...
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Fearful for grain elevator’s future
Soybean farmers in Nova Scotia need answers now. Before the end of January, most farms will have purchased soybean seeds in time for spring planting, said James Kinsman of Windcrest Farms and WCF Grain Solutions, near Berwick. But before placing their...
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Why the plows pass you by
In our eight-part weekly series, How Halifax Works, we examine how Halifax’s core systems operate, why they’re under pressure, and what practical improvements could make daily life better. After a winter storm, cleanup can look a little...
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More mocktails on menus
Dry January has underscored Canadians’ thirst for non-alcoholic drinks. While the month-long detox tradition has gained popularity among Canadian drinkers looking for a reprieve after the holidays, Jay Hiltz saw an opportunity to cater to those who...
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Sex offender found guilty of touching girl in store
A convicted sex offender has been found guilty of touching a 10-yearold girl for a sexual purpose at a Dartmouth store last spring. Cole William George Fidgen, 28, of no fixed address stood trial in Dartmouth provincial court on charges of sexual...
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XI WELCOMES STEADY STREAM OF LEADERS SHAKEN BY TRUMP’S NEW WORLD ORDER
Donald Trump’s tariff war occupied U.S. allies for much of last year. Now, Chinese President Xi Jinping is welcoming a procession of leaders looking to mend fences with the world’s other major economy. South Korea’s Lee Jae Myung kicked off the trend...
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EAT YOUR MICROGREENS
What we eat not only affects our health, it also has major implications on health care. During his two decades in the industry, Gregg Curwin came to the realization that producing nutritious food year-round could be just as important to our overall...
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ROUND AND ROUND WE GO
Editor’s note: In our eight-part weekly series, How Halifax Works, we examine how Halifax’s core systems operate, why they’re under pressure, and what practical improvements could make daily life better. It might seem like you’re constantly driving in...
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SPOTTING A FLOOR CROSSER
When MP Michael Ma announced in early December that he was switching parties, pundits’ views on the floor crossing were all over the place. The only consistency expressed in the media reports was that nobody, including those within his Conservative...
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Halifax overpass construction extends through 2027
A closure on Highway 111, between the Massachusetts Avenue ramps and the Windsor Street Exchange, will last through the completion of overpass construction by the end of 2027, the Halifax Regional Municipality announced. The work is in support of the...
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Boy dies after dog attack
A 13-year-old Shelburne County boy who was attacked by three dogs while riding a bicycle on Upper Sandy Cove Road in Welshtown has died. “The Municipality of the District of Shelburne is deeply heartbroken by the tragic loss of a 13-yearold boy...
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INVENTION DISPENSES ‘A-HA MOMENT’
They say necessity is the mother of invention. That certainly holds true for this teen inventor from Bedford. Joy Akinkunmi saw a problem and built something to fix it: the Pill Smart, an automatic medication dispenser for people with dementia. It’s...
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WILL TOP U.S. COURT END THE TARIFF TURMOIL?
’Tis the season for renaming — everything from a cultural hub dedicated to a beloved slain president to new destroyers to 2025 itself. No, U.S. President Donald Trump hasn’t labelled the year with his name, but his trade representative, in a new op-ed,...
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With so much winter magic ahead, we call this Planuary.
Here’s an idea! Change your mindset about just getting through winter – and get into it! Plan a January Beach Break or an early Valentine’s adventure. Plan on taking in February’s South Shore Lobster Crawl, nightly live music in the Lounge, Dining...
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POLAR PLUNGE
Brave swimmers dunk into the icy waters of Lake Banook in Dartmouth during the Darkside Dippers New Year’s Day swim on Thursday.
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MILITARY SPENDING COULD BE ‘VERY BIG NUMBERS’
As Mayor Andy Fillmore sat down recently to talk about 2025 (his first full year in the big chair), he also laid out his expectations for the new year: a possible windfall of military spending, an uptick in housing construction and an unavoidable jump...
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‘CANADA WILL STAND WITH UKRAINE’
Prime Minister Mark Carney and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met in Halifax ahead of Zelenskyy’s trip to Florida to meet U.S. President Donald Trump about peace proposals between Ukraine and Russia. In a news release issued after the...
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DID TRUMP SAVE CANADA FROM BAD POLICY?
Prime Minister Mark Carney rescinded Canada’s digital services tax (DST), a threeper-cent levy on digital services revenue from large domestic and foreign businesses, in June after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to halt trade talks if the tax...
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Pattern of stars known as the Winter Triangle lights the way in a busy sky
Formed by three bright stars – Betelgeuse in the constellation of Orion, Procyon in Canis Minor and Sirius in Canis Major – the Winter Triangle is a distinctive asterism of the winter night sky. An asterism is an observed pattern or group of stars, a...
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HAPPY HOLIDAYS
Visitors check out the lobster trap Christmas tree on the waterfront in Lunenburg.
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Vacancies increasing, but so are rents
Despite more apartments sitting empty, Halifax renters are still facing steep rental increases, according to new federal housing data that suggests affordability pressures remain deeply woven into Nova Scotia’s rental market. The latest Canada...
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BOOM & GLOOM
In one southwestern Ontario city, forever linked by history to all things jumbo, one of the world’s largest automakers is building Canada’s biggest factory — a $7-billion colossus expected to employ about 3,000 people. Only 50 kilometres away, in...
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FOLLOW THE LIGHTS
A pedestrian strolls past a seasonal window display on Barrington Street in Halifax. While a storm brought unusually mild weather to the province on Friday, winter conditions are expected to return early next week. For full weather details, see
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GIRL POWER
Marie-philip Poulin scored the shootout winner as the Montreal Victoire beat the Toronto Sceptres 2-1 Wednesday night in Halifax. Montreal goaltender Ann-renee Desbiens made 35 saves and stopped all five attempts in the shootout in front of a sold-out...
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Halifax intends to buy back Khyber building
With no explanation, the Halifax Regional Municipality is denying a $1.5-million arts funding request and buying back the iconic 1588 Barrington St. building known as the Khyber, says the non-profit trying to redevelop it. It’s a bit of whiplash for...
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DARK SKY PROJECT ENVISIONED
You’ve been there: Trying to witness a celestial event – northern lights, a comet, a meteor shower – but struggling to find a spot of sky around HRM that’s dark enough. Astronomer and author John Read has been there too and was inspired to do...
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HOW KUSHNER BECAME TRUMP’S INDISPENSABLE SECOND PEACE ENVOY
As soon as he finished negotiating a ceasefire in Gaza in early October, Jared Kushner said he was returning to his family and day job in Miami, where he heads a multibillion-dollar private equity firm. His involvement in high-stakes peacemaking was...
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HOLIDAY TRADITION
No party was spared as Dartmouth-cole Harbour MP Darren Fisher shared his latest Christmas poem in the House of Commons. Fisher, who picked up the annual tradition from former MP Rodger Cuzner in 2023, took good-natured jabs at all of Canada’s major...
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CAN TRAFFIC ON HALIFAX PENINSULA BE FIXED?
It won’t be an easy job, but it will be high profile: digging into traffic patterns on Halifax’s peninsula to figure out how to make it better. Or at least less painful Link Nova Scotia issued a request for proposals on Wednesday for a consultant to...
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‘No different than a property tax’
If development charges on new builds are hiked in Halifax, it will be taxpayers who bear the cost, the president and CEO of Southwest Properties says. HRM’S budget committee recently passed a motion that would have the municipality’s chief...
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‘SHE WAS MY LITTLE MIRACLE’
Making a sheep “bwaaa” sound at one of her favourite books makes Ellie Murphy giggle. Every single time. It’s amazing that chemotherapy hasn’t dulled her high-octane toddler energy or her curly wisps of hair, said her mom, Leah Murphy, while sitting...
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ONTARIO CITY A CENTRAL SPOT IN FENTANYL FIGHT
In an underworld of criminals, guns and deadly fentanyl, Windsor, Ont., is a national nexus. Windsor’s place in the country’s booming fentanyl trade was recently highlighted with a record-shattering 46-kilogram drug bust. The $6.5-million fentanyl...
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Town of Yarmouth looking to sell unused property at a deep discount price
What can you buy for 10 bucks? According to the Town of Yarmouth, $10 buys opportunity, potential and tax revenue – especially when you’re the seller, which in this case the town would be. Social media has been abuzz about a Dec. 11 Town of Yarmouth...
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‘A uniquely difficult case’
A Halifax teen who was arrested last spring and accused of planning to shoot up his school has been handed a community-based sentence for eight weapons-related offences. The 16-year-old boy’s identity is protected under the Youth Criminal Justice...
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KING’S COLLEGE SAVINGS COULD RUN OUT BY 2027
The University of King’s College is in a tight spot financially, as declining enrolment, introduction of the international students cap and a lag in provincial funding stack together to cause strain. The King ’s Student Union shared the situation last...
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BIG FLAKES, LITTLE SNOW?
A seasonal display is adjusted by staff at Alderney Landing in Dartmouth. Nova Scotians are bracing for the first blast of wintry weather, with a mid-week mix of conditions predicted for the province.
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Do speed display signs slow traffic?
Those flashing signs that clock your speed and silently shame you into slowing down — do they work in Halifax? That’s the question councillors were asking at Thursday’s transportation committee meeting. City staff said a recent review showed that...
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WHY CHINESE EVS KEEP HAUNTING LIBERAL PRIME MINISTERS
Mark Carney has inherited Justin Trudeau’s nightmare. In his decade as prime minister, one of the policy decisions that haunted Trudeau was the unavoidable question about whether to allow Chinese electric vehicles (EVS) into the Canadian market. It...
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ROCK SOLID
Four years ago, Jill Brothers was at a crossroads in her curling career. Now the vice-skip on Christina Black’s Nova Scotia team is one step closer to realizing an Olympic dream with her mates. A key shot by Brothers in the ninth end of Thursday’s...
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NSP defends cyberattack recovery
Executives from Nova Scotia Power appeared Tuesday before the natural resources and economic development committee, where MLAS questioned the utility about billing problems and the fallout from the spring cyberattack. The company has been relying on...
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Freeze-thaw swings strain aging Halifax water systems
Bursting pipes are a familiar headache in Halifax, with aging infrastructure and inconsistent temperatures. Both the city and plumbers are bracing for another busy season of emergency repairs. HALIFAX WATER: MORE BREAKS TO BE EXPECTED Halifax Water...
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‘IT’S LIKE GROUNDHOG DAY’
Daniel Mackinnon-clarke can’t escape construction in his northend Dartmouth neighbourhood. Across from his apartment at the corner of Crystal Drive and Pinecrest Drive, a new five-storey building has gone up. On the street that separates the two...
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IS YOUR DOCTOR GETTING PAYMENTS FROM A PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANY?
In Canada, when a doctor hands you a prescription, you trust that what’s been recommended is the best drug for your health. What you can’t know is whether your physician has benefited financially from a relationship with the company that made the drug...
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Leaders mark ‘enduring friendship’
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu was in Halifax on Tuesday, visiting a day ahead of the annual Tree for Boston tree cutting, a tradition celebrating the ties between the two cities. “It’s a very special day for Mayor Wu to be joining us from Boston,” Halifax...
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Cancer treatment ‘way outside the box’
Dr. Carman Giacomantonio calls the first human test results from Sona Nanotech’s new therapy for patients with immunotherapy-resistant metastatic melanoma a game changer. Targeted hyperthermia therapy, a Canadian innovation, uses gold nanorods and...
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‘EVERYONE IS AGREED THAT IT’S AWFUL’
You’re a Canadian farm kid, sitting in a European trench in 1915. A man you’ve never met is dying across a stretch of open land, 100 yards away, as you pen a letter home. Death is everywhere. You’ve shot moving bodies, you’ve huddled against incoming...
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New treatment centre aims to fill gaps in trauma-informed care
A new mental health and addictions treatment centre dedicated to the care of veterans and first responders is opening in Head of Jeddore, aiming to fill long-standing gaps in trauma-informed care. The EHN Guardians Atlantic facility is operated by...
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DAYCARE OPERATOR HOPES TO EXPAND
Even before an 80-spot daycare closed in Fairview this spring, there was high demand for child care in this Halifax community. “We are in dire need of child care in our neighbourhood,” said one Fairview parent who responded to a survey about a...
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PARTY SWITCH STIRS PASSIONATE RESPONSES
Chris d’entremont's decision to switch parties is drawing a wide range of charged reactions. For those who missed it, the Acadie-annapolis MP announced Tuesday he would be changing allegiances from the Conservatives to the Liberals in the wake of the...
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More research done on hybrid grape varieties
Nova Scotia’s wine industry, like those of Ontario and Quebec, is based on hybrid grapes much more than other regions of North America. It’s not by accident, as they are more disease-resistant and cold-hardy than vinifera varieties, which are based on...
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‘CASTLE ON THE COMMON’ IN SCAFFOLDING, AGAIN
Just when it seemed that years of construction were finished at the Halifax Armoury, the scaffolding is back up again. The national historic site, also known as the Halifax Armouries or the North Park Armoury, had taken only three years to build when...
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FROM FAMILY HOME TO IRAQI SPOILS
Mayer Lawee, an 86-year-old Montreal man, remembers a childhood in his family’s elegant mansion, built by his father and uncle in the heart of Baghdad, Iraq’s quixotic capital, especially family weddings in the walled gardens with its tiered fountains,...
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CAN DO SPIRIT
“I did the Jesus piece for his birthday,” said Peter Norman. “The Nativity, the Ascension, it was beautiful. I’m a churchgoing guy.” As the sun rose on Christmas morning 2023, Norman was painting his “Jesus piece” on a back wall on the Sisters of St....
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WELCOME HOME
Lt.-cmdr. Jason Pike gets a big hug from his daughter Autumn after HMCS Edmonton returns to Halifax along with HMCS Yellowknife on Wednesday. The two Kingstonclass vessels were deployed in July as part of Operation Reassurance.
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Youth linked to violent online network arrested
Halifax Regional Police have arrested a youth in connection with participation in a violent online extremist group. The arrest follows an investigation that began in May by the HRP/ RCMP Integrated Child Exploitation Unit. According to a news release...
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TOGAS-OPTIONAL LEARNING AT SMU
Some Saint Mary’s University students were doing hands-on – and togas-on – learning last week. The students got their Greek on as they demonstrated sports from the ancient Olympics at Huskies Stadium. It was for a new course called sport and leisure...
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EVE OF DESTRUCTION
When Karen Cameron moved into Ocean Breeze Village under the shadow of the A. Murray Mackay Bridge 28 years ago, she thought she was there for life. “When I moved in here, I didn’t think I’d ever have to move again,” the sexagenarian said as she...
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ACCESS TO CHEAP CANADIAN MEDS ON LIFE SUPPORT
Linda Klonsky usually orders her prescription eye drops from a Canadian pharmacy that charges US$250 for a three-month supply. But that came to an abrupt halt late this summer when it came time for her to reorder, as the Trump administration’s latest...
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Blue Jays’ clubhouse chemistry key to team’s post-season success
If Ernie Clement wasn’t running around, doing almost every task imaginable on a baseball diamond in October, he wouldn’t be far from some sort of sports environment. He likes to play shinny in the winter at home in Rochester, N.Y. He is an excellent...
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Growing encampment reflects divided opinions
A Halifax encampment designated for four tents now holds over 20, reflecting the city’s worsening housing crisis. The situation comes as new polling shows most Canadians support clearing homeless encampments from public spaces. According to Halifax...
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GREY DAY
Caitlin Brauns runs along the Northwest Arm in Halifax following a patch of some much-needed rain.
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Closing arguments made at ex-bouncer’s trial
A former Halifax bouncer’s fate on charges of manslaughter and criminal negligence causing the death of a bar patron is in the hands of a Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge. Alexander Pishori Levy, 40, is accused of fatally choking Ryan Sawyer during an...
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SOCIAL MEDIA RULES WRESTLE WITH TECH
A bill that would force companies like Meta, Tiktok and Snapchat to delete the accounts of Nova Scotia youths under the age of 16 appears destined to die on the order paper. As evidence of the harms caused to young people by excessive social media use...
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INDIGENOUS PEOPLE BEAR THE WORST OF HISTORIC WILDFIRE SEASON
Fire WE025 started small. But in late May, hot and dry conditions and gusty winds whipped it into an out-of-control inferno. Over 116 days, it swept across northwestern Manitoba, chewing up 447,000 acres of boreal forest — an area larger than Houston —...
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Mariners Centre expansion project in Yarmouth moving at good pace
Those involved with the construction of the $42-million expansion of the Mariners Centre say it’s coming along nicely, with things moving at the pace time-wise and budget-wise that everyone hoped to see. People have been watching as the new Credit...
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Former Halifax bouncer testifies in own defence
A former bouncer at the Halifax Alehouse accused of fatally choking a patron during an altercation outside the bar in December 2022 took the stand in his own defence Wednesday at his trial in Nova Scotia Supreme Court. Alexander Pishori Levy, 40, of...
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What does drought mean for dry dug wells?
What happens to water levels in Nova Scotia’s thousands of dry dug wells if it doesn’t rain before the ground freezes? “It’s not going to be good if we don’t get water back in the aquifer,” said Ronnie White of Ron White Well Drilling in Oxford. A...
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PLACES, PLEASE
Visitors take in a movie-themed display set up at Burgher Hill as part of the annual Pumpkin People Festival in Kentville.
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Court reserves decision on Sandeson’s appeal of murder conviction
Convicted murderer William Sandeson argued in the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal on Friday that a trial judge erred on several factors during his trial in Nova Scotia Supreme Court. Sandeson, 33, is representing himself. Last year, the Appeal Court...
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GARDENING MISTAKES
Mid to late autumn is the ideal season for planting spring-flowering bulbs, such as crocuses, daffodils, ornamental onions, tulips, and snowdrops. It’s not difficult to do, and the cheerful blooms are one of the first signs of spring. For the best...
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‘WHAT A MOMENT’
Halifax is going to test the provincial and federal government waters with Northwest Arm-style protections for Dartmouth Cove. “What a moment,” Friends of Dartmouth Cove, which formed to oppose infilling, wrote in a social media post after the vote...
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HALIFAX AIMS TO BOOST, CHANGE DEED TRANSFER TAXES ON PROPERTY SALES
Is it a reasonable way to bring in more cash for the municipality or an incentive for people not to list their homes? On Tuesday, Halifax councillors and the mayor debated a strategy for increasing the deed transfer tax – that’s the money the...
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Alehouse patron was unconscious, purple as officer tried to make bouncer break chokehold, trial hears
One of the first Halifax Regional Police officers to arrive at the scene the night Ryan Sawyer was found unconscious outside the Halifax Alehouse almost three years ago said he saw the man being choked by a bouncer at the bar so hard that his face was...
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EIGHT DAYS AND OUT
At eight days, it’s one of the shortest legislature sessions on record. While Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said it was efficient and they got work done during the fall sitting that started Sept. 23, opposition MLAS strongly disagreed. “This was...
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