On today’s CHMA local news:
- Massive projections coming to the Cube this Saturday;
- Border woes for international students;
- EOS wants your input on climate change resiliency;
- Sackville woman sentenced for thefts;
- and the COVID Maritimes update.
UPDATE: Two new cases in Nova Scotia, expanded bubble Saturday
Nova Scotia reported two news cases of COVID-19 this morning, with people who had travelled outside the country and had been following self-isolation protocol since their return.
One more person has recovered in New Brunswick, leaving just two active cases of COVID-19 in the province, and four in the Maritime region.
The bubble will expand this weekend, though with conditions.
Starting Saturday, the Quebec-border communities around Edmundston and Campbellton will no longer need to self-isolate when crossing their provincial border for day trips.
People will need to pre-register, and trips must include same-day travel only, with no overnight stays.
Sappyfest takes on the Cube this Saturday
The New Brunswick Day long weekend starts tomorrow.
For Sackville, that means Sappyfest time.
Though the festival organizers are not putting on their usual gathering in the centre of town this year due to the pandemic, there are still plenty events happening online, over the phone, on the radio, and in real life.
The highest profile event happens Saturday at sundown, when Sappyfest, Struts and the Owens Art Gallery invite Sackvillians to pack their bug spray and head out to the Cube for a night of massive projections on the town’s tallest cranberry freezer.
For those who don’t want to brave the elements and the social distancing requirements, there will be a livestream on the Sappyfest site.
Here’s Sappyfest artistic director, Steve Lambke:
“The projection event at Terra Beata will be a large projection, kind of almost like art installation, that we’re doing in collaboration with Struts and the Owens Art Gallery. So we’re presenting this event together and programming together. The Sappyfest part of that will be the projection of a concert by Lido Pimienta, who performed at Sappyfest live in the flesh in 2017.“
Lambke says the Cube show will not be a normal Sappyfest event.
Festival organizers will be marking off the space around the Cube in a four metre grid, to allow people room to socially distance.
They will be asking people to wear masks and taking contact tracing information for anyone attending in person.
Lambke says they are following all provincial guidelines, and he’s hoping residents will feel comfortable showing up to see the projections.
“The Cube, as we call it, is such a distinctive part of the landscape already in Sackville, even though it’s, you know, quite new. So I think it’s gonna be really beautiful to see, and exciting to have this happen on there...
…So I hope that we can just kind of get everybody there and we have a nice time and have a little bit of, you know, the feeling of experiencing music and art and in a cool different space, which is what we always try to do with Sappyfest.”
The Cube projections is not all that Sappyfest has on offer this weekend.
CHMA is airing two special Sappyfest broadcasts: Imaginary Sports by Hélène Barbier at 11am, and Capitalist Brain Party no. 3 at midnight.
Starting this morning, the Sappyfest website will debut a new video by Nova Scotia artist Jennah Barry. Tonight it features a piece by locals Julie Doiron, Jon Mckiel, and Geordie Miller. And then at 9pm, a live set by Wares, all the way from amiskwaciy-wâskahikan, also known as Edmonton.
Sunday afternoon features artist conversations online.
You can find details and register for events on the Sappyfest website.
Border woes for international students
International students who hope to start their post-secondary education at Mount Allison may be turned away at the border.
In an announcement on July 20th, the federal government discouraged international students from travelling to Canada if they received a study visa after March 18th or if their courses do not require on-campus components.
President of the MASU Jon Ferguson says that this announcement does not contain any new information.
International students, as far as I know, have already been in the loop and monitoring this closely. It’s just sort of now that we’re a couple of weeks away from, you know, most universities such as Mount Allison are going to have students that need to self isolate to come back. It’s becoming clear that the chances of certain students being able to get their visas is becoming slimmer.
International students make up 12% of the population at Mount Allison.
Mount Allison University clarified that a letter is being drafted for returning international students to help make a case for their entry into the country.
Ferguson says the federal government has not provided clear instructions about what students need to provide at the Canadian border.
“The bigger issue on our end, and what we are we’re trying to communicate to the federal government, is that currently it’s quite a vague process. They aren’t really being clear on their website what documentation international students need when they’re coming back to the border. And what they’ve made clear is that the Canadian Border Services Agency has the right, each border guard has the right, to decide whether or not a student truly needs to be coming in the country. So that’s definitely a strange situation.
Because you know, of course, if a student does need to be coming in the country, but they show up at the border and they don’t have the right documentation, then as you can probably see, that would quickly become a messy situation. So what we want the federal government to do is be very clear about what documentation is needed to make it less up to the discretion of each border official.
What we’re trying to do here is go through our federal lobbying group with the Canadian Alliance of Students Associations, and basically bring this right to Ottawa and make it clear that this is an issue for us that we want them to address.
And you know, I think it’s a reasonable ask, we’re just asking for them to be clear on the website about the documentation that’s needed. And furthermore, to make sure that students that are in program… For example, if you’re an international student, and you got a visa after March 18, and you want to do aviation here, which is a program, of course, in Mount Allison, you can’t. You can’t come in person. And we want to make sure that the federal government knows that there are going to be students left behind, if they aren’t a little bit more flexible with this. And that in the meantime, they risk losing out on having international students come to Canada for their entire degree.“
Ferguson strongly recommends that any international students who are worried about crossing the Canadian border should contact the international centre.
EOS wants your input on climate change resiliency
EOS Eco Energy is asking for input from Tantramar residents, businesses and community organizations as they create a local guide to climate change resilience.
CHMA’s Erica Butler called up EOS director Amanda Marlin to find out more about the project.
The EOS community survey will be live until August 16th.
The residents survey is here. A survey for businesses and organizations is here.
You can find links of the EOS website.
Sackville woman sentenced for thefts
CBC’s Shane Magee reports that a Moncton judge has sentenced Marie Lysianne Steeves to a 12-month conditional sentence for convictions of theft and fraud.
Steeves pleaded guilty to stealing nearly $60,000 from Playschool Inc. — a not for profit early childhood learning centre where she served as volunteer treasurer.
Sackville town councillor Allison Butcher is the director of Playschool, and told reporters the organization did not want to see Steeves punished, but needed their money back, and wanted to ensure the theft wouldn’t happen to someone else.
Steeves was also convicted of defrauding Lloyd’s Pharmacy, where she was employed as a bookkeeper, of nearly fifteen hundred dollars.
Aaron Lloyd told reporters after the sentencing that we had been hoping Steeves would get jail time, and was a little disappointed.
Steeves will have to remain at home for the first four months of her sentence, only leaving for work, medical appointments, and counselling.
Steeves’ lawyer Brian Murphy said his client has mental health issues and has experienced great shame and remorse.
He acknowledged the severe loss of trust to the community of Sackville, and told reporters that Steeves has fully repaid the amounts stolen as of this week.
CHMA Local News is hosted Mahalia Thompson-Onichino, and produced by Erica Butler, with contributions from Bruce Wark, Meg Cunningham, Aura-Lynn Groomes, and James Anderson.
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