Celebrating World Ocean Week in Halifax
Crystal Garrett speaks with the coordinators of Ocean Week about the activities they have planned ahead of World Ocean Week.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBC
28 minutes ago
- CBC
Winnipeg classrooms set for spike in international students
Manitoba's largest school division is preparing for an influx of international students when classes resume in September. Over 180 students are registered in the Winnipeg School Division's international education program, more than double the total from just a few years ago.
CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
North London neighbours band together to save beloved park as city looks to 'naturalize' it
Residents of a north London street are devastated that the city wants to close off and naturalize the park behind their homes, but they're hoping to put a stop to the project by making presentations at an upcoming committee meeting. To begin with, Attawandaron Park is not easy to find if you don't know where to look. It's a long strip of green space near Wonderland Road and Fanshawe Park Road. Dozens of homes, as well as the Museum of Ontario Archeology, back onto it from adjacent Attawandaron Road. It's peaceful, spotlessly clean, teeming with wildlife and, over the decades, has become the foundation of a tightly-knit neighbourhood, residents said. "It's how we gather as a community," Kathy Johnson explained. "We have fireworks out there, the grandkids come out and they play baseball, football…all that will be gone for us and all the other neighbours." The land became part of the Medway Valley Heritage Forest Environmentally Significant Area (ESA) in 2013, which means it's been deemed an important natural area in need of protection. Like all 12 ESAs in the city, it is governed by a Conservation Master Plan (CMP) and, since last year, the Medway Valley CMP has been under review. The city has decided the park is "not ecologically sensitive", and is moving ahead with plans to "protect, enhance and restore" the land. Staff are recommending planting native trees and shrubs and building a paved walking trail through the area. The Planning and Environment Committee is meeting Tuesday, and neighbours have sent in letters and plan to attend the meeting in hopes of swaying the councillors' minds to keep it the way it is. Another issue identified by city staff is what it calls encroachement where, in some cases, neighbours' back yards extend beyond their actual property lines. Some people have gardens they have tended for decades along the edge of the park and others have fences, sheds or treehouses just beyond their property lines. All of these must be removed at the residents' own cost by September, city staff have said, or they will face fines — even if it was already there when they moved in. Some neighbours simply like to keep the grass mowed between their yards and the park, but they have been ordered to stop that, they said. City staff came by six months earlier to stake out the official property lines, and some people were shocked to see the markers cutting off more than half of their current yard space. "I think it's important to remember that projects like this demonstrate council's commitment to continuing to enhance and restore the natural heritage system and to ensure the persistence of these natural spaces for the next generation," said Emily Williamson, the city's manager of environmental planning. People who live there, however, feel they are losing more than the city is gaining. "It's going to be weeds back there," Johnson said. "We're living in a city where kids need parks, neighbours need parks… the kids on the street will have nowhere to go besides going across a four-lane highway to get to another park." The neighbourhood was also shocked by what they considered poor public consultation before the city moved ahead with its plans, said resident Jim Kalman. "They just basically told us 'This is what's gonna happen,'" he said. "They were very unsympathetic to our situation. They just didn't seem to care." Kalman's yard is one of the many that is being largely reclaimed by the city. What was once neatly maintained grass will soon be bushy natural growth just a couple metres from his house, he explained. He never would have purchased his home, if not for the park, and he even paid a premium for the land because of it, he added. A meeting was held in September 2024 to inform the neighbourhood of the changes, Williamson said, and residents were heard. "When we followed up from that meeting, we included a rendering which noted a mowed strip between the proposed pathway through to the property limits where we are also willing…to establish some privacy plantings for owners as discussed." She said going back on the plan would require more community consultation and working groups, all over again. "It's an extremely expensive, time intensive process," she said. "Given that the anticipated results would come out in a similar fashion with the exception of the increased voice from the community, it's unclear if council would choose to move that forward or not." Still, the residents of Attawandaron Road have hope that they can save the park. "It's not just a few people, it's the entire community," Kalman said. "We went door to door to every single home in this area and everybody had the same opinion: they want to keep our park."
CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
Reclaiming the language: First Nation community connects through lost and forgotten words
Social Sharing Surrounded by the sounds of nature on N'Swakomok sacred grounds, a group gathered recently to speak, learn and bring the words of their ancestors back to life during a language camp. "Being here back home on the land is so meaningful it resonates from within," said Amelia McComber McComber is the Cultural Resource Coordinator for the N'Swakomok Native Friendship Centre. Organizing the event for the community she said was so important. "The potential of being here and learning the language on the land among with known speakers it's truly a gift," said McComber She said it's thanks to ancestral families who were able to keep true to the lineage and knowledge that she and the rest of the community members were able to gather and continue to learn the language. McComber shared how culture encompasses every part of them and how much power words have. She shared the program was bread out of the ancestors whom shoulders she stood on that fought really hard to pass on knowledge to the future generations. "Nothing we do is in isolation, we are always informed by seven generations behind us and we are impelled to consider the seven generations to come," said McComber She shared it's only through that lense of understanding their interconnectedness to the earth and all the beings that surround them that animates their language. "That's what was taken but it didn't get destroyed so when I can come out on the land and share with the people and grow with the people, I am doing my part to keep the culture alive," said McComber Among the many community members that gathered on the sacred grounds was Elder Margaret Caw. She moved back to the community four years ago and participated in the event for the first time. Often told she speaks fluently in the language, she sees herself still as someone who still has so much to learn herself knowing a lot of language has been lost. "When I was young, this would have been in the 60's, my father would say at that time that we are speaking slang. New words come in and people are no longer able to the language." said Elder Caw She said there are many words she does not know herself even though many view her as being fluent. She added that a great deal of their belief system was lost due to colonialism. "I hope that the native people who are young learn the importance of having that language, of having that sacredness that's within the language," She added for as long as their are people coming and ready to learn, Elder's like herself will continue to sit and pass on the knowledge for years to come. "That is what this is, a spiral of life, our life, our culture that is held within the language,"
