CACE Open Letter Warns of Generational Impact from Education Cuts

Composite image featuring a Council on African Canadian Education (CACE) banner and group photo of Black educators and community leaders promoting African Nova Scotian learners, alongside a separate photo of two suited government officials standing and seated near a Nova Scotia flag, with a BlackNovaScotia.ca logo overlaid in the bottom right corner.

This open letter from the Council on African Canadian Education (CACE), from Feb. 27, 2026, addresses the province’s recent cuts and their impact on African Nova Scotian learners. As the body mandated to monitor and advocate for the educational rights of Black students, CACE outlines its concerns and calls for clarity, accountability, and protection of long-standing commitments to Black education in Nova Scotia.

That Hockey Photo Keeps Circulating. Let’s Get the History Right.

Black-and-white historical photo of a Black hockey team holding wooden sticks, centered on a black background with a yellow border; text above repeats the claim “Slaves Ran Away to Canada and Invented Ice Hockey,” stamped with a large red “FALSE,” and a BlackNovaScotia.ca logo appears in the bottom right corner.

A photo from the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes often circulates online with the claim that runaway slaves invented ice hockey in Canada. The image is real, the caption is not. Here’s why the timeline, geography, and documented history tell a more accurate and more powerful story about Black hockey in Nova Scotia.

What’s Being Cut — and Why Black Nova Scotians Should Pay Attention

Split-image graphic showing Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston on the left and a group of Black students studying together at Dalhousie University on the right, with the BlackNovaScotia.ca logo and Pan-African–coloured map of Nova Scotia overlaid at the centre.

As Nova Scotia announces budget cuts affecting programs like Dalhousie’s Transition Year Program and initiatives supporting Black and Mi’kmaq students, questions are piling up faster than answers. With African Heritage Month events taking place this weekend, Black Nova Scotians are being asked to celebrate progress while watching programs built to address long-standing inequities quietly lose public funding.

African Nova Scotian community, church leaders mourn Rev. Jesse Jackson

Rev. Jesse Jackson and Dr. Leslie “Les” Oliver stand inside the Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia in 2009, pointing toward a wall map showing African and Atlantic migration routes; a model ship exhibit is visible below, with a BlackNovaScotia.ca logo and Pan-African Nova Scotia graphic overlaid on the image.

African Nova Scotian journalists, clergy, and community leaders reflect on Rev. Jesse Jackson’s 2009 visit to Nova Scotia in this Yahoo News–published Canadian Press article by Lyndsay Armstrong, revisiting his time at the Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia and its lasting local significance. Jackson died Tuesday in Chicago at age 84.

A state of emergency, a new department, and an old problem Nova Scotia refuses to face

Composite image showing Brian Comer, Nova Scotia’s Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, on the left; Chief Michelle Glasgow of Sipekne’katik First Nation seated at a ceremonial table in the centre; and Premier Tim Houston on the right. The image includes BlackNovaScotia.ca branding and presents the three figures side by side for context.

When Sipekne’katik First Nation declared a state of emergency over illicit drug use and overdoses, it exposed a quiet but telling gap in Nova Scotia’s governance. A department created under Premier Tim Houston specifically to address mental health and addictions had not yet reached out to the community, even as the declaration spread publicly. The moment landed against the backdrop of earlier tensions — including the banning of Houston and two ministers from Sipekne’katik lands — raising broader questions about how the province engages marginalized communities when public health crises emerge.

THE ROOTS OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH CELEBRATIONS IN NOVA SCOTIA

Composite black-and-white image showing two historical scenes related to Black History organizing in Nova Scotia. The top photo shows three Black youth seated behind a table with a microphone during a Black History knowledge tournament. The bottom photo shows six members of the Black Cultural Awareness Group at Queen Elizabeth High School standing behind a display titled “Display of Black Culture in Nova Scotia,” photographed in 1982.

Before Black History Month became a province-wide fixture in Nova Scotia, it was built through grassroots organizing, youth leadership, and public library programming. This historical account—originally shared by the Black Artists Network of Nova Scotia (BANNS / BANS)—documents the early origins of Black History Week and the community-driven efforts that helped expand it into what it is today. Preserved here as originally written, the text offers a reminder that Black History Month in Nova Scotia was shaped from the ground up, long before it was institutionalized.