“And for all sixty years of their lives together every Christmas was more than Christmas because each one was imbued with the joy they’d felt that first Christmas Eve as they walked down that rural road, the snow, like grace, floating down around them.” Another lovely story by Catherine Banks, about poverty, love, and yes, Christmas.
Last Wednesday NDP MLA Claudia Chender announced plans to introduce legislation to establish “bubble zones” to prevent harassment of people seeking abortion services in Nova Scotia.
Laura Slade talks with Megan Boudreau, who has vowed not to stop until abortion seekers are no longer harassed by demonstrators at the VG in Halifax. Boudreau tells her that she was “shocked to see the anti choice protesters out so often” and wonders how “such an open, cultural, and seemingly liberal community allows these anti choice protesters to harass people like this.”
“We cannot continue to ask for a minute of silence for the women who have been murdered and for those who are missing. We need to scream for systemic change. We cannot be silent. Silent NO more!”
Documentary filmmaker Alex Kronstein reviews Icebreakers, directed by Sandi Rankaduwa, a short documentary about a rising teen hockey star from Cole Harbour who is Black and dreams of playing in the NHL.
“I know racial prejudice persists in our time. I encounter racism often. Yet, it still shakes me. It catches me by surprise, particularly when it comes from spaces least expected.” María José Yax-Fraser describes such an encounter, and considers how colonial stereotypes continue to be invoked in the present.
Filmmaker Alex Kronstein reviews a National Film Board short by Jason Young, about the secret work that East Dover blacksmiths John and Nancy are sometimes called upon to undertake for the RCMP. He likes it a lot!
Lisa Cameron takes a closer look at the increase in self-checkout machines in Nova Scotia stores. Turns out there are a lot of downsides.
Alex Kronstein reviews I Am Skylar, a short directed by Rachel Bower, about a young transgender woman from Cape Breton.
Delilah Saunders on becoming a mother and all the happiness and joy that implies. But as an Indigenous mother she also must face intergenerational trauma and an often justified fear of child welfare workers.