On December 6, 1917, a collision in Halifax Harbour changed our communities forever. When the SS Imo struck the munitions-laden SS Mont Blanc, the explosion levelled neighbourhoods, shattered windows across the city, and took thousands of lives. And many or those who survived, lived with the scars of this horrifying time, forever.
Along the Dartmouth Shore, the Mi’kmaq village of Turtle Grove was completely destroyed, and they were not permitted to return.
Each year on December 6, a small and meaningful ceremony takes place on the Dartmouth side of the Harbour, where Turtle Grove once stood, to acknowledge, remember, and honour this community.
Later in the day, the annual ceremony at the Mont Blanc Cannon site in Dartmouth North brought people together once again to remember the Dartmouth victims of the explosion.
Thank you to those who organize these ceremonies year after year to help our community remember.