Wreckage and resilience
When Hurricane Fiona made landfall in Nova Scotia in late September, I immediately began to worry. It’s what we expat Maritimers do when there’s bad news back home.
Just a week or so earlier, I had been vacationing in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, where my parents live. The weather was unseasonably warm, and each day was marked by dips in the harbour and trips to the local ice cream shop.
Now, suddenly, the region was being assaulted by Fiona’s wrath. Sustained winds of up to 148 kilometres per hour ripped roofs off homes and snapped trees and power poles like toothpicks. Record- setting storm surges gutted roads and bridges. More than half a million people lost electricity across Atlantic Canada.
The next day, I called my mom to make sure that everyone in our family was okay. She described the howling winds that buffeted my parents’ apartment and knocked out their power. Trees were down everywhere, and even the village’s beautiful seaside boardwalk had been destroyed.
But, thankfully, everyone was safe. From hurricanes and blizzards to wildfires, coal mine explosions, and ships lost at sea, Atlantic Canadians are no strangers to disaster. In this issue, author Michael Dupuis explores one of the region’s worst catastrophes — the Halifax explosion of December 1917. When the munitions ship Mont
Blanc and the Belgian relief ship Imo collided in Halifax Harbour on December 6, the subsequent explosion was the largest human-caused blast in history. “Rising from the Ashes” recounts not only the substantial damage and loss of life but also the heroic efforts to rebuild the city’s North End in the aftermath of the explosion.
Elsewhere in this issue, we commemorate the life of service of Queen Elizabeth II, who died on September 8, 2022, and we also consider the uncertain future of the Crown in Canada. We explore the complicated history behind Quebec’s controversial Bill 21, which bans some public servants from wearing religious symbols while on the job, and we ponder how photography was used as a propaganda tool to champion the residential school system in the 1950s.
The aftermath of Fiona left many Atlantic Canadians dazed by Mother Nature’s fury. But during the ensuing cleanup effort there was a familiar coming together of neighbours, friends, and communities — just as there was after the massive blast of December 1917.
After all, when disaster knocks you down, the only thing to do is to get back up — and start picking up the pieces.