Remembrance ceremonies honour victims of Halifax Explosion, 108 years later

People killed in the Halifax Explosion were honoured in ceremonies across the city on Saturday, 108 years after the destructive blast.

On the morning of Dec. 6, 1917, the Mont-Blanc, a French munitions ship, and the Imo, a steamship carrying Belgian relief supplies, collided. The collision started a fire and the eventual explosion that killed nearly 2,000 people and injured 9,000 others. 

Among those killed included members of the Mi'kmaw community of Kepe'kek, also known as the Narrows or Turtle Grove. The area is now known as Tuft's Cove, which sits on the Dartmouth side of the harbour near the MacKay Bridge.

The blast flattened everything within a radius of more than two kilometres, including Turtle Grove, which was only two kilometres from the epicentre. 

Oral history transcripts show 29 Mi’kmaq from the community and surrounding areas died. 

A ceremony to honour those killed at the site was held at Tuft's Cove Saturday morning.

At 9:04 a.m. AT, the time the Mont Blanc exploded, Catherine Anne Martin sang and drummed to honour her great grandparents and their children who lived there. Many of her family members were killed in the explosion, including Henry Cope, her great uncle, who was 12 at the time.

“Their story has to be told. It's not just the story of non-native people and the story of Africville," Martin said, referencing the historic Black community also devastated by the blast on the shores of the Bedford Basin.

"If we don't tell the story, it may not be remembered and we have to stop the racism that they experienced here."

Elder Joe Michael from Sipekne'katik First Nation was in attendance. He says offerings of cedar, tobacco, flowers and berries were placed in the water as part of the ceremony to show gratitude. 

“We honour them, the lives that were lost. Not only our Mi'kmaw people, [but] the Black community, non-Indigenous people. Everybody suffered in the terrible, terrible, terrible incident,” said Michael. 

In north-end Halifax, hundreds attended a Halifax Explosion ceremony at Fort Needham Memorial Park. The park directly overlooks the harbour location where the Mont-Blanc exploded.

Marilyn Davidson Elliott, whose father was blinded in the explosion, said it’s important to commemorate the devastating event, particularly as the first ceremony was not held until 1985.

“We've corrected that and therefore we cannot let that happen again,” said Elliott.