DJ R$ $mooth celebrates career as host of longest-running Black music radio show in Atlantic Canada [VIDEO]

Ryan "R$ Smooth" Somers gives the peace sign while broadcasting on the radio

The longest-running Black music radio show in Atlantic Canada recently celebrated its 25th year anniversary on the airwaves.

Ryan Somers, aka DJ R$ $mooth, has been hosting $mooth Groove$ on CKDU 88.1 FM since 1998. The show, which airs every Sunday from 5pm to 8pm, broadcasts out of the Student Union Building on the campus of Dalhousie University.

“I always think of the show as like a home base, like no matter what’s going on… most people can hear me that Sunday,”

Beechville Baptist Church steps up [VIDEO]

Josh Crawford speaks about the donation center that’s opened in the historic church to help displaced people from the wildfires

Josh Crawford speaks to Global News Halifax’s Amber Fryday about the donation center that’s opened in the historic church to help displaced people from the wildfires.

Posted June 5 2023 08:25am via: Global News Halifax

Upper Hammonds Plains believed to be spared from wildfire damage thus far: Pastor Lennett Anderson [AUDIO]

As a wildfire continues to burn in Tantallon and Hammonds Plains, Pastor Lennett Anderson of Emmanuel Baptist Church said he believes there is, thus far, no fire damage to any homes or structures in the Black community of Upper Hammonds Plains.

“Today they’re reporting over 200 homes [damaged] in the Hammonds Plains, Tantallon region. Thankfully no damage is being heard of in the community of Upper Hammonds Plains. But the smoke has really built up today,” said Anderson.

Halifax constable referred to restorative justice for 2020 assault on Black teen [VIDEO]

Top left photo: Halifax Regional Police officers Const. Mark Pierce & Const. Craig Trudel in Feb. 2020 moments before arresting a 15-year-old Black teenager who suffered injuries during the arrest (seen in the bottom left three photos) before releasing him without charges. Right photo: Const. Mark Pierce entering a restorative justice meeting in May, 2023.

Const. Mark Pierce, the Halifax Regional Police officer charged with assaulting a 15-year-old Black boy outside of a mall in Bedford in February 2020, came face to face last week with the youth and his parents for the first time since the night of the incident.

Demario Chambers, now 19 years old, said he received a concussion, cuts, bruises, and badly hurt finger at the hands of Pierce and his partner Const. Craig Trudel when they arrested him.

They released Chambers without charges to his parents later that night.

Black and African Diaspora degree program at Dalhousie may be first in Canada, professor says

Isaac Saney, chair of the Black and African Diaspora Studies Degree Major Committee at Dalhousie University

A Black history professor at Dalhousie University says a proposal to expand the university’s Black and African Diaspora studies minor program into a full degree could make it the first program of its kind in Canada.

The current minor program started online in 2017 within the faculty of arts and social sciences. Isaac Saney, chair of the Black and African Diaspora Studies Degree Major Committee, is now working with other Black professors at Dalhousie on the final proposal for the full degree program.

“Then the idea came out,” Saney said. “Why don’t we have a major where somebody can come in and graduate with a degree in Black and African Diaspora Studies?”

Plaque honouring Viola Desmond unveiled outside former Roseland Theatre in New Glasgow [VIDEO]

Bobby Taylor from Parks Canada looks at his work after installing a commemorative plaque honouring Viola Desmond on the side of the former Rosland Theatre where Desmond was arrested in Nov. 1946. Photo: Matthew Byard.

On Friday, a plaque was unveiled outside of the former Roseland Theatre in New Glasgow where Viola Desmond was arrested in 1946 for sitting in the whites-only section. The plaque was unveiled on behalf of Parks Canada and the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC).

Rev. Dr. Peter J. Paris was one of the speakers at the unveiling cerermony. Paris was 13 years old and living in New Glasgow when Desmond was arrested.

“I clearly remember hearing my parents and others discussing the incident and lamenting the injustice inflicted on such a young fine businesswoman,”

‘This town is very racist’: African student in Wolfville speaks out about experience with RCMP, mayor after filing complaint about an assault

Sara Micheal says it took over two weeks to give a statement to RCMP following a racist assault that left her with neck scars.

Sara Micheal is speaking out about her experience with King’s District RCMP and Wolfville Mayor Wendy Donovan following an incident that left her with visible injuries and during which she said she was verbally attacked with racial remarks.

In an interview with the Halifax Examiner, Micheal, who is a permanent resident from Eritrea, said she moved out of an apartment where she experienced a lot of racism from the landlord, and into a house with more than half a dozen other roommates she didn’t know.