Volume 26-27, 2023–2024

EN:

This paper is a continuation of my research on the lives of late 19^th century Black residents of Halifax. It focuses on two women—mother and daughter—who helped to undermine racial segregation in the city, first in secondary education and then in music education. Their personal determination helped to reduce the barriers for other Black women who followed them to high school and to the conservatory of music. I am grateful to Professor Michelle Williams, Dalhousie University Law Faculty, for the illustrations and some hitherto unknown documents.

EN:

A series of buildings were used for Canadian immigration operations at Pier 2 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, from the late 1800s through the early 1900s. The histories of those facilities show that transportation companies exerted significant control over Canadian immigration and passenger facilities in Halifax. The planning, construction, and operation of immigration sheds at Pier 2 did not hinge on decisions by the federal immigration branch; in fact, the facilities were often built and operated in ways that ran counter to both the wishes and the requirements of immigration. Instead, the immigration buildings proceeded from the pressures of a mix of private and public organizations, including railways and steamship lines, government departments and municipal business representatives. At Halifax, like other Canadian immigration ports of entry, the particularities of place resulted in unique and distinct sites, structures, practices, and experiences of immigration.

EN:

Among the six most important Nova Scotia Liberals in national politics— W. S. Fielding, D. D. McKenzie, J. L. Ralston, J. L. Ilsley, Robert Winters, and Allan MacEachen—William Stevens Fielding (1848–1929) stands pre-eminent. Born the year party-political government was achieved, Fielding founded a Liberal Party dynasty that ruled Nova Scotia continuously for four decades and, at nineteen years, he was Canada’s longest-serving minister of finance. Having nearly become prime minister in 1908, when Sir Wilfrid Laurier was on the verge of resigning, and nearly became leader of the Liberal Party after Laurier’s death in 1919, Fielding is a major figure in post-Confederation Canadian history. This article is an overview of his career.

EN:

While “student power” is generally associated with university life during and after the 1960s, it was on full display in 1869 and 1878 at the Provincial Normal School. The PNS in Truro, NS (the precursor of the Nova Scotia Teachers College) was opened in 1855 to prepare teachers for the province’s schools. In 1869, its students opposed the person appointed as its new principal and in 1878 they objected to the instruction offered by at least one of their professors. These are unusual events in the story of higher education in this province. But, as events unfolded, student power was alive and well at PNS in those instances and School and provincial authorities could only ignore it at their peril.