Where we belong - East Coast Post

EAST COAST POST
Published by the University of King’s College School of Journalism
February 5 - 11, 2016 | Vol. 2 No. 4 | eastcoastpost.kingsjournalism.com
Where we
belong
IN FOCUS
pages 6 - 12
Making snap
decisions
pg 5
Africville
remembered
pg 8
Responding to hate
with art
pg 13
PAGE 2
NEWS
FEBRUARY 5 - 11, 2016
Risking your health for hair
Vegan beauty products safer, ‘just as fabulous’ as mainstream products
JILLIAN MORGAN
@jilliancmorgan
Beautiful hair can come at a
price – not just for your wallet,
but for your health.
“We don’t have to poison ourselves to be beautiful today,” says
Nancy MacDonald, owner of
Halifax’s Eco Chic Hair Studio.
Her salon is all-organic and
vegan. Its products are free of ammonia – a chemical that opens up
the hair cuticle to lighten hair and
develop added colour – and formaldehyde, which is often used in
hair-straightening treatments.
The salon also shuns para-phenylenediamines
(traditional hair dyes), plastics, sodium
lauryl sulphates (often used in
shampoos) and parabens (a preservative).
“I don’t have to breathe ammonia to do your hair colour. I
don’t have to download you with
chemicals through your skin and I
don’t have to download the environment with tons of chemicals,”
says MacDonald.
These chemicals are often
linked with allergic reactions as
well as other health hazards.
In 2010, Health Canada issued an advisory regarding Brazilian Blowouts – a popular hair
straightening treatment – for
having high levels of formaldehyde. The treatment is banned in
Canada but can be found in the
United States.
Women’s Voices for the Earth,
which advocates for a toxic-free
environment for women, released
a study in 2014 titled Beauty and
Its Beast. The report found that
60 per cent of salon workers suffer from skin conditions. Other
health risks included decreased
lung function, a higher risk of
developing asthma and diseases
such as Alzheimer’s and dementia, as well as several types of cancer.
MacDonald opened Eco Chic
out of concern for her own health
and the health of her clients – and
she isn’t alone.
Beth Thompson, owner of the
Cosmic Tree Essentials, a cosmetics company in Wolfville, says
“anything you can do with mainstream makeup is achievable with
vegan makeup.”
Thompson says she had suffered from eczema since she was a
child and was eventually instructed by a doctor to avoid makeup
products, due to the harmful effects on her skin.
“If you look at the number
of different products people use
in the course of a day and the
number of ingredients in those,
we’re really assaulting our bodies
with all kinds of chemicals,” says
Thompson.
“That’s why I would promote
using things from nature because
we’ve evolved alongside those
things.”
Cosmic Tree Essentials, established in 2006, offers lipsticks,
foundations, eye shadows, bath
products, blush and hair products
– but lipsticks and foundations
are Thompson’s best sellers.
“There’s a sense of integrity
you get from knowing that your
personal care routine isn’t harming the planet and isn’t harming
other creatures,” says Thompson.
Thompson uses plant wax instead of beeswax as well as plant or
vegetable oils instead of the traditional lanolin – a grease extracted
from the oil glands of sheep often
used by makeup companies.
At Eco Chic, MacDonald
Eco Chic’s Nancy MacDonald holds a hair colour chart (Photo: Jillian Morgan)
uses synthetic dye molecules – or
pigments – suspended in coconut
and other natural oils, rather than
to chemicals. She says organic hair dyes are closer the body’s
natural pH, mean it damages the
hair less.
“We can have our beauty that’s
more organically derived but be
just as dramatic, just as fabulous,
just as electric red, just as platinum blonde as anybody else,” says
MacDonald.
Dana Whiteford, a master stylist at Eco Chic, says she
thinks many people don’t know
much about the toxicity of their
hair colour.
MacDonald says Eco Chic
hair dyes are safe for cancer patients and pregnant women, who
normally would not be able to get
their hair done.
“We’re just people like everybody else. We eat crackers and
chocolate and drink wine. We’re
not super holistic gurus. But we’re
conscious,” says MacDonald. “I
believe health and beauty should
merge together.”
ALEX COOKE
Managing Editor
Grace Kennedy
@NotCookie
Copy/Online Editor
Shelby Banks
Photo Editor
Nicole Gnazdowsky
Instructors
Reporting, writing, editing
Dean Jobb
Production/Design
Katie Ingram
Photos
Michael Creagen
About Us
The East Coast Post is published 5
times a year in January/February.
#selfiesagainsthunger raised $321 for Feed Nova Scotia in January (Photo: Alex Cooke)
year’s numbers.
Karen Theriault, director of
development and communications at Feed Nova Scotia, says
the donation is significant because with every $2 donation
it can distribute three meals to
food banks and shelters across the
province.
“The impact is definitely sig-
Holocaust survivor educates
to prevent future genocides
MICHELLE PRESSÉ
EAST COAST POST
… so we thought it would be a
fun way to make it interactive
with our customers and kind of
help promote our food too.”
He says that the Chef Inspired Group was “a little disappointed” about failing to meet its
$500 goal.
But they’re using it as a learning experience to improve next
NEWS
FEBRUARY 5 - 11, 2016
@michellepresse
#selfiesagainsthunger aids food banks
The Chef Inspired Group of
Restaurants is donating the $321
raised from their #selfiesagainsthunger campaign to Feed Nova
Scotia – enough to distribute
about 480 meals.
The month-long campaign,
which ended last weekend, encouraged restaurant patrons to
take pictures of their food, or
themselves with their food, and
post it on Twitter, Facebook,
or Instagram with the hashtag
#selfiesagainsthunger.
The Chef Inspired Group
– comprised of the eateries Habaneros, Cheese Curds, U-PickFish, Gwelio, Lil Eatily and
Gecko Bus – donated 50 cents for
every post.
The group also held a contest
for participants where it drew five
names to win a taco-making kit.
Keith MacLeod, the campaign’s marketing and design
coordinator, says the contest was
made to raise money and promote
the restaurants.
“People take selfies every day
PAGE 3
nificant for people who are really
struggling now, because generally
speaking people are feeling the
cinch with higher food costs,” she
says.
“And if you’re already living on
a really low income then it’s even
more difficult, so those meals become even more important.”
PAGES 1&2 LAYOUT BY ALEX COOKE
It is written, edited and designed
by students in the Newspaper
Workshop at the School of
Journalism, University of King’s
College, Halifax, N.S., B3H 2A1.
Contact Us
(902) 422-1270 (ext.143)
[email protected]
Twitter: @eastcoastpostns
Facebook: eastcoastpost
Cover photo: Adina Bresge
When Philip Riteman thinks
about International Holocaust
Remembrance Day, he thinks
about how lucky he is to be alive.
Riteman lost his entire family to the Holocaust – his parents,
five brothers and two sisters.
After surviving several Nazi
concentration camps, including
Auschwitz, Riteman says the
memories still haunt him.
“When Holocaust survivors
first started telling people what
happened, they didn’t believe it,”
says Riteman. “It was so horrifying that they thought it couldn’t
be true.”
The 88-year-old lives with his Philip Riteman’s identification number is a reminder of his survival in concentration camps (Photo: Michelle Pressé)
wife, Dorothy, in Bedford. On
Jan. 29, two days before Interna- a dream about his family,” she Holocaust Remembrance Day,
Edna LeVine, the director
tional Holocaust Remembrance says. “You never forget the people the Atlantic Jewish Council of community engagement at
Day, they celebrated their 66th you love. They’re still there.”
screened My Italian Secret at the the council, says it’s important
wedding anniversary.
Riteman arrived in New- University of King’s College.
for people to be educated about
She says it’s difficult to watch foundland in 1946 and worked
The film tells the story of Ital- the Holocaust to prevent future
her husband relive the memo- as a businessman selling clothes ian athlete Gino Bartali and other genocides.
ries, especially at night when he door-to-door before settling in Italians who risked their lives to
“The more knowledge you
dreams.
Nova Scotia in 1980.
save Jews, refugees and partisans have, the more power you have,”
“Sometimes, he wakes up from
In honour of International in Nazi-occupied Italy.
says LeVine. “We can’t allow his-
tory to repeat itself.”
Riteman says this is why he
broke his silence 40 years after he
was liberated by the Americans in
1945.
His book Millions of Souls:
The Philip Riteman Story was
published in 2010. He was just
13 when his family and him were
taken away from their small town
in southern Poland in 1939.
Because of his larger build,
Riteman was able to pass as an
18-year-old and performed hard
labour for the Nazis for six years.
A fellow prisoner told a guard
that Riteman was a locksmith,
which Riteman says saved his
life – the Nazis needed adult prisoners who had practical skills for
labour.
He says he hopes having a
dedicated day to remembering
what happened to him and his
family will help prevent genocides
from happening in the future.
“I’m happy to see the young
generation learn about my history,” he says. “If you forget history,
it can happen again. If you don’t
learn it now, you might learn the
hard way.”
Teaching kids about diversity
MICHELLE PRESSÉ
@michellepresse
It’s been more than 50 years
since Martin Luther King’s “I
Have A Dream speech, but his
powerful word”s still thunder
across the world and into the pages of books at the Halifax Public
Library.
In celebration of African Heritage Month, the Halifax Central
Library, on Spring Garden Road,
held an African American ReadIn last weekend for preschoolers
and their caregivers.
A variety of books by African
American and Canadian authors
and illustrators were available to
check out and read in the cozy
beanbags and tents.
Gretchen Fitzgerald brought
her one-year-old daughter to educate her about an important part
of history. Fitzgerald’s daughter
has a half-brother who is African
Canadian. She wants her daughter to understand where his ancestors came from and their fight
for equality.
“There’s a long history of racism in Nova Scotia and we need
to educate our kids about is as
early as possible,” says Fitzgerald.
“It’s the only way we can move
forward.”
“
We always need role
models, and it’s important for children
to have people from
their own cultures
and communities
they can identify.
Mary Spurr, coordinator for the
African American Read-In
Demolishing Africville and
the case of Viola Desmond are
just a couple examples of racism
in the province.
Fitzgerald says a 2010 experiment on Anderson Cooper’s
AC360 still haunts her.
Cooper asked white and black
children to choose between a
white or black doll.
The experiment revealed that
the majority of the children favoured the white doll and associated it with positive characteristics while negative characteristics
were associated with the black
doll – even by African American
children.
Mary Spurr, the coordinator
for the African American ReadIn, says it’s important for children
to have diversity in who they look
up to.
“We always need role models,
and it’s important for children to
have people from their own cultures and communities they can
identify with,” says Spurr.
“They need to see representations of themselves, and books is
one of the best ways to do that.”
To help make this happen,
Spurr chose more than two dozen books written or illustrated by
African American and Canadian
authors. Some of the books were
written or illustrated by local authors such as Shauntay Grant and
George Elliott Clarke.
Like Fitzgerald, Cassandra Hanrahan brought her
10-month-old daughter to the
event.
While she may be too young
to understand the importance of
African Heritage Month, Han-
rahan wants to expose her to the
cultural history that exists within
the province as early as possible.
“There’s all kinds of diversities
and stories from our own backyard that are ignored too often,”
says Hanrahan.
“I want her to appreciate people from different backgrounds
and treat others equally, no matter
what their skin colour is.”
Books that explore diversity at Halifax Central Library (Photo: Michelle Pressé)
PAGE LAYOUT BY NICOLE GNAZDOWSKY
PAGE 4
NEWS
FEBURARY 5 - 11, 2016
Winning the war on superbugs
MICHELLE PRESSÉ
@michellepresse
When a cause doesn’t have a
community, it’s hard for people to
care about it.
That’s a contributing factor
in the fight against antimicrobial
resistance, says Steven Hoffman,
an associate professor of law and
director of Global Strategy Lab at
the University of Ottawa.
“There’s foundations and
communities for things like breast
cancer, lung cancer and Alzheimer’s,” says Hoffman. “There’s no
face for antimicrobial resistance.
It makes it harder for people to
want to fight it.”
Hoffman gave a speech at
Dalhousie’s Schulich School of
Law on Jan. 29 to talk about antimicrobial resistance and its growing threat to public health.
A problem in all parts of the
world, antimicrobial resistance
threatens the prevention and
treatment of several infections
caused by bacteria, viruses, parasites and fungi. The pandemic requires governments and society to
take action, but so far, superbugs
are winning the war.
Nearly 700,000 people die
worldwide of superbug infections
each year.
According to Hoffman, by
2050, superbugs, a strain of bacteria that grows resistant to antibiotic drugs, will kill more people
than cancer.
His research estimates approximately 10 million people will die
of antibiotic resistance per year if
nothing changes, compared with
7.6 million people who now die
from cancer each year.
Susan Nasser, a retired social
worker, says her 94-year-old father’s recent hospitalization inspired her to attend Hoffman’s
talk.
“At first, I thought, ‘What do
superbugs have to do with legal
work?’” says Nasser. “But he made
it very clear that governments
and society have a very big role in
this.”
Part of the problem with antimicrobial resistance is that it’s
invisible and can’t be stopped at
borders the way some pandemics
can be.
Hoffman says developing a
new international treaty with the
support of the United Nations
General Assembly is an option,
but no such treaty has been organized.
Hoffman says the conserva-
Bus delays cause bad days
ALEX COOKE
@NotCookie
Steven Hoffman says action must be taken to fight superbugs (Photo: Michelle Pressé)
tion of effective drugs, innovation
towards creating new antimicrobials and access for the millions of
people without antimicrobials is
the only way to successfully tackle
the problem.
Between 2013 and 2014,
WHO undertook a “country situation analysis” addressing where
more work is needed in fighting
antimicrobial resistance, but little
action has been taken.
“It’s expensive to fix,” says
Hoffman. “But it’s costing us
more to let the problem go unsolved.”
Heather Webster, a first-year
master’s student in Dalhousie’s
Health Administration and Law
program praised Hoffman’s abil-
NICOLE GNAZDOWSKY
@nicognaz
Striking Chronicle Herald employees have taken their work to a new news website (Photo: Nicole Gnazdowsky)
followers.
“A lot of us thought maybe
no one would care about us …
a bunch of generally well-paid
middle class people,” Sword says. “We were really pleased and
surprised at how much people
really seemed to support us right
from day one.”
Michael Gorman, the provincial legislature reporter for the
Chronicle Herald, says “as long as
I’m on strike, it’s an opportunity
and it’s one I’m going to use.
I love to report – it’s what I
NEWS
FEBRUARY 5 - 11, 2016
Halifax Transit says passengers, shorter routes can make system better
ity to educate people about antimicrobial resistance.
Webster hopes awareness can
turn into action.
“Antimicrobial resistance is an
issue that affects all of us now and
in the future,” says Webster. “And because we’re not fighting it effectively, it’s only getting
worse.”
Herald strikers launch Local Xpress news site
Just over a week into the
strike, Chronicle Herald reporters
and editors have launched a free
news website, Local Xpress.
Editor Pam Sword says union
members had discussed the idea
of creating a site for reporters to
continue to do their work before
the work stoppage was official,
but had nothing set in stone.
Once the strike began on Jan.
23, the journalists continued to
do what they love to do and took
time between picketing shifts
cover events.
“It just seems like people
wanted to keep doing their jobs,
there were stories they were
working on and ideas they had
and they wanted to keep working
on them.” Sword said.
“People were taking their reporting to Twitter just to get out
the stories they wanted to get
out.”
The Local Xpress website, localxpress.ca, was launched on Jan.
30. The number of followers on its
Twitter account, @xpress_local,
grew to 1,500 the first day and at
press time boasted over 2,000
PAGE 5
do.”
Sword says the Nova Scotia
New Democratic Party and labour unions across the province
have also reached out to offer support and assistance.
Maureen MacDonald, the
NDP MLA for Halifax Needham, says her party has decided
that its office will not take media
requests from freelance reporters hired as replacements by the
Chronicle Herald. It is also withholding its press releases from the
news organization in solidarity
with the striking workers.
“At the core of NDP values is
the idea of collective action as a
group of people, we respect collective bargaining,” MacDonald
says.
“We’ve been out to the picket line meeting with the workers,
we’ve made a contribution to their
coffee fund, and we will certainly
provide interviews and support to
the journalists who have set up
the online Local Xpress.”
Danny Cavanagh, president of
the 70,000-member Nova Scotia
PAGE LAYOUT BY PAYGE WOODARD
Federation of Labour, says he fully supports Local Xpress and sees
the site as an opportunity to produce solid journalism.
“You can’t work at a paper
where they’re cutting back and
cutting back. The Local Xpress
gives them a chance to do the
kind of investigative journalism
that takes more time but ultimately produces a better quality
story,” he said.
“So far, we’ve gotten to see
some stuff we wouldn’t have normally been able to see from them
before.”
Sword and Gorman say as
long as the strike continues, so
will Local Xpress.
Sword foresees the potential
for the site to expand and improve.
“We have to get a better workflow going, it’s just kind of pitch
in whenever you have time, so
it has to have a bit more formal
structure,” says Sword.
“We did get comments on
social media from people asking
if they could subscribe or donate.
It would probably be too early for
that, but we might have to talk
about whether we have a tip jar
… it could pay people’s expenses.”
“Thank you for calling Go
Time. Please enter your route
number followed by the pound
key.”
The automated Go Time voice
may be the biggest liar in the city.
For Haligonians, it’s a tale as
old as time itself: waiting for a bus
that might not show up on time,
if at all. And the cold weather
makes it more inconvenient for
passengers shivering at the bus
stop.
A passenger survey from October 2014 shows that about half
of Halifax Transit passengers
were either “very dissatisfied” or
“dissatisfied” with the reliability
of Halifax buses.
Another 60 per cent were either “very dissatisfied” or “dissatisfied” with scheduling and connections.
Tiffany Chase, spokesperson
for Halifax Regional Municipality, acknowledged in an email that
“it’s clear we have some work to
do to increase overall customer
satisfaction within these two service areas.”
In another survey based on
time performance, 64 per cent
say that they were picked up on
time within four minutes, and 46
per cent report getting to their
destination on time within four
minutes.
Byung Jun Kang, a 23-year
old Dalhousie masters of planning student, is the executive director of PLANifax, a non-profit
organization that makes YouTube
videos for the Halifax weekly The
Coast to highlight planning issues
in Halifax.
It has released two videos exploring why buses are late. There
are many factors that contribute
to late buses, including traffic
congestion and bad weather, but
there’s one passengers don’t really
think about: themselves.
When people fish for change
while boarding a bus, they often
aren’t aware of the consequences.
“People think that it’s not a
big deal but it’s actually a huge
deal, especially in maintaining
transit schedule, because if you’re
30 seconds late in one spot, the
delay just gets larger and larger
and larger, to the point where it
could screw up the whole system,”
says Kang.
Chase agrees that commuters
can do their part to keep buses
on-time.
“Customers are asked to step
up to the bus stop area as the
bus is on approach and have fare
payment ready. Where possible,
we also ask that passengers disembark through the mid or rear
doors to allow passengers to board
at the front of the bus,” she wrote.
Longer routes are also an issue, since the longer the route the
About 60 per cent of Halifax Transit passengers are dissatisfied with scheduling and connections (Photo: Alex Cooke)
greater the chance a bus will encounter delays.
“I was waiting for the 14 in
Dartmouth, and I was waiting
there for an hour and a half,” says
Kang.
“When the bus got there, people asked the bus driver why he
was late, and the bus driver said,
‘Sorry, there’s a traffic accident
on the Armdale Rotary,’ which is
like, two hours away from Dartmouth.”
Chase says Halifax Transit is
working to make the bus system
better.
Implementing shorter bus
routes is part of Moving Forward
Together, an initiative Halifax
Transit launched in 2013 to improve bus service, she says.
There is also a proposal to
introduce Transit Priority Measures, which will give buses “an
edge over the rest of traffic.” A
report will be presented to city
council in the spring, and the
changes should be implemented
over the next five years.
Halifax Transit also looking to
introduce a new GPS-based locator system, which is now being
tested on a handful of buses.
It will provide real time data
on the location of buses to Halifax Transit so it can better understand where buses are slowing
down and whether or not they’re
departing on time.
Forget Facebook – Snapchat users happier
PAYGE WOODARD
@paygewoodard
Four, three, two, one and it’s
gone. Are you happier now?
A University of Michigan
study says Snapchat, a video messaging application that allows
pictures and videos to be shared
for up to 10 seconds, makes users
happier than other social media.
Twenty-year-old
Melissa
Amelia says Snapchat is the social
app she uses the most and it does
make her happier.
“I find it’s a convenient way
to keep in touch with people. I’m
not really a huge texter so it’s just
kind of easier to just snap your
face or whatever is going on.”
The study looked at 154 college students who use smartphones, and found interactions
on Snapchat are associated with
more positive emotions than
Snapchat users worry less about how they look (Photo: Payge Woodard)
other social technologies, such as
Facebook.
“Snapchat is typically being
used to communicate spontaneously with close friends in a
new and often more enjoyable
way,” Joseph Bayer, the study’s
lead author, said in a press release.
Haley Cooke, also 20, says she
thinks the app better connects
people than Facebook because
“it’s fun being able to see people’s
faces.”
The study found users believed
Snapchat interactions are similar
to face-to-face conversations because they are mundane, not recorded and often shared between
friends.
It also found that users may
not be as worried how they look
in shared content.
“I’m all about ugly faces with
Snapchat,” Amelia says.
Cindy Hamon-Hill, a psychology professor at Dalhousie
University, says this could explain
why Snapchat makes users happier.
Since the content isn’t scrutinized, she says, it’s more spontaneous and real.
“So maybe in the spontaneity
there is an element of authenticity.”
She says Snapchat may also
trigger what’s known as emo-
PAGE LAYOUT BY JILLIAN MORGAN
tional contagion – a neurological mirroring of another person’s
emotions.
“We observe it and just
through mere observation we experience it to some degree.”
But not everyone is sold on
Snapchat.
“I feel that it’s a bit of a waste
of time, if I want to talk to someone I’ll call them or do FaceTime
or Skype,” says 31-year-old Andrew Park.
While many spend time swiping on Tinder, sending photos on
Snapchat or writing Facebook
messages, Hamon-Hill says social
media just can’t replace the real
thing.
“The thing is it’s no longer
face-to-face communication . . .
I know you can put in emoticons
but they do not equal the emotion
in vocal exchange or facial expression or body gesture.”
PAGE 6
PAGE 7
FEBRUARY 5 - 11, 2016
FOCUS: BELONGING
FEBRUARY 5 - 11, 2016
FOCUS: WHERE WE BELONG
We have always struggled
to belong.
As races of people we
struggle - for acceptance and
understanding from others,
for pride in ourselves and our
community.
We struggle to find a
home for ourselves.
Sometimes, this home is
physical – a place where we
can sleep and eat.
Sometimes, this home is
emotional – a place where
we can feel welcomed and
secure.
In these pages, we’ll show
you the ways some Haligonians have found belonging,
and some of the ways they
are still fighting for it.
-Grace Kennedy
managing editor
(Photo: Danielle Cameron)
Pier 21 heralds the New Year
Visitors celebrate Chinese culture, Year of the Monkey at museum
ADINA BRESGE
@abresge
Carina Feng says she never
made an effort to learn about her
culture while living in her native
China. After two years in Halifax, she longs for the familiarity
of home.
“I don’t have any resources to
know where I should celebrate
my Chinese New Year,” she said.
With January behind us, a
new New Year is on the horizon.
Monday, Feb. 8, marks the turn of
the Chinese calendar, ushering in
the Year of the Monkey in the 12year zodiac cycle.
“
Maybe just one day,
when you ask them,
‘What do you know
about Chinese culture?’ they won’t be
silent.
Carina Feng
The Canadian Museum of
Immigration at Pier 21 celebrated
Chinese New Year last week with
live music, tai chi, calligraphy and
various other workshops to mark
the occasion.
Pier 21 hosted the festivities
in partnership with the Nova
Scotia Chinese Culture and Art
Club and the Confucius Institute,
a Chinese cultural organization at
Saint Mary’s University.
Pier 21 staff say it is the first
time an institution outside the
community has hosted an event
for the Chinese New Year, also
known as Spring Festival.
Feng helped the museum
reach out to the Chinese community while working under their
“Welcome Home to Canada” immigrant employment program.
“It’s a unique opportunity for
people who are not from the Chinese community to learn, and also
for people from the Chinese community to come and experience
things in their own language,”
said Rebecca MacKenzie-Hopkins, manager of public programs
for the museum.
According to the 2011 census, 7,000 people of Chinese
origin live in Nova Scotia. The
community is small compared to
metropolitan areas like Toronto
and Vancouver, which have established Chinatowns and a Chinese
population of almost a million
between the two cities.
“When you’re away from your
culture ... you definitely think
that’s a part of you,” Feng said.
“It’s something inside your body
that will follow you wherever you
go.”
Andrea and Graham Bearly brought their eight-year-old
daughter to the event so she could
learn about her native culture.
Miah was adopted from China as an infant, and her parents
want her to feel connected to her
heritage.
“We want Miah to grow up
with a sense of where she comes
from,” Andrea Bearly said. “China
is a part of her identity, and as her
parents, it is a part of ours too.”
Miah watched the Chinese
parasol dance, a folk tradition reserved for celebrations and ceremonies. She cut out the mandarin
character for “spring” with pink
construction paper.
The activity Miah was most
excited for was dessert.
Students at Dalhousie University who want to live off-campus are advised to begin their house search early, so they don’t miss out (Photos: Shelby Banks)
Student house-hunting woes
SHELBY BANKS
@shelbanks
University students who are
considering living off campus
next year should get a head start
in looking for accommodations.
”We advise them to start looking now for the fall,” says Sherri Slate, an employee at the Off
Campus Living department at
Dalhousie University.
“It gives students an opportunity to see the places that they will
be living in the fall and view them
rather than them trying to do it
long distance when travel may be
an issue and they may not be able
to see the property in person.”
Lauren Dckht, a Dalhousie
student, says she found her sublet
on Kijiji and is enjoying it.
“It is lovely,” says Dckht. “You
can cook what you want, have
your own space. But you have to
make an effort to see friends but
in turn it’s nice to live in a quieter
Museum visitors made paper cut-outs of the Chinese character for spring at the Pier 21 event (Photo: Adina Bresge)
May Tian taught workshop
attendees to make Tangyuan, glutinous rice balls served in boiling
water.
Tian hopes participants will
take the recipes home with them
to share it with their family.
More than 10,000 km from
China, Tian misses the big family get-togethers around the New
Year. “We at Confucius are one
big family,” she said of the institute.
A tea ceremony was led by
Qianyi Gao. She asked everyone
to imagine they were in a tea mar-
ket in China, inhaling the floral
fragrance.
She performed the traditional
tea ceremony, warming the teapots in in cups of boiling water.
Miah grimaced as she swallowed the hot, green liquid.
“I don’t like tea,” she said.
Gao says she had similar sentiments as a child, but after developing an appreciation for tea, as
well as her palette, she now feels
it is at the essence of Chinese culture.
“Everybody hurries to their
workplace, then they hurry back
PAGE LAYOUT BY GRACE KENNEDY
to do all the chores and a few
people need more peaceful time.
They need harmony in their heart.
If you drink tea, you give yourself
such a moment.”
The day also included oral historians and musical performances.
Museum staff hope the event
will show newer members of the
Chinese community that Haligonians are interested in where they
came from.
“Maybe just one day, when
you ask them, ‘What do you know
about Chinese culture?’ they won’t
be silent,” Feng said.
environment.”
Slate says the safety of the accommodations should be priority.
Students should make sure the
property is well maintained, has
good lighting inside and out and
all doors lock properly.
Residence life can be more
convenient, Slate says.
“You are right there on campus, you don’t have to do your
cooking because it is a part of
your meal plan … there is a real
sense of fellowship that you build
when you live in residence.”
But living off-campus has
benefits, including more independence than students who live in
residence.
“They need to suddenly start
thinking about things like putting
the garbage out, shoveling the
walkway and just things that they
haven’t had to think about for the
last eight months,” says Slate.
So with that greater degree of
independence, also comes with a
greater degree of responsibility.”
Dckht says while looking for
roommates to make sure they are
on the same page as you are and
that you will get along.
“I lived with a mixture of
friends and coworkers who then
become my friends,” says Dckht.
“It can make it or break your
first off campus living experience,
so make sure you are on the same
page about cleanliness or who
takes out the garbage.”
Living off campus, students on
average pay around $450 to $500
a month for rent, not including
the cost of food, furniture and
hopefully some spending money.
Melissa MacKay, who is the student life associate director at Dalhousie, says living off campus can
“Look early, because you don’t want to live in a place for a year that you hate,” says Lauren Dckht.
sometimes be better money-wise.
“It can be more affordable
option for some students to live
off campus or at home with their
families,” says MacKay.
Looking at the Dalhousie
residence choices, students can
be paying from $4,550 to $8,315
during the academic year, plus
a mean plan, which is about an
added $3,500.
Slate also suggests students
make sure they are aware of their
lease and understand them before
signing.
“Often students are going to
be asked for a 12 month lease as
opposed to a eight month lease
that they have in residence,” says
Slate.
“They just need to know the
term of their lease and to see if
they can sublet during the summer if they are not going to be
here in the city.”
Isaac Grey is the student life
administrator at Dalhousie and
promotes Dal After Dark, which
hosts programs for students who
live on and off campus.
He says students who are concerned about getting involved
while off campus should start
looking into societies and programs.
“Dal After Dark runs programs Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings and we do about
five events per weekend,” he said.
“We have everything from
snowshoeing to board games and
crafts.”
Off campus, Slate says, students can feel as if they lose out
on the social life of residence.
Grey suggests that students
should build up connections so
when they leave campus they
don’t feel so lonely.
“My advice would be to … try
to stay in contact with people that
you have met,” says Grey.
“And also just build on your
interest, so for example if you are
interested in playing chess there
is probably a society in that.”
PAGE LAYOUT BY DANIELLE CAMERON
“Look around,” says Dckht.
“It’s fun to see different places.
Look early, because you don’t
want to live in a place for a year
that you hate only because you
left it to the last minute. Pick
what is also going to be the best
for you. Like to run? Maybe get
a place near Point Pleasant.”
PAGE 8
FOCUS: BELONGING
FEBRUARY 5 - 11, 2016
Africville: a community lost
GRACE KENNEDY
@gracekenn
In the summer, Irvine Carvery would wake up to the smell
of burning cardboard in his Africville home.
Albert Sparks would be out
burning the boxes his store’s
products came in – and the young
Carvery was excited.
“If I got up real quick and ran
over, I could be in his company for
a while,” Carvery remembered. It
was the pull of community, the
enjoyment in company, helping
make life in Africville a shield
against the racism in the province.
“It was like a cocoon, because
once you were outside of Africville this was a very racist society,” said Carvery, president of the
Africville Genealogy Society.
“So when you hit Africville it
just seemed like ‘Wow, I’m home.
I’m safe.’”
Carvery’s family lived in Africville for six generations – he
was born in the community and
lived there until his early teens,
when the municipal government
expropriated the community’s
land on the shore of Bedford Basin.
Land-owning African Nova
Scotians first established Africville in the mid-1800s – and
since it’s beginning, it faced expropriation by the government.
Only six years after black Nova
Scotians bought land in the area,
a railway extension was placed
through the community and several houses were destroyed. More
land was taken in the 1912 and
the 1940s for the railway.
By the 1960s, Africville had
about 400 families. Although
they paid taxes, there was no running water or paved roads. Over
the years it had become the site
of an open-pit dump, a fertilizer
plant and a slaughterhouse.
Halifax council voted to start
a process of urban renewal in Africville by removing the existing
structures and relocating the residents.
The first houses were expropriated in 1964, and by 1970 the
last house was demolished.
The land was subsequently
turned into the Fairview Container Terminal, ramps for the
MacKay Bridge, and Seaview
Park.
Tony Smith is also a former
resident of Africville. In 1968, he
left the Nova Scotia Home for
Colored Children to live there
with a foster family.
The family lived in an area
called “Africville around the turn.”
This area was largely preserved
during the urban renewal in the
1960s. The house Smith lived in
is still there. By the time Smith
moved in, the core of the community was gone.
As a kid, Smith spent a lot of
time playing in Africville.
“I always found it to be peaceful for me down there,” he said.
He used to fish from the rocks
and play on an old tugboat; kids
would boil periwinkles and mussels to eat; they went eel fishing
at night and made bonfires; they
picked blueberries, apples and
built forts in the woods.
He spent a lot of time at the
nearby city dump where he was
collecting copper, aluminum,
brass, bottles and batteries to sell
to a scrap dealer.
“I had a lot of fun there,”
Smith said. “To be quite honest, if
I was allowed to dump dig today
I would.”
“
When you hit
Africville it just
seemed like, ‘Wow,
I’m home. I’m safe.’
Irvine Carvery, president of the
Africville Genealogy Society
Growing up “around the turn,”
Smith heard many stories about
the history of Africville and good
times in the community. Black
entertainer Duke Ellington and
boxer Joe Louis spent time there.
Ellington’s father-in-law lived
in Africville, and would often stay
in the area. Louis once refereed a
wrestling match in Halifax and
visited Africville afterwards.
“When they’re done: ‘Where’s
the black people at?’ So they go
down to Africville, and they have
parties and stuff like that,” Smith
said. “There was always a sense of
community,”
The church was an important
part of Africville’s community.
People would come from across
the province to join in the church’s
sunrise service, Carvery said, because “that’s where the spirit is.”
Doors were never locked in the
community because “no one ever
had a reason to lock their doors.”
But living in Africville could
be difficult.
The houses were mostly
wood-framed and poorly insulated; adults would go to the dump
for supplies. The streets weren’t
paved and there was no sewer or
running water. Residents relied
on outhouses and wells.
Not everyone had stable jobs.
Some would sell scrap metal to
make money. Smith said these
PAGE 9
FOCUS: BELONGING
FEBRUARY 5 - 11, 2016
Former St. Mary’s prof alleges
discrimination against school
Koilpillai claims she was overlooked for full-time position because of her race
ADINA BRESGE
@abresge
Tony Smith stands by a framed copy of the Nova Scotia government’s apology for abuse that occurred at the Nova Scotia
Home for Coloured Children (Photo: Grace Kennedy)
dump diggers could make $300
to $400 a week. Others relied on
seasonal or part-time work to get
by. In 1958 – six years before the
expropriation began – the average
annual income of a family in Africville was less than $1,000.
“In Africville, because we lived
in a caring community, if my father had work this week or this
month and my neighbour’s dad
wasn’t working, when my mom
went shopping she would buy extra groceries to help the family,”
Carvery said.
“People in the community
all would do that so that people
could make it through the rough
times.”
So for Smith, remembering
the stories he heard in Africville,
“the hardship is when they actually came and took the land.”
Some residents moved off
their land voluntarily to sell their
homes to the city and moved to
houses in “Africville around the
turn” and elsewhere, while others
were forced out.
One man notably returned
home from the hospital only to
find his house had been demolished. Many residents ended up
moving into public housing projects.
Sometime between 1965 and
1967, Carvery’s family moved
from his grandmother’s property
to a house in North End Halifax.
“The real shame of the whole
Africville question is what it did
to the people – what it took away
from the people,” Carvery said.
“We lost a generation of young
people because they weren’t able
to make adjustments to the traumatic change that took place.”
What’s next for Africville?
In 1996, former residents of Africville filed a claim saying the
government did not adequately compensate landowners during the
urban renewal.
The municipal government reached a settlement with the Africville
Genealogy Society in 2010 to build a replica of the Africville church
and create a museum and interpretive centre for the community.
Then-Mayor Peter Kelly apologized to the community for the harm
the expropriation caused.
Tony Smith is acting as the spokesperson for former Africville residents in a new lawsuit against the city.
The lawsuit is an amendment of the claim in 1996, and rests on the
contention the government did not follow the proper procedure
for expropriating land by failing to issue public notices and inform
residents.
Any family that owned, rented or had squatter’s rights on land, as
well as anyone who had businesses in Africville between 1962 and
1969 is eligible to join the action – although people who settled with
the government can only file against the law firm that represented
the genealogy society in 2010.
Smith said the lawsuit would likely be over in less than three years
and as many as 300 families may be eligible for compensation.
When Radha Koilpillai found
a job listing for a full-time lecturer in the management department at Saint Mary’s University,
she checked off each of the requirements before submitting her
application.
“I felt I really fitted the bill,”
she says.
After nearly a month of hearing nothing, the hiring committee told Koilpillai they needed a
second round of voting.
“My first reaction was: Why
me?” she said. “Why am I being
singled out?”
The former Saint Mary’s
professor, who testified before a
provincial human rights inquiry
against the university that opened
this week, was a part-time instructor when she applied for the
position.
In her complaint against her
former employer, Koilpillai claims
she was discriminated against in
the selection process due to her
race.
Born and raised in eastern India, Koilpillai moved to Halifax in
1989 to be with her husband.
While she held the equivalent
of a master in social work degree
from a respected university, Koilpillai found Canadian employers
were skeptical of her credentials.
“They’d ask me, ‘Where did
you learn your English?’” Koilpillai said. “I knew I needed local
certification to be recognized as
someone who could work.”
A mother of two, Koilpillai took daytime classes at Saint
Mary’s to work towards a mas-
ter’s in business administration.
Shortly after graduating in 2003,
she started teaching part-time at
the school.
Even with faculty union restrictions on her course load,
Koilpillai says she taught the
“broadest plethora of courses” in
the department of management.
In February 2012, the university posted a job for a full-time
lecturer whose “primary responsibility would be introductory business and management.”
Koilpillai saw this as an opportunity to take over a course
she had taught several times.
“This was perfect, I love teaching,” she said. “I don’t have a PhD,
so I can never get a tenured position.”
The posting also advertised
Saint Mary’s commitment to employment equity, which Koilpillai
said “meant a lot” to her as member of a visible minority.
Koilpillai and three other candidates were shortlisted.
“
My first reaction
was: Why me? Why
am I being singled
out?
Radha Koilpillai
On Nov. 30, 2012, Koilpillai
fielded questions from a panel
of professors. She also delivered
a mock lecture, during which
department faculty members
provided student-derived distractions to simulate classroom
“I felt I really fitted the bill,” says Koilpillai. “This was perfect, I love teaching.” (Photo: Adina Bresge)
conditions.
Koilpillai heard that management faculty met for a vote on
Dec. 14. According murmurs in
the department, she and an external male candidate were locked in
a virtual tie.
Patricia Fitzgerald, a colleague
in the department, reminded
Koilpillai the university’s collective agreement had an equity provision, according to her testimony.
While scrolling through the
agreement with Koilpillai over
the phone, Fitzgerald noticed another condition that may apply.
The clause stipulates in a decision between equal candidates,
part-time staff members should
receive hiring priority.
After reading the clause ten
times, Koilpilloi felt confident she
“People want to be compensated for the loss that they had – the
personal loss that they had,” Smith said.
“Now you start seeing them unite because they have a common
cause, and the goal is to be vindicated for the injustice that took
place.”
- Grace Kennedy
Carvery said he was young
enough to adjust to the lifestyle
outside of Africville, but older
teenagers had a much more difficult transition – using drugs and
alcohol to cope with the loss of
support.
“They belonged,” Smith said.
PAGE LAYOUT BY MICHELLE PRESSÉ
“Then all of a sudden you’re put
into this concrete mass … you’re
taken away from the woods, picking your berries, kids out there
playing baseball or football, going
fishing, or going swimming.
“You took that community
away.”
PAGE LAYOUT BY SHELBY BANKS
would be awarded the position.
“If these two clauses are correctly applied and looked at, there
should be no issue,” she said.
She did not hear back from the
department until Dec. 23, when
chair Russell Summers contacted
her to tell her he was e-mailing
faculty members to collect absent
votes.
Koilpillai says this decision
“upset (her) a lot.” She said many
other department votes had
passed without the entire faculty
present.
“Many times, they have had
discussions about e-mail votes
for full-time hires and it has been
shut down.”
Margaret Murphy, vice-president of external affairs for the
university, emphasized that “no
candidate was chosen” for the position in a statement released on
Feb. 1.
Management department faculty could not reach a consensus
on the hiring decision, leading
business school dean Patricia
Bradshaw to declare it a failed
search.
The university, the Saint
Mary’s University Faculty Association and two faculty members
were named in Koilpillai’s original 2013 complaint.
A human rights investigator’s report upheld the complaint
against the university, but dismissed those against union and
named individuals.
The hearing is expected to
continue for two more weeks.
PAGE 10
FOCUS: BELONGING
FEBRUARY 5 - 11, 2016
Cosplay more than re-creation
Inspiration ranges from
sci-fi to architecture
GRACE KENNEDY
@gracekenn
Aimee Brooks, a security
guard from Hammonds Plains, is
the personification of a skyscraper, dressed in samurai-looking
combat gear.
The leather armour – black
and silver – is hand-tooled with
art deco motifs, which represents
an architectural style dating to the
1920s and 1930s.
The overcoat is made of a top
layer of black linen with red silk
lining; iron-on metal spikes adorn
the edges. Her hair is draped in a
headscarf beneath a high-rise-inspired crown.
The 36-year-old isn’t daydreaming and, of course, she’s not
a skyscraper.
She’s engaging in cosplay – a
kind of costuming popular at scifi and fantasy conventions like
Hal-Con.
“I really, really started getting
into (cosplay) when Star Wars:
Revenge of the Sith came out”
in 2005, Brooks said. “I wanted
something to wear to the movie.”
She cosplayed as characters
from the Star Wars franchise for
a few years, before deciding to do
original costume design.
“I’m a skyscraper fan, and I
like to take them and turn them
into these beautiful personified
characters,” Brooks said.
Brooks writes stories about
personified skyscrapers, and has
created a culture and backstory
for them.
These personifications, called
avatars, do not have families but
rather trace their lineage through
their architects. Their duty is to
protect the city, and they study
martial arts from childhood.
One of Brooks’ characters is
One Penn Plaza, a 57-floor skyscraper in Manhattan.
“It really has never gotten
a lot of mainstream love from
the architectural establishment,”
Brooks said of the Plaza. “It’s
even been called one of the ugliest buildings in New York, which
I disagree with.”
Brooks has been to One Penn
Plaza dressed as the its personification, and has taken pictures
with the building’s management
staff.
“I think the staff are just blown
away that somebody else loves the
building as much as they do, that
somebody else sees something
good in it.”
“
Everyone, to be
honest, is costuming
to some degree.
Andrew Aulenback, cosplayer
Brooks’ original skyscraper
costumes stand out in a community that tends to be seen as only
recreating character from movies,
video games, television or anime.
Andrew Aulenback, a front
desk staff at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic and public
school librarian, said there are
many definitions of cosplay.
Some cosplayers say the term
only applies to people who are
attempting to recreate something
that can be seen – characters from
a show or video game for example.
Others are broader in their
PAGE 11
FOCUS: BELONGING
FEBRUARY 5 - 11, 2016
A temporary haven: Out of
the Cold homeless shelter
Emergency winter refuge provides supplies, food, beds – and advice
SHELBY BANKS
@shelbanks
Aimee Brooks protects the city as a personified skyscraper (Photos: Grace Kennedy)
distinctions, he said, saying cosplay is a visual representation of
something – whether the original
can be seen or not.
Some definitions include reenactors as part of the cosplay
community, while most don’t;
some say cosplay has to be something fictional.
For Aulenback, the definition
is simple: “using clothing and
costume to show off stories that
you love.”
Aulenback has been cosplaying for about 15 years and focuses
largely on steampunk and 19th
century science-fiction characters.
His wife and eight-year-old
daughter also cosplay.
His costumes do not fall under the first definition of cosplaying (recreating visual characters),
but definitely fall under his more
inclusive definition.
“Everyone, to be honest, is
costuming to some degree or another,” Aulenback said.
“Just the other day I actually
saw somebody on my walk home
wearing a Habs jacket and cap,
and I’m quite certain he is not a
professional hockey player,” he
said.
“He’s showing off his love of
that story by essentially cosplaying as a hockey player off the ice.”
Not everyone is as generous in
their definitions.
Many young cosplayers who
got into the hobby through anime
are fairly rigid about what constitutes cosplay, Brooks said.
“I get some people in the
cosplay community giving me
a hard time,” she said about her
skyscraper avatar. “I get it worse
online than in person.”
Brooks said cosplay.com, a
website where cosplayers can interact on forums and post photos
of their costumes, seems to be the
worst for those kind of attacks.
Brooks said commentors look
down on original characters.
“People don’t care about originals, no one’s going to look at
you,” Brooks said.
The Internet traditionally
blows opinions out of proportion,
but Aulenback says what it really
comes down to is cosplayers trying to define their own hobby.
“Cosplayers are basically trying to brag about stories they love
and know you should also love,”
he said, “and they want to point
out why you should really love
them.”
For Brooks, dressed in her
One Penn Plaza combat gear, this
rings true.
“I’m a skyscraper enthusiast
and my artwork is one way of celebrating that,” said Brooks.
A brief history of cosplay
Cosplay began in the late 1930s. Forrest Ackerman is credited with wearing the first cosplay costume to the 1939 World
Science Fiction Convention. His costume was not based on a
particular character, but rather embodied the futuristic fashion
of the 25th century.
This kind of costuming became popular at Worldcons, but it
wasn’t until 1984 that it was named “cosplay.”
Japanese reporter Nobuyuki Takahashi combined the words
costume and play to create the term in an attempt to describe
the costuming taking place at the 1984 Los Angeles Worldcon.
Cosplay took off in Japan as people began recreating characters
from anime shows (a Japanese-style cartoon). In the mid-90s,
when anime and manga ( Japanese-style comic books) took off
in North America, cosplay was reintroduced.
Brooks and fellow cosplayers invented a skyscraper language
PAGE LAYOUT BY ADINA BRESGE
During the winter, Halifax
homeless shelters can become
overcrowded. That’s where Out of
the Cold comes in.
“Out of the Cold started in
the response of the closure of another emergency winter shelter,”
says Jacqueline Vincent, a volunteer and community programs
coordinator at the shelter.
“People in the community saw
a need and opened Out of the
Cold, and it has been running every winter since then.”
Out of the Cold, located at
St. Matthew’s United Church on
Barrington Street, opened during
the winter of 2008.
It’s a grassroots organization,
says Vincent.
“The community runs it and it
always has.”
It has become a temporary
haven for homeless people when
other shelters in the area are full.
“We have been getting a lot of
drop-ins,” says Vincent, as many
as 30 people at a time. “That drops
off pretty significantly over the
night, as people go to where ever
Donations fill the supply closet at Out of the Cold, including boots and other winter clothes (Photo: Shelby Banks)
they need to go.”
Out of the Cold says that a
lot of their guests needs supplies
to help them through the winter
season.
“Some people come in and
they say, ‘I need a pair of boots’
or they come and say, ‘I want to
get connected to this organization that does housing,’ so we can
facilitate that depending on what
people say they need.”
Occasionally, even Out of the
Cold runs out of space since they
can only accommodate around 30
people.
“It doesn’t happen very often,” says Vincent. “In previous
seasons we would have all of our
beds filled but we would still allow people to drop in. We make
every effort to offer people whatever we can.”
If people looking for shelter
have a friend or family member that they can stay with, and
if they are in another part of the
city, Vincent says the organization will help get them there.
Vincent had volunteered at
Out of the Cold, and because she
loved the organization, became a
full-time staff member during the
winter.
“I think a lot of people who
get involved really respect the
work that this organization does,”
says Vincent.
The organization gets good
feedback from its guests, says
Vincent.
“It really just helps me keep
going and helps everyone kind of
keep going”, says Vincent.
“People really appreciate this
space and choose to come here
and express a lot of positive things
and some gratitude towards the
shelter.”
Jerica Matthews, who volunteers for Out of the Cold, says she
enjoys her time here.
“I really enjoy spending my
free time volunteering for Out of
the Cold,” says Matthews.
“It just makes me feel like I
am doing some good and I love
volunteering.”
On their website, there are
some guests that made anonymous feedback.
“You made my short time
being homeless less frantic and
stressful. It opened my eyes to a
new world and a handful of wonderful people,” says the comment
on the Out of the Cold website.
Out of the Cold is open from
Dec. 1 to April 30.
Mi’kmaw sharing circle aids in reconciliation
PAYGE WOODARD
@paygewoodard
When Mi’kmaq elder Billy
Lewis looked around the room
seven years ago, he saw disapproval.
Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper had just delivered
his apology to Indian residential
school survivors. But for Lewis
and others at the public gathering
at Millbrook First Nation near
Truro, the apology didn’t ring
true.
“Some people were glad that
it happened, of course, but they
weren’t clapping. A number of
people were literally just steaming
because it was just so insincere.
And I believe it was insincere.“
But when Lewis looked
around another room Tuesday
night, he saw what he says is the
beginning of reconciliation.
As part of World Interfaith
Harmony Week, Interfaith Harmony Halifax and the Mi’kmaw
Native Friendship Centre held a
traditional Mi’kmaw sharing circle to discuss indigenous issues.
Participants of different faiths
and cultural backgrounds shared
their thoughts on issues such as
the need for more aboriginal history to be taught in schools and
reconciliation in Canada.
Lewis says he hopes events
such as this will help people see
and hear indigenous issues and
put them into perspective.
Alix Speirs is glad she came
to the ceremony. She says she has
wanted to connect with aboriginal culture in Nova Scotia since a
young age.
Speirs says when she learned
about residential schools and aboriginal history she was shocked
it was a topic she hadn’t learned
in school.
“I was 19 when I first en-
countered First Nations culture
and I realized the lie my culture
was built upon here and I was so
ashamed . . . of what my people
had done,” she told the group
Tuesday night.
Lewis says indigenous and
non-indigenous Canadians need
sharing circles such as this, to find
a starting point for reconciliation.
“We need to find what he
have in common,” Lewis says, “to
me it’s the land. Everyone has a
connection to the land.”
The event was shortly after the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).
The group formed in 2008
to inform Canadians about residential schools and renew the
relationship between aboriginal
and non-aboriginal Canadians,
released it’s final report and summary that included 94 recommendations.
The recommendations of the
Mi’kmaq elder Billy Lewis led the discussion (Photo: Payge Woodard)
TRC set out to improve the relations with Aboriginal Peoples in
Canada.
PAGE LAYOUT BY JILLIAN MORGAN
“We have to give life to that
TRC,” Lewis says. “Guilt doesn’t
solve anything.”
PAGE 12
FOCUS: BELONGING
FEBRUARY 5 - 11, 2016
PAGE 13
ARTS & LIFE
FEBURARY 5 - 11, 2016
Aboriginal artist targets virtual hate
Trolls’ comments fodder for
Raven Davis’ performance art
ADINA BRESGE
@abresge
Henry Bishop, middle, says the first music a baby hears is the mother’s heartbeat, and drumming is an expression of the heart. Bishop drums with the National Drummers Centre in Dartmouth
(Photos: Danielle Cameron)
One continent, 54 nations
SMU student society shares the diverse culture of African countries
DANIELLE CAMERON
@DMC130
Manaf Zora, president of
Saint Mary’s African Student
Society (SMASS) has been asked
“Why we don’t you have an African dish?” too many times.
“What’s an African dish?” he
replies.
Zora says Africa cannot be
stereotyped by one language, one
food, one culture – Africa is incredibly diverse. The north of the
continent is not the south and the
west is not east.
Last Monday, SMASS held
an exhibition displaying the colours, flags, and maps of the continent’s 54 different countries,
along with countless historical
and geographical facts.
The organizers put people’s
misconceptions and confidence to
the test.
“I found most of Africans lack
the knowledge of the content of
Africa,” says Zora.
“They know their home and
maybe two neighbouring countries but actually they don’t know
the rest of the continent.”
“Some people think that the
entire continent is a country,
which is really sad,” says Martha
Chilufya Mutale, secretary for
SMASS.
“We hope that people leave
actually thinking they know more
than they first arrived – to be a bit
more unified.”
Monica Mutale of the African
Diaspora Association of the Mar-
itimes (ADAM) has partnered
with SMASS before.
“It’s really nice to get into the
schools, and nice any time we
have an opportunity to get out.
We try to get out and into the
community as much as possible,”
she says.
One visitor from the community came with an open mind and
a will to learn.
“What brought me here today, honestly, just really wanted
to know more about Africa and
wanted to explore different cultures and broaden my mind,” says
Carl Archer, who stopped by.
“To understand why it’s so
important to be a global citizen
and not just think about your own
country.”
There were poets, drummers,
and dancing, but that wasn’t all
that was going on.
“Instead of having a dance or
music, because you can see on
that on YouTube, we’re giving a
challenge that we give you questions and I make sure you can’t
find them on YouTube – I wrote
all 12 questions and I wrote all
the answers on the boards, so that
will give you a chance to go explore every country and see the
flag,” says Zora.
There was also another challenge issued; identify all 54 countries’ flags and Zora would give
you $100.
But, if you lost, you donate a
dollar. This event was an opportunity to raise money to help with
the drilling of wells and for an
Ebola survival orphanage in Sierra Leone.
They hoped to raise $10,000,
although with the low Canadian
dollar it will have to be closer to
$12,000.
“Even if we raise $10, we’re
remembered then by something,”
says Zora.
The biggest takeaways the organizers and participants shared
that day were the numerous
myths and misconceptions they
wished to dispel about Africa and
Africans.
“We don’t all live in huts,” says
Lindsay Panashe, public relations
manager for SMASS.
“Africa is one of those places
where development has been hindered because everyone just looks
down upon it – looking at it as the
‘Dark Continent’. We’re trying to
get the word out that there’s so
much potential in Africa; there’s
riches and natural resources – everything – it’s all there,” he says.
“Everybody born in Africa
is an African and Africa is the
mother that will welcome everybody. If you’re slapped on the right
cheek, give them the left. We got
slapped on the right and we’re to
give the left, but this time, we’ve
opened our hands with a hug for
the whole world,” says Zora.
“Just be proud to be African
– be proud of where you come
from, show your pride, wear
your clothes, speak your mother
tongue. No matter where you are,
just be proud to be African,” says
Tariro Dheka, vice-president of
“Drunk Indians killing Indians, inquiry over.”
Raven Davis sat in a coffee
shop last December, scrolling
through social media posts as the
Internet flared with reactions to
the announcement of a federal inquiry into missing and murdered
aboriginal women.
Of the 200 responses Davis
read in those 20 minutes, only
three users expressed support for
the initiative.
“Those low life, begging sluts
deserve what’s coming to them,”
one online commenter said.
Indigenous women are disproportionately affected by violence.
According to the Government of Canada, 16 per cent of all
women murdered between 1980
and 2012 were indigenous, while
only representing four per cent of
the female population.
In the first phase of the inquiry, the government plans to
engage with survivors of violence and affected communities
to gather information for further
investigation.
“Start by living like bloody
humans and don’t wonder around
searching for crack at 2AM, and
that might be a good start,” said
one post Davis read.
At the gallery last week, the
virtual vitriol plays in a loop, projected onto the gallery wall. The
video presentation was just one
component Davis’s performance
art installation, “It’s Not Your
Fault.”
Davis posted the video to YouTube in December as a response
to the online hate, based on personal experience of violence.
Copied and pasted from Internet comment sections, the text
overlays black-and-white footage
of Davis praying to be healed.
Over the speakers, Davis sings
the Strong Women’s song, a song
credited to kwewag women in
solitary confinement in a prison in Kingston, Ont. during the
1970’s. The rhythm is insistent,
something between a lullaby and
a lament.
“We don’t allow this talk in
any other form, and it shouldn’t
be allowed through the media,”
Davis said. “These people aren’t just trolls. They’re people.”
Davis clinks around in jingle-dance regalia as people trickle into the room for the performance.
Patrons are encouraged to
write a thought, sentiment or
prayer for missing and murdered
aboriginal women on a small
piece of paper.
The messages are then fastened to the metal cones on Davis’s dress.
“I had the chance to preview this particular piece and it
brought me to tears,” said Melissa Mart, a fan of Davis’s work. “I
think this content is really hard to
witness, but equally important.”
Davis stands on a small platform as a group gathers around.
Davis unfurls a Canadian flag and
lays it down. With a hammer, the
fabric is nailed into the floor.
Davis moves extemporaneously – hopping, spinning and
writhing – the dangling cones
lagging slightly behind. Red paint
trickles down Davis’s legs. The
artist stomps on the national em-
Raven Davis dances as part of her art installation “It’s Not Your Fault’” (Photos: Adina Bresge)
blem, smearing it like blood.
“I kind of slipped into this
state of mind where almost nobody was in this room,” Davis
said.
“I was strictly doing my performance ... and I really felt complete within that.”
The performance concludes
after a few minutes, leaving the
audience silent.
LaMeia Reddick, who works
at the Avalon sexual assault centre, said the dance touched her in
a way that made me uncomfortable.
“Raven’s process and perfor-
mance evokes emotion in me that
I know is there, but is only really
brought out with a visual demonstration like this,” Reddick said.
“I’m bringing that back to my
organization ... to actually be a
leader in it.”
“I don’t even know where to
start,” NSCAD University student Camila Salcedo said.
Davis said the defacement of
the Canadian flag was meant to
highlight the hypocrisy of a government that protects its image
more than its indigenous people. “I think it really shines a light
on the common misconception
An audience member helps Davis, left, prepare for the performance
Tariro Dheka, the vice-president of Saint Mary’s African Student Society, displays the flag of Zimbabwe, her home country
SMASS.
How do the organizers measure this day’s success? “If you
learn one thing about Africa to-
PAGE LAYOUT BY GRACE KENNEDY
day, I met my goal,” explains Zora.
How much do you really
know about Africa? It’s a pretty
big place.
PAGE LAYOUT BY PAYGE WOODARD
that Canadians ... are these progressive people,” said 15-year-old
Elise Pectitoc, a student at Citadel High School.
“No matter how many times
we say it, Canada won’t become
this place we like to pretend it is
until we actually realize: no, we’re
not perfect as a nation,” she said.
“I imagine a lot of these people are just regular Canadians,
and they think it’s okay to say
these things on social media.”
Davis conceived of the piece
as a rebuttal to the cold, faceless
hatred of the Internet, with the
warmth of the crowd fuelling the
performance.
“It started when people started tying their ... prayers and sentiments to my physical body,” Davis
said.
“It was quite emotional, having people come up to me and
offer their words for me to use in
the dance.”
Martin Lynch, another Citadel student, said he suspects these
online commenters have had little
or no exposure to real First Nation Canadians.
“I think talking about these
issues,” he added, “is only going to
make things better.”
Children of the Internet age,
Lynch and Pectitoc still hold out
hope for future reconciliation.
“I’d like to say we’re progressing,” Lynch said, “but only time
will tell.”
ARTS & LIFE
FEBRUARY 5 - 11, 2016
PAGE 14
PAGE 15
ARTS & LIFE
FEBRUARY 5 - 11, 2016
Selma defines American era
Civil rights struggle
needs Canadian stories
DANIELLE CAMERON
@DMC130
“Movies are one of the prime
ways that people learn history
and, you know, having a black
woman director make a film
about Martin Luther King – the
point of view is very important,”
says Ron Foley MacDonald, a senior programmer at the Atlantic
Film Festival.
“
Change does not
roll in on the wheels
of inevitability, but
comes through con-
Martin Luther King,1963
The Halifax Central Library
screened the 2014 film Selma,
directed by Ava DuVernay last
Tuesday, in honour of African
Heritage Month.
“Change does not roll in on
the wheels of inevitability, but
comes through continuous struggle,” Martin Luther King said in
1963.
The American Civil Rights
Movement of the 1960s was pivotal in North American history.
But, in an era where multimedia
and cinema have become the history teachers, context has become
increasingly important.
“The way that she sees the
subject is particularly her – but
particular to gender, race and
class,” MacDonald added.
A film curator and producer, as
well as programmer, MacDonald
says the view DuVernay showcased was much more interesting
and moderated than the traditional representations of what we
see of the King and his life.
Where the film was screened
as a way of raising awareness of
black history, there are those that
believe this sentiment should be
more than a seasonal effort.
“I always have a concern when
there is only an interest in such
content during African Heritage
Month,” says Wanda Thomas
Bernard, a Dalhousie University
professor and chair of the Nova
“Selma offers a window, but not a blueprint,” says Décoste (Photo: Danielle Cameron)
Scotia Advisory Council on the
Status of Women.
“Black lives matter all year
long and there is such a gap in
mainstream knowledge of and
interest in African Canadian history. It is time for that to change.”
This Canadian account is often absent in mainstream film. “I
would rather see a movie detailing how Canada went from segregated school to integrated institutions,” Rachel Décoste, masters of
public administration candidate
at George Washington University, says over email.
“I would rather see a movie
detailing how Ontario became
the first province to instate a law
against racism,” she added. “History can tell us what mistakes
we’ve made in the past. Knowledge of history can help decipher
current trends that mimic those
of yesteryear, and, with an eye on
improvement, ameliorate the current outcomes.”
As polite and progressive as
Canada is assumed to be, there is
room for improvement.
“I was recently thinking about
our new federal government and
how diverse the Trudeau Cabinet
is – it is exciting to see 50 per cent
women, and so much diversity reflected in this first cabinet, and
yet, I am conscious of the fact that
none of them are of African de
scent,” says Bernard. “What message does this send to African
Canadians?”
People everywhere are still
seeking out equality and justice
and remain inspired by King’s
tactics, organization and determination.
“Americans did it the way that
worked for them. We in Canada
need to figure out how to make
it work in the context of our
country. In that lens, Selma offers a window, but not a blueprint
for justice-seeking Canadians,”
Décoste says.
Film Feedback
The Big Short offers big insights
ALEX COOKE
@notcookie
Adam McKay’s new film The
Big Short, starring Christian Bale,
Steve Carrell, Brad Pitt and Ryan
Gosling, is remarkable.
It plays on the “Wall-Streetand-banks-are-evil” trend (à la
Wolf of Wall Street) while also
making me (kind of ) understand
the cause of the financial crisis of
2008.I had tried to understand
it. I’d read Wikipedia articles,
watched movies from that period,
asked my mother about it, and I
just didn’t get it.
I knew it had something to do
with houses, but all the banking
jargon about collateralized debt
obligations and subprime loans
utterly confused the bejeezus out
of me. I’m a writer, not an economist!
But this is the first time that
I’ve felt as if I understood what
happened.
The film, based on the
non-fiction book of the same
name, starts in 2005 with Michael
Burry, played by Bale in possibly
his least physically attractive role
of all time.
Burry was a hedge-fund manager who realized the American
housing market was doomed to
collapse. Predictably, nobody believed him, and he visited a few
banks to bet against the stability
of the housing market.
You can place bets on such
things with banks? I had no
idea.
Ryan Gosling’s character, Jared Vennett, a pompous and arrogant trader, hears about Burry’s
shenanigans and decides to get
involved. He rounds up Mark
Baum, played by Steve Carell, to
get in on the gamble.
Meanwhile, Brad Pitt, sporting a glorious beard and rimless
glasses, plays Ben Rickert, an
ex-banker who helps two young
investors capitalize on the looming economic disaster.
The Big Short manages to make
things like credit default swaps
seem interesting and riveting.
It’s hilarious and breaks typical film conventions by having the
characters break the fourth wall
and interact with, and challenge,
the audience.
The film also makes use of visual elements to explain the market crash.
In one scene, Gosling’s character uses the building-block
game Jenga to represent mortPAGE LAYOUT BY SHELBY BANKS
gage bonds by having the bottom
pieces representing the risker
ones and taking them out piece
by piece until the tower collapses.
It also features cameos from
celebrities, including Margot
Robbie in a bathtub explaining
sub-prime loans and Selena Gomez at a blackjack table explaining collateralized debt obligations.
In these ways, the film makes
learning about the biggest financial disaster since the Great Depression almost … fun.
Despite its entertaining style
and sharp wit, it also made me
feel sick, since these events really
happened.
And money-hungry Wall
Street bankers still exist. I came
out of the theatre feeling a strange
mixture of entertainment and depression.
The Big Short was funny, informative and powerful. Director
Adam McKay is also responsible
for silly comedies such as Anchorman and Step Brothers.
I’m glad he managed to use
his sense of humour to convey an
important message – not just fart
jokes and Will Ferrell.
Gordon MacDonald arranges his tiny art pieces at his downtown gallery (Photo: Michelle Pressé)
Big ideas turned into small art
MICHELLE PRESSÉ
@michellepresse
Gordon MacDonald knows
good things don’t just come in
small packages – they also come
on copper canvases.
For the past 12 years, the PreShrunk art show has annually
taken over the Argyle Fine Art
gallery on Barrington Street.
Opening on Jan. 22, the free
exhibit will be open until Feb. 13.
Adriana Afford, the gallery’s owner, says it’s a great way
to make art more accessible to
Haligonians, whether they want
to browse or buy.
“You don’t have to be a millionare to appreciate or even buy
art,” she says. “We sell things as
cheap as $5.”
While handmade cards and
earrings are sold separately from
the exhibit, every art piece featured in the Pre-Shrunk show
costs $175.
This includes 317 paintings,
drawings, photographs, sculptures
and textiles from a variety of artists.
Some of these artists have
found so much success selling
their art through Argyle Fine Art
that they make a living from the
gallery’s sales.
MacDonald is one of them.
Originally from New Brunswick, MacDonald moved to Toronto where he worked as a taxi
driver for most of his adult life.
Now 54, MacDonald lives in
Halifax and works as an artist
full-time.
MacDonald has 23 paintings
displayed in the Pre-Shrunk exhibit – 18 of them are already
been sold.
Using pieces of copper as
his canvas, MacDonald created
paintings of cloud formations,
sunsets and postcard-like portraits of the Annapolis Valley for
the exhibit.
Because copper is a self-protecting metal, when the top layer
is removed with sandpaper, oil
paint absorbs into the metal that
increases the intensity of colours. MacDonald first learned about
using copper during an exhibit he
went to in 1992.
Throughout the past decade,
he has sold more than 650 of his
paintings at Afford’s gallery – and
he doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
“The way some people feel
about needing religion in their
life is how I feel about art,” he
says.
MacDonald gets his best ideas
while driving around the province
and looking out the window until he sees something he wants to
paint, but he doesn’t call it inspiration.
“I make art from everything
I think about,” says MacDonald.
“It’s just whatever’s in my head at
the moment.”
MacDonald is currently working on a painting of the actor Bill
Murray portrayed as a saint using
gold leaves.
Not your traditional Valentine’s card
JILLIAN MORGAN
@jilliancmorgan
Stefanie MacDonald uses traditional Valentine’s Day cards to
tell a non-traditional fairy tale.
“What about the boy who
falls in love with Prince Charming? What about the little girl
who has a crush on a mermaid?”
she asks.
MacDonald is owner and designer of Halifax Paper Hearts, a
card design company.
The art launch of “Bestill my
Paper Hearts” – a collection of
Valentine’s Day cards with an
LGBTQ twist – provided an opportunity for everyone to be part
of a fairy tale, regardless of sexual
orientation.
The launch took place at The
Nook on Gottingen street in Halifax’s North End, a coffee shop
that also sells beer, baked goods,
food and snacks. The exhibit will
run throughout the month of
February.
Each card had a simple design. Some included photos of
“his and his” or “hers and hers”
toothbrushes and towels.
Other designs included photos of two princesses living happily ever after.
MacDonald designed the
cards, which were printed in
Dartmouth.
Kate Stinson, a barista, cook
and art curator at The Nook, says
the inclusiveness of the cards reflects the atmosphere of the café.
“We get a lot of different people here from all areas of the city,”
says Stinson. “People feel welcome here and very comfortable.”
Stinson says this is one of The
Nook’s first events that showcases LGBTQ-focused work. She
says greeting cards are usually
traditional and MacDonald gives
them a spin.
“The design was clean and
simple and cute and accessible
and relatable,” says Stinson.
Hillary Geneau and Alina
Dixon had never been to The
Nook, but were enticed by the exhibit after seeing an ad on Facebook.
“I like supporting local crafters and artisans,” says Dixon,
whose favourite card is a photo of
three cats above the words, “the
cats said I can keep you.”
Geneau said her favourite card
is a photo of two peas in a pod,
with the words: “You’re the pea to
my pod.”
MacDonald started Halifax
Paper Hearts when her aunt got
married in October 2014.
She was unable to find a card
that reflected her aunt’s LGBTQ
relationship and decided to make
one.
The result was a photo of two old women with the
words, “let’s grow old together.”
The card, as well as its male
counterpart, can also be found in
the collection.
MacDonald is “hopeless romantic,” she says.
“Valentine’s Day is a great
time to celebrate love.”
MacDonald displays one of her cards (Photo: Jillian Morgan)
PAGE LAYOUT BY NICOLE GNAZDOWSKY