A screenshot of Brandon Rolle speaking at a news conference last month.

Brandon Rolle speaks about impact of Race and Culture Assessments

“We’ve gotten some judges who just considered the information but didn’t apply it to sentence, and so I think the Crown, in this case, recognized the need for that guidance from our highest court and they came back with a very clear message saying … you, first of all, should be ordering these any time an African Nova Scotian is sentenced.”

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Wendie L. Wilson poses next to the flag she designed to represent Black/African Nova Scotians. Photo: Wendie L. Wilson.

Wendie Wilson created an African Nova Scotian flag; some in the community say no one asked them about it

Wanda Thomas (not to be confused with Senator Wanda Thomas Bernard) said she had never heard of the African Nova Scotian flag. It wasn’t until her grandson had coloured a paper version of the flag as part of an activity through his school’s African Nova Scotian student support worker program when she said she first learned of it. She said she asked around and no one she knew had heard of it either.

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PC MLA for Pictou Centre Pat Dunn is the newly appointed Minister of African Nova Scotian Affairs and the Office of Equity and Anti-Racism Initiatives. Photo: Pat Dunn / Facebook.

Black community reacts to the appointment of a white Minister of African Nova Scotian Affairs

In the days following the Nova Scotia provincial election last month, where the Progressive Conservatives (PCs) won a majority government but failed to elect any Black MLAs, the Halifax Examiner was the first to pose the question: Who will be the next minister of African Nova Scotian Affairs?

On Tuesday, that question was answered when Pat Dunn, PC MLA for Pictou Centre, who is white, was announced as the new minister for both African Nova Scotian Affairs and the brand-new Office of Equity and Anti-Racism Initiatives. Dunn replaces Liberal MLA for Cole Harbour, Tony Ince, who is Black.

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Wayne Parker, Tyrell Johnson, Tyler Maxwell, and Novaro Mentis compete at the 2021 Apex Invitational Golf Tournament in Truro. Photo: Wayne Parker

Annual Black golf tournament returns to Truro [2021]

Second only to the African United Baptist Association’s (AUBA) annual general meeting, Apex is one of the longest-running annual gatherings of Black people in all Atlantic Canada.

Apex was started by a former Truro resident Darrell Maxwell in 1974. It was originally called The Black Golf Tournament and had just under a dozen Black golfers.

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Senator Wanda Thomas Bernard speaks at the Emancipation Day celebration in Grand Parade in Halifax. Photo: Matthew Byard

The long road to Emancipation Day

“Twenty-five years ago the Honourable Jean Augustine [the first African-Canadian woman to be elected to as a Member of Parliament] put forward a motion in the House of Commons to have February designated Black History Month. And at the same time, there were lobby efforts being made to have Emancipation Day recognized. So that’s how long this has been in the making. Over 25 years.”

Emancipation Day, August 1, marks the same day in 1834 when slavery was officially banned in all of the British colonies, including in what would eventually become Canada.

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Shartelle Lyon and her mother Sharmay Beals-Wentzell founded the Valley Anti-Racism Association following the murder of George Floyd. Photo: Shartelle Lyon

Mother-daughter duo’s passion for anti-racism inspired creation of information sessions for seniors

A series of virtual information sessions for seniors, hosted by professionals from Nova Scotia’s Black community, was inspired by a mother-and-daughter duo who wanted to support BLM protests and fight racism in the province.

The Valley Anti-Racism Association was founded by mother and daughter Sharmay Beals-Wentzell and Shartelle Lyon, who said the group was inspired by the tragic murder of George Floyd last year.

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