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Seven Days in Halifax
When citizens confronted the racists, liars and incompetents who ran their city
Halifax today lives with the results of bad decisions made decades ago. A container port accessible only through narrow downtown streets. A park, bridge and port on the spot where Africville was demolished. A mega-interchange going nowhere, finally torn down. The thoughtless power brokers who made these decisions are long gone, but Haligonians still live now with the choices they made. Yet for seven days in 1970, Nova Scotians saw a brilliant spotlight shone on the city’s power structure, exposing incompetence, ignorance, racism, and lies. In Seven Days in Halifax, Robert Ashe presents this forgotten event in the city’s life. Twelve highly qualified outsiders — including a passionate Black pastor, a feisty Canadian labour leader, and a no-holds-barred journalist — spent a week in a public investigation of the city and how it worked. Each evening, Nova Scotians were glued to live television broadcasts where the 12 experts grilled local authorities.
Contributors
Robert Ashe
Robert Ashe
is a Halifax native who has worked as a sportswriter, street columnist and crime reporter. For twenty-five years he worked as a communications specialist with the national defense research and development agency. He is the author of five books, including Halifax Champion: Black Power in Gloves, They Called Me Chocolate Rocket, Seven Days in Halifax, Even the Babe Came to Play about a New Brunswick baseball team during the Great Depression, and a collection of columns about life in Saint John entitled, Just Enough Fog to Keep It Cool. He lives with his wife Brenda in Ottawa.
