News
1. Cole Harbour shooting
Four people wearing bandanas opened fire in a Cole Harbour house last night at around 7pm, injuring two men and one woman. Two of three are in serious condition. A man and a boy later tuned themselves in to police, but the other two gunmen are presumably still on the loose. The house where the shooting occurred, at 52 Arklow Drive, appears to have been something of a teenage party house.
There have recently been two other incidents involving teenagers and guns in Cole Harbour. Last Tuesday, two 17-year-old boys were arrested after shots were fired on Bissett Road. They had “a sawed off shotgun, a .22 calibre rifle and a crossbow” and are facing weapons charges, reported Global. And, according to a police release from Sunday:
Last night at 9:30 p.m., Halifax Regional Police officers responded to a report of a vehicle on Hwy 111 with a passenger in possession of a handgun.
A witness stated that they observed the suspect vehicle and a second vehicle who appeared to be following each other and jockeying for position on the highway. The witness further observed the suspect vehicle take the exit 6 ramp to Main Street and at that time, observed the handgun out the window. Multiple HRP and RCMP units responded to the area and located the vehicle on Forest Hill Parkway near Cedarwood Drive. A high risk vehicle takedown was conducted and three 17-year-old male youths were taken into custody without incident. A subsequent search of the vehicle resulted in the seizure of a pellet hand gun.
There’s no indication that the incidents are related.
2. Porters Lake Canal
Digging the Porters Lake Canal. Photo via David Hendsbee
David Hendsbee and I have something in common: we’ve both paddled with Dusan Soudek. Soudek took the councillor out to the Porters Lake Canal in a bid to interest the city in buying it from the federal government. I wrote about the canal here:
The canal connects Porters Lake to the ocean, between Three Fathom Harbour and Seaforth. It was dug in 1861 so that barges could avoid the swift currents at Rocky Run. David Hendsbee wants the city to buy the canal, and included the requisite picture of serious men in hats at the construction site (99% Invisible fans will get the reference) with his proposal.
3. Dog, saved
Your good news story for the day: two women save an old dog.
4. Friends of the Chronicle Herald
The union representing Chronicle Herald newsroom employees has posted the following on its Facebook page:
The last month has been a difficult time for those of us who work in the newsroom of The Chronicle Herald. Faced with layoffs, we asked for your support to show management at the newspaper that quality local journalism matters and you responded.
The members of the Halifax Typographical Union would like to thank you for the messages you have sent us; they have helped us through the past four weeks.
On Saturday, Nov. 29, union members voted to give the company concessions that will save jobs in the newsroom. Still, the newspaper has lost many talented journalists through this process.
Our newsroom may be smaller, but those of us who remain are committed to delivering the outstanding work you expect from the Chronicle Herald.
Again, thank you for your support.
Members of the Halifax Typographical Union
Views
1. Urination infrastructure
Photo: Stephen Archibald
Stephen Archibald checks out an important government service.
2. Nova Centre
Stephen Kimber points and laughs at the convention centre fiasco. There’s gonna be a lot of this.
Government
City
Grants Committee (1pm, City Hall)—the committee is discussing suggestions made by the auditor general to improve staff efficiency and fairness to nonprofits seeking relief from property taxes.
Open House: Downtown Dartmouth Plan Update (6pm, Alderney Landing)—info here.
Province
No public meetings.
On this date in 1852 an agreement for the exchange of mail between Halifax and Boston came into force.
On campus
Dalhousie
Today
Pediatric IBD (12:30pm, Room 3-H, Tupper Building)—Johan van Limbergen will talk about “genetics + metagenetics informing translational research.”
Oceanography (3:30pm, Room 3655, LSC, Oceanography Wing)—Donald Gordon, from the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, will talk on “The Bedford Institute of Oceanography: a Unique Experiment in Canadian Federal Science (1962-2012).” I hope the end date doesn’t speak to the end of the experiment.
Nova Scotia Institute of Science (7:30pm, Museum of Natural History auditorium)—David C. Mosher, from the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, will talk about “A New Wave of Exploration of the Arctic Ocean.”
Tuesday
Thesis defence, Biology (Tuesday, 2pm, Room 3107, Mona Campbell Building)—PhD candidate Wendy Lyzenga will defend her thesis, “Investigation of Two Arabidopsis Ring-Type E3 Ligases, KEG and XBAT32.”
Math & stats seminar (Tuesday, 2:30pm, Room 319, Chase Building)—Richard Wood will talk about “The waves of a totally cocomplete category II.”
Architecture lecture (Tuesday, 6:30pm, Auditorium, Medjuck Architecture Building)—Christopher Platt, from the Mackintosh School of Architecture in Glasgow, Scotland, will talk about “Dialogues, Doubts, and Details.”
Noticed
This is the perfect New Yorker cartoon.
In the harbour
For the first time since the Examiner started publishing in June, there are no ship arrivals or departures scheduled for today at Halifax Harbour. Peter Ziobroski, of Halifax Shipping News, suggests that readers “may want to check out the yacht headed to Florida at the maritime museum wharf.” That would be the PJ265.
Port traffic near Hampton Roads, Virginia. Note the half-dozen coal ships at anchor near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel and the continuous stream of ships off the Virginia Beach waterfront. Map: marinetraffic.com
I went down to Virginia to visit relatives for American Thanksgiving, one of whom kindly gave me use of an oceanfront condo. It was interesting—the entire time I was there, there was never not a ship passing on the way to the port facilities at Hampton Roads. Usually there were three or four. It gave me a sense for the volume of port traffic; a port listing like this one for Hampton Roads would go on for dozens or even hundreds of ships every day. That’s what the Port of Halifax is competing with.
Footnotes
It’s an extremely slow news day, the commentariat is mostly silent, and there are no ship arrivals. This means there can be more attention paid to this important announcement:
Gift subscriptions now available!
This is a special deal good only for the month of December. Buy a gift subscription for someone else (or yourself) and get newly minted Halifax Examiner swag—a T-shirt or a coffee mug. I’ll be picking up the swag today and tomorrow and will post pictures later. But here’s the deal:
• Buy a three-month gift subscription for $30 and get a piece of swag.
OR
• Buy a one-year gift subscription at the discounted price of $100, and also get a piece of swag.
Click here to purchase your gift subscription. For the three-month gift subscription use the discount code Holiday90. For the one-year gift subscription, use the discount code Holiday365. Once payment is made, we’ll follow up to get details.
No credit card? No problem. We also accept cheques, email transfers and PayPal. Just email [email protected] for details.
That ‘yacht’ is one of the ugliest vessels I have ever seen. It looks best suited as the plaything of a particularly repellent Bond villain.
Yes, it looks downright sinister.
Hey what about some swag for existing subscribers? I’d love to wear an Examiner t-shirt.
Well, this is a subscription drive, so I’m concentrating on that right now. I haven’t booked it yet, but I’m thinking of trying to get a table at one or another of the Famers’ Markets in the next couple of weeks, at which point I’ll have stuff to sell.
Thanks again, Tim. Another great issue. Especially like the Stephen Archibald photos and links to his blog.