Four-day Shiretown Fest begins today in Dorchester

The Shiretown Festival is taking place from Thursday, June 15 until Sunday, June 18, 2023. Photo: Bill Steele/Facebook

Dorchester’s Shiretown Festival begins today at 6 p.m. with opening ceremonies at the Village Square Gazebo. 

The main organizer of the festival is Debbie Shea, owner of the Village Square Take-Out restaurant in Dorchester. 

In an interview with CHMA, she said the community event will have a strong emphasis on activities for kids.

Some of the activities include a watermelon-eating contest, a kid’s dance at the gazebo, a baseball game, a book sale at the library, a community yard sale, a cake auction, a car show, and more. 

“We just do it for the community and for the enjoyment,” Shea said. 

Listen to the interview with CHMA:

A schedule of events can be found on the restaurant’s Facebook page

Visitors to Dorchester may want to confirm details of events with organizers or by asking local residents around the village. 

A movie night scheduled in the brochure for Thursday at the Moving Forward Co-op is, in fact, happening outside Dorchester Consolidated School on Friday evening. 

The movie is Toy Story and it will be screened after the baseball game on Friday evening at 9 p.m., according to the Co-op. 

Shea advised people to check out the Moving Forward Co-op’s Facebook page for details about events hosted by that group. … Continue

August is for Absolute Losers!

Absolute Losers is a post-punk trio from PEI that is bringing tunes that make you groove. With unique vocals and riffs that will surely bring the vibes no matter where you are. Check out their newest single By Fright as well as their debut long player At The Mall, releasing August 4th.… Continue

Cosmic Mix

Tuesday 6pm. David Coish. Tunes that are out of this world. Cosmic Mix is full of tunes pulled straight from Star Lord’s Walkman. If you like groovy tunes, or that one song from a movie you watched 20 years ago but can’t quite remember the name of, then Cosmic Mix is the show for you.

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Rub-A-Dub-Dub Radio Hour

Saturday 9pm. Peter Kelly Spurles. Join Peter and friends on their meandering path through an hour of songs and stories, only on the Rub-A-Dub-Dub Radio Hour.

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‘Disappointment’ over latest round of tuition hikes; University posts $2M deficit, says costs rising faster than revenue

The students’ union at Mount Allison has expressed “disappointment” after the university released a budget with a three per cent tuition hike.

The increases bring overall tuition to more than $10,000 annually for domestic students, following a $290 increase, and more than $20,200 annually for international students, with a $590 tuition hike. 

“Any increase will impact a student’s ability to attend university, whether that’s big or small,”  said Mount Allison Students’ Union president Alivia Warr.

Alivia Warr. Photo: masu.ca

A statement from MASU acknowledged that some “key budgetary requests” were addressed – notably $100,000 for physical accessibility projects on campus – but it said the student union is “deeply disappointed” with the tuition hike. 

Asked about how the government should ensure accessibility to post-secondary education, Warr said MASU doesn’t have a political stance.

“We just want to work with all parties who can impact accessibility and affordability of students’ education.”  

In addition to the general increase in tuition fees, there are separate increases for new aviation students, and also for residence fees and meal plans. 

During legislative hearings on post-secondary education earlier this year, Mount Allison administrators said costs are rising faster than revenue, especially with rates of inflation that broke records going back four decades when they reached 8.1 per cent last year.

Last month, Statistics Canada reported that the country’s annual rate of inflation had reached 4.4 per cent. 

The university’s operating budget is based on a two per cent increase in a grant from the provincial government.… Continue

‘We’re writing a new future’: Sackville artist to launch community art project on anti-fracking movement

Shoshanna Wingate. Photo: conservationcouncil.ca

A Sackville-based artist wants to help people reimagine collective possibilities in the age climate crisis. 

“We won’t build a new future with the same tools that got us to this crisis point,” says Shoshanna Wingate, Sackville’s former poet laureate. 

“So we’re writing a new future, a new story for our future.” 

Wingate is among three artists taking part in From Harm to Harmony, an artist-in-residency and mentorship program organized by the Conservation Council of New Brunswick. 

“Their time with the Conservation Council will culminate with a community-engaged art event that will encourage New Brunswickers to take action to protect our planet and provide them with an avenue to do so,” the non-profit group announced last week. 

Wingate’s project will focus on the movement in New Brunswick against shale gas exploration and hydraulic fracturing or “fracking,” a controversial technique to obtain fossil fuels from shale rock. 

The Indigenous-led movement against shale gas in New Brunswick came to a head in 2013, when the RCMP cleared an anti-fracking encampment that blocked a facility belonging to SWN Resources Canada.
In 2014, the provincial government under Liberal premier Brian Gallant introduced a moratorium against fracking. 

The Progressive Conservative government under Premier Blaine Higgs “quietly carved out a small exemption” to the moratorium in 2019 for an operation near Sussex, according to the CBC. Recently he has pushed for new shale gas development in New Brunswick. 

Higgs contends shale gas development will result in a financial windfall and provide “very clean natural gas” to Europe amid the energy crisis prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. … Continue