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More great white sharks than ever are being spotted off the coast of Nova Scotia—including a 10-foot female who pinged in Halifax's harbour last month. Sharks aren't new visitors to these waters—about 20 different kinds of sharks have been regularly inhabiting the area for hundreds of years. But, just as grizzly bears aren't native to Nova Scotia's forests, great whites were never a run-of-the-mill sighting here.(snip) For the past few years, Warren Joyce, a fisheries technician with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, has been working with colleagues in Cape Cod, studying and tagging sharks in efforts to learn about their patterns...

A faculty member at Cape Breton University has been terminated for demanding sex, moose meat and lobster from a student who was struggling in his course in exchange for better grades. In an emailed response, university spokeswoman Lenore Parsley didn’t answer questions about the firing, the nature of the offence, details about the employee’s position and whether there had been other complaints about the employee. “Cape Breton University is committed to a safe and respectful campus for all of our community members,” Parsley said. “Any and all complaints follow a formal process, as indicated in our respectful campus policy. “We...

At 87, Randall Pitman is driving a truck that's older than he is. But much like its owner, Pitman's beloved 1927 Ford Model T still has a lot of mileage left in it. This weekend, the pair will cover more than 600 kilometres winding from Pitman's South Ohio, N.S., home to a vintage truck show in Crapaud, P.E.I., that's expected to draw hundreds of vehicles and their admirers. This time, the truck will travel on a flatbed, but Pitman has driven it that far in years past. While he could find replacement parts and fix the antique himself if it...

They’re not just in Oregon. University students from Saudi Arabia have vanished while facing criminal charges here and in at least seven other states as well as Canada — evidence that a growing number of defendants from the wealthy Persian Gulf kingdom have fled justice in the United States. There are likely more to be discovered. The Oregonian/OregonLive uncovered five examples in Oregon and began searching other states in late January. We’ve found similar cases in Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin. We also found two cases in Nova Scotia: Saudi students in two separate incidents skipped bail...

SYDNEY, N.S. — A 28-year-old Saudi man charged with sexually assaulting a Cape Breton woman has gone missing, with a leading immigration lawyer saying it may be a case of the Middle Eastern kingdom helping a citizen flee while awaiting trial. Nova Scotia's prosecution service says Mohammed Zuraibi Alzoabi had $37,500 of his bail posted by the Saudi Arabian embassy last year in relation to the alleged sexual assault, assault and forcible confinement of the woman between Aug. 1, 2015 and March 26, 2017. Alzoabi is also facing separate charges of dangerous driving and assault with a car in a...

Angry green crabs from Nova Scotia, angrier than their already ornery green cousins in Maine, are migrating south. They have started to destroy the coastal ecosystem off the shores of Maine, as they eat more than their share of soft-shell clams and wreck native eel grass, according to research from Markus Frederich, a professor at the University of New England. "What we're seeing is this insane level of aggressiveness," Frederich told the Associated Press. -snip- Louis Logan, a University of New England graduate student, had the unpleasant task of labeling the crabs captured from Nova Scotia waters for the research....

WESTBORO (CBS) – Workers at a Roche Bros. supermarket got quite the surprise last week – an extremely rare orange lobster. The pumpkin-like male lobster was easy to spot in a shipment of lobsters from Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia to the Westboro store. According to the New England Aquarium, the 1 2/3 pound orange lobster is “considerably more rare than a blue lobster.” The Lobster Institute at the University of Maine said the likelihood of a lobster being orange is 1 in 30 million. The lobster is believed to be about 7 to 9 years old, and aquarium...

A Canadian high school switched to “Africentric Math” to attract black students to go into Science, Technology, Engineering and Math(STEM) fields, according to Canadian Broadcasting’s(CBC) Wednesday report. Nova Scotia’s Auburn Drive High School math teachers are skipping their previous eurocentric approach to teaching mathematics so black students will gain more interest in the subject, the CBC reported. Teachers are adopting an Afrocentric lens to teach mathematics, based on incorporating African history and culture to make math classes resonate with their students. Auburn High School is working with the Imphop’s Legacy Academy, a program encouraging black students to get interested in...

HALIFAX -- The women's march in Halifax was roiled by divisions, as members of an offshoot event showed up to call for the recognition of marginalized groups after some people said they felt unsafe at last year's gathering. Throngs of people returned to Halifax's Grand Parade square on Saturday for a rally on the one-year anniversary of Donald Trump's inauguration as U.S. president. People held up signs on issues ranging from worker's rights to the jailing of a Palestinian activist during an event that included a Mi'kmaq prayer, a Chinese lion dance, a traditional Indian dance and a drumming performance....

According to the National Post, performer Lido Pimienta, who won the 2017 Polaris Prize, frequently asks all white members of her audience to move to the back and give up their seats to non-white audience members. They must do so regardless of whether they pay more for their seating.The Halifax Pop Explosion music festival is apologizing for the actions of a (white) photographer who refused to acquiesce to Pimienta’s request during her October 19 show. Her refusal to do so was considered an “interruption” and deemed an act of “overt racism,” according to the festival’s board of directors, who are...

A narrow strip of land connecting Nova Scotia to New Brunswick is a lifeline for maritime moose in the mood to mate—and it’s under threat The Chignecto Isthmus—the corridor connecting New Brunswick to Nova Scotia that at its narrowest is just 24 km wide—poses a uniquely Canadian problem. On one side of the land bridge thrives a healthy population of more than 25,000 moose; on the other, numbers have dwindled to as few as 500. Long classified as endangered, the Nova Scotia moose is perilously close to extinction. All moose face poaching, parasites, climate change and habitat loss. But unlike...

Before you launch a rocket, you need to count the moose. Maritime Launch Services, the company that hopes to build a spaceport on a parcel of Nova Scotia land that juts into the ocean near Canso in Guysborough County, must first complete an environmental review — including counting seasonal numbers of local flora and fauna — before the province agrees to the project. “We’ve hired a contractor to help us do the study,” MLS president Steve Matier said Monday. “We could conceivably complete that effort at the end of this year.” “It’s part of the process, and it’s understood. We...

Lorne Grabher is very proud of his unique family name, which comes from German origins. It's displayed on the front of his house, as well as on his personalized licence plate. "Well, I am the only one in Eastern Canada," says Lorne Grabher. "I originally had it done for my father back in 1991 for his birthday. It was to have our name be put on something and be proud of it." But in December, Grabher received a letter from Nova Scotia’s Registrar of Motor Vehicles, telling him they'd received a complaint and had deemed the licence plate 'socially...

TORONTO — Police say all schools on the small Canadian province of Prince Edward Island have been evacuated because of a "potential threat." The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Wednesday that students are being taken to safe locations. Police provided no other details, but say a news conference will be held later in the day. Parents and guardians are being asked to wait for further instructions before picking up their children. Three schools in the nearby province of Nova Scotia — NSCC Marconi Campus, Cape Breton University and the NSCC technology campus in Halifax — also have also been evacuated...

A senior in Truro, N.S., is thanking police after an officer recovered a bag of beets from an intoxicated cyclist which may have been stolen from her community garden plot. Olga McCabe-Cain said she arrived at the King Street community garden on the site of the former St. Mary's Elementary School in Truro at around 7 p.m. on Wednesday, only to discover that a number of her beet plants were missing. "It was so disappointing," McCabe-Cain said. "They cleaned the row right out nicely — even padded it over — and left one bunch of beets at the end." She...

A Canadian woman dubbed the "Black Widow" after a series of convictions involving male partners has been charged with breaking the terms of her release. Melissa Ann Shepard, 80, was freed in March after a jail term for drugging her new husband. But police said she was a high-risk re-offender and set a number of conditions, including not going online. She used a computer on Monday to access the web at a library in Nova Scotia. Police have warned elderly men looking for love to steer clear of Shepard, with the internet flagged up as a possible threat. In addition...

Video Barack Obama thanks Cape Breton for welcoming Americans fleeing Donald Trump U.S. president gives Nova Scotia a shout-out during toast at White House state dinner Cape Breton, Barack Obama salutes you. The U.S. president mentioned the island by name Thursday night at a White House state dinner honouring Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. In his toast, Obama paid tribute to the values that the U.S. and Canada share. "Where else would we see a community like Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, welcoming Americans if the election does not go their way?" Obama told the White House dinner guests. He went on...

Rosie O’Donnell, Samuel L. Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Whoopi Goldberg are just a few of the celebrities who promise to leave the U.S. if Donald Trump wins the White House in November. The New York Daily News published “The Complete Guide to Fleeing President Donald Trump’s America” the morning after the billionaire celebrated his Super Tuesday primary wins. Singapore, Ecuador, Mexico, and Austria were given positions of prominence in the Daily News guide. But what about Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia? The people who call the 3,981-square-mile island located east-northeast of the mainland home are actively recruiting American expats who...

If Donald Trump wins the presidency, there's definitely one place out there that will be welcoming fleeing Americans with open arms: Canada's Cape Breton Island. The rural Nova Scotia island is angling to solve Americans' impending Trump problem by inviting anyone who wants to "get the hell out of there" to move to the island.

A Halifax-area restaurant owner has sparked a social media uproar by complaining that a “frustrating new generation” of employees with a poor work ethic has helped kill her business. A Facebook post Tuesday from Kim Stacey, owner of the now-defunct Emma’s Eatery, cites several reasons for the closure - but much of the online jousting is over her decision to highlight what she describes as the entitled attitude of young Nova Scotians. In her post, Stacey complains that during the nine years the Eastern Passage eatery was open, young employees demanded to be “paid dearly” for working shifts that did...