Seven Days in Halifax

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.

The event, called Encounter, was a one-off. But it showed how a local power structure can fail a city’s citizens — and face no consequences.

Robert Ashe’s story of Encounter explains much about Halifax’s recent history, and offers timely lessons on the importance of accountability on the part of those in the city’s power structure today.