Former Nova Scotia orphanage renamed, repurposed as Black community hub
CBC
The building that once housed the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children in Dartmouth, N.S., is becoming a hub for the Black community.
The home that opened in 1921 was for many years the only orphanage in the province that would accept Black children.
It was initially seen as a significant achievement by Nova Scotia's Black community. But former residents started to come forward after it closed in the 1980s to say they suffered physical, psychological and sexual abuse over several decades.
That prompted class-action lawsuits, a formal apology in 2014 from then premier Stephen McNeil, and an eventual settlement worth $34 million.
The Nova Scotia Home For Colored Children then became the Akoma Family Centre, a registered charity that provides care for children with developmental and behavioural needs, while the old building on Wilfred Jackson Way sat vacant.
Still owned by Akoma Holdings Inc., the building has now been refurbished and is being renamed Kinney Place, after its first superintendent, James Alexander Ross Kinney, who was an advocate for educational institutions for Black children.
"The goal of Kinney Place is to be an incubator for Black business and an intergenerational hub for the community," Cheyenne Jones told CBC Radio's Information Morning Nova Scotia on Friday.
Jones, who is the assistant property manager at Akoma, said the grand opening of the building is taking place on Sunday.
It already has a few tenants, including a café and catering business, an anti-Black violence organization and a Black hair salon. It also holds a seniors' lounge, a studio space and the constituency office of MLA Angela Simmonds.
Jones said the building also comes with 130 hectares of land that will be used to "offer economic opportunities for African Nova Scotians in our community and the greater community."
The redevelopment of the site had been previously blocked due to zoning bylaws in the Halifax Regional Municipality, but council approved the rezoning of the site in the spring of 2021 after discussions with Akoma.
"All it took was for the people in positions of authority and power to understand the negative impact of decisions they had made years ago on the African Nova Scotian community," Irvine Carvery, the co-chair of the African Nova Scotian Road to Economic Prosperity Summit, said Friday.
"A simple change."
One of those opportunities is Akoma's plan to build eight affordable homes for the Black Nova Scotian community by 2023, funded by the federal government's Rapid Housing Initiative.
Canada is preparing for U.S. President Donald Trump to hit the country with potentially devastating tariffs on Tuesday, but the federal government and the premiers say they are in the dark about what will actually materialize and how high those promised levies will be.
Former P.E.I. Premier Dennis King has been appointed as Canada's new ambassador to Ireland, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday in a news release.
Oxford and Elgin counties have the highest number of measles cases in the country, the province's public health agency says, as local medical officials warn of more possible exposures to the deadly virus.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford will take questions from media Monday for the first time since his Progressive Conservatives won their third-straight majority in a snap election last week.
Newfoundland and Labrador is staring down federal, provincial, and municipal elections in the next eight months, but for one new Canadian the opportunity to vote is something she's not taking for granted.
Even with a dirt trench running down the hallway, and exposed wires and pipes hanging from the ceiling, it still kind of looks like an elementary school.
Some of the most affordable rental housing in Nova Scotia is rapidly becoming less so, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation data analyzed by CBC News.
A two-time federal Conservative candidate in Miramichi says he doesn't think current party MP Jake Stewart can win again in a federal election that is expected to start within weeks.
Quebec municipalities and human rights groups are voicing concerns about proposed legislation that would require newcomers to abide by a set of common values.
Amazon and Walmart Canada have so far ignored the NDP government's requests to restrict the online sale of machetes to Manitobans, the province says.
Saskatoon city council is seeking money to crack down on unlicensed short-term rentals in the city, like those on AirBnB and VRBO, amid an active moratorium on licensing certain new short-term rentals.
When Kwaku Ayisi lost a friend who hadn't even reached 40 to breast cancer, it inspired him to look at the barriers Black women face in Saskatchewan's breast-health system.
A northern Alberta town is losing its only family doctor clinic and officials are trying to find solutions before the doors close for good at the end of May.