The grand jury was one of the institutions of customary law whose existence, although amended and altered by provincial legislation, was based on practice established in England. The Annapolis County Grand Jury was established when the county was created in 1759. The grand jury was chosen by lot from lists of qualified property owners prepared by a committee of the Court of General Sessions. Sitting for a year, the jury nominated individuals for the Sessions to consider for appointment to local offices; prepared financial estimates for county government; inspected the accounts of expenditures; determined the annual road work and the establishment of new roads; and claimed the right make presentations to the Sessions on topics of public interest. The grand jury also acted in a judicial capacity to determine whether sufficient evidence existed for an accused to be placed on trial by the Supreme Court. Half of the grand jury, or 12 of the 24, were required to concur, otherwise no bill was returned and the criminal case did not proceed to trial. In 1879 the advent of elective municipal government ended the administrative function of the grand jury. Although terms of jurors, their numbers, qualifications and method of appointment changed over time, the judicial function persisted until 1979 when amendments to the Jury Act abolished the grand jury
The Annapolis Royal Development Commission was established in 1977 at Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, and grew out of recommendtions made by the Annapolis Royal Heritage Conservation Committee. The purpose of the ARDC was to attempt to revitalize the commercial core of the town and promote heritage conservation in Annapolis Royal. It was to co-ordinate and implement projects designed to enhance the town and promite it as a tourist attraction. It was successful in putting together funding from federal, provincial and municipal sources for these purposes. It had a mandate to acquire buildings and properties and initiated the conversion of the Lewis Transfer Building (now Newman's Restaurant), the restoration of King's Theatre, the reconstruction of the Adams-Ritchie House, the stabilizing of the Sinclair Inn, the establishment of the haul-up for boat repairs, the construction of the boardwalk, the establishment of the Annapolis Royal Historic Garden, and the designation of the Ducks Unlimited Wetlands along Allains' Creek. By March 1986 the activities of the ARDC ceased with ongoing functions taken over by the Business Improvement and Development Commission of the town of Annapolis Royal.
The Annapolis Valley Apple Blossom Festival was founded in 1933 by the Kentville Board of Trade, the Nova Scotia Fruit Growers Association, and the Fruit Growers of the Annapolis Valley, and was supported by the Government of Nova Scotia. Their goals for the Festival were to raise awareness of the apple growing industry, to show-case the history and scenic beauty of the Annapolis Valley, and to develop local talent. Festival events evolved in part from the pre-existing annual Kentville Carnival and Apple Blossom Sunday. Since its inception, the majority of the events and pageantry remain unchanged. Presently the Festival also includes various musical and sporting events, church services, dances, a children's parade, and the Grande Street Parade. The Annapolis Valley Apple Blossom Festival occurs annually in late May or early June.
The Town of Antigonish is incorporated as recorded in the following proclamation…‘the inhabitants of Antigonish, in the County of Antigonish, have, by a vote of 88 to 85 taken on 31 of December 1888, elected to incorporate said Town under Chapter 1 of the Acts of 1888, as appears by the official return of the Sheriff of said County to the Provincial Secretary dated the 31st of December aforesaid’. A proclamation of Incorporation is executed by the provincial government on January 9, 1889. The first meeting of the Antigonish Town Council was held February 11th, 1889.
Kell Antoft was a professor in Dalhousie's School of Public Administration and had a distinguished research career in local government, municipal planning, taxation and non-resident land ownership. Born on 24 July 1923 in Roskilde, Denmark, at age seven Antoft immigrated to Canada with his parents, Otto and Asta (Rump) Antoft, eventually settling in Lakeville, Nova Scotia. He received his early education at the King's County Academy and later at Sir George Williams College, Montreal, and Dalhousie University.
Antoft was a keen hosteller and founded the Nova Scotia branch of the Canadian Hostelling Association in 1938, remaining active in the hostelling movement for many decades as a member of the Trustee Committee. From 1943-1946 he served as a Royal Canadian Air Force navigator and settled in Montreal after the war, where he founded two successful businesses: Viking Air Service and Nordic Biochemicals Ltd. Under his presidency of Nordic Biochemicals (1951-1956), the company conducted foundational growth hormone research.
In 1966 Antoft sold his business interests and moved to Toronto to work as the Assistant Executive Director of the National Cancer Institute of Canada. In 1969 he returned to Nova Scotia to take up an appointment as Assistant Director of the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA). He served as Director from 1977-1984, when he took up a full-time professorial appointment at Dalhousie's School of Public Administration. On his retirement in 1989, he was appointed as an adjunct professor at Henson College, which in 2003 amalgamated with several other historically separate institutions to become Dalhousie's College of Continuing Education.
Antoft was a member of the Canadian Cancer Society in Nova Scotia for over twenty years, with a two-year term as president (1980-1982); he was involved in both provincial and national public issues committees and the Nova Scotia and Canada Councils on Smoking and Health. His papers help to document the Cancer Society's move towards an active role in voicing opposition to tobacco advertising campaigns and sponsorship and in supporting anti-smoking campaigns.
An avid lifelong skier, Antoft worked in various capacities with many ski clubs and programs in Canada, including co-founding with Al Raine the Nancy Greene Ski League. He served on boards and committees with various clubs and associations, including the Canadian Ski Association, the Atlantic Ski Zone, the Wentworth Valley Ski Club, the Nova Scotia Ski Areas Association, the Nova Scotia Seniors' Ski Club, Dalhousie Alpine Ski Team and the Dalhousie Penguin Club. He was inducted into the Nova Scotia Sport Heritage Hall of Fame in 2000.
Antoft's work with young people led him to serve on both the national and Atlantic Region boards of Katimavik. He was also actively involved in politics, working on behalf of the New Democratic Party from the mid-1980s and running for Halifax City Council in 1985. He co-founded Veterans Against Nuclear Arms (VANA) and its affiliated organization, the Defence Research and Education Centre. Kell Antoft was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in 2001 and a Member of the Council of the Order of Nova Scotia in 2002. He died in 2005, survived by his second wife, Mary Lou Courtney.
Kell Antoft was born on July 24, 1923 in Roskilde, Denmark. At the age of seven he immigrated to Canada with his parents, Otto and Asta (Rump) Antoft, settling in Winnipeg and later Lakeville, King's County, Nova Scotia. He received his early education in Kentville at the King's County Academy and later at Sir George Williams College in Montreal and Dalhousie University.
From an early age, Antoft became interested in hostelling and, while still in his teens, founded the Nova Scotia branch of the Canadian Hostelling Association (1938). At the time of writing (2002), he remains active in the movement as a member of the Trustee Committee.
Antoft served as a Royal Canadian Air Force navigator from 1943 to 1946. He settled in Montreal after the war, where he founded two successful businesses: Viking Air Service and Nordic Biochemicals Ltd. He served as President of the former from 1946 until 1956. Under his Presidency of Nordic Biochemicals (1951 to 1956), the company conducted foundational growth hormone research with its isolation for the first time ever of growth hormones from the human pituitary gland.
After twenty years in corporate administration, Antoft sold his business interests and moved to Toronto (1966) where he took up the post of Assistant Executive Director of the National Cancer Institute of Canada. His work with the Cancer Institute and the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) constitute another long-standing area of activity. Indeed, Antoft's contributions to cancer prevention in Canada fall predominantly in the area of generating awareness about the link between smoking and cancer.
In 1969 Antoft moved back to Nova Scotia after Guy Henson, Director of the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), recruited him to assume the Assistant Directorship of the IPA. In 1977, Antoft succeeded Guy Henson as Director. At the end of this term in 1984, he became a professor (research) at the IPA (which later merged into Henson College of Public Affairs and Continuing Education) and a professor in the School of Public Administration at Dalhousie University. During his tenure, he launched a distinguished research career in local government, municipal planning, taxation, and non-resident land ownership. Several of these areas of expertise are represented among his donated papers. Upon retirement from his full-time appointment (1989), he was made an Adjunct Professor at Henson College.
In Nova Scotia, he continued his involvement with the CCS, and for more than twenty years served as a member of its Nova Scotia Division, with a two-year term as President from 1980 to 1982. During these decades he became particularly involved in both the Nova Scotia and national level Public Issues Committees, as well as both the Nova Scotia and Canada Councils on Smoking and Health. His papers help document the Canadian Cancer Society's move towards taking an active role in voicing opposition to tobacco advertising campaigns and sponsorship and in supporting anti-smoking campaigns.
Antoft united his interests in anti-smoking campaigns and athletics. Since the 1950s, he had worked in various capacities with ski clubs and programs in Canada, and in 1968 with Al Raine he co-founded the Nancy Greene Ski League, a training program for youngsters. In the 1980s it was Nancy Greene's assistance that helped convince the Canadian Ski Association to refuse tobacco sponsorship for one of their major races, the DuMaurier Cup. An avid skier, Antoft had played a significant role in Canadian and particularly Nova Scotian ski history: a Canadian Ski Association (CSA) Board Member for ten years, Chairman of the CSA's Atlantic Ski Zone for six, Member of the Board and Council of the Wentworth Valley Ski Club for fifteen years, founding President of the Nova Scotia Ski Areas Association (1972) and of the Nova Scotia Seniors' Ski Club (1989; now Ski Atlantic Seniors' Club), Manager of the Dalhousie Alpine Ski Team (1972-1983), and co-founder of the Dalhousie Penguin Club (1978). His work as an instructor also led him to initiate the take-over (1975-1976) of the CSA's Amateur Ski Instructor program by the Canadian Ski Instructors' Alliance, paving the way for the creation of the current levels I to IV qualification system.
In 1977 Senator Jacques Hébert founded the Katimavik program for youth, and from those very early days, Antoft involved himself on the Atlantic Region board (1977-1986), then as a representative on the national Board of Directors (1980-1989). In 1986, the federal government refused any further funding for the program. Under Antoft's presidency (1986-1989), the program remained alive, though diminished, through great efforts from Senator Hébert and others. With the help of Youth Service Canada in 1994, the program became more active and has since grown and received further government support. In 2000 Senator Hébert toured the country in support of Katimavik; records of this tour and of the business affairs of the program can be found among Antoft's papers.
Other spheres in which Antoft became actively involved were politics (he worked on behalf of the New Democratic Party from the mid-1980s on, and ran for Halifax City Council in 1985) and nuclear disarmament. According to Antoft, "From asking what we as veterans could do, Giff [Gifford], Hugh Taylor, Lloyd Shaw and I arrived at the idea of an open letter, a letter from veterans pleading for Canada to turn away from a repeat of errors, which this time might mean the end of human existence. So we four each undertook to sound out other veterans: friends, colleagues and distant acquaintances who might join us in putting our convictions on paper" (See "Reminiscences by Kell Antoft," edited from his remarks at the VANA Banquet, May 26, 1995, available http://www.vana.ca/history/antoft.html, accessed September 26, 2002). From that letter grew the national association Veterans Against Nuclear Arms and its affiliated organization, the Defence Research and Education Centre. Antoft has been actively involved in both from day one.
Inducted into the Nova Scotia Sport Heritage Hall of Fame (2000) and as a Member of the Order of Canada (2001), Antoft currently resides with his wife of more than twenty years, Mary Lou Courtney, in a log cabin that he built himself on the South Shore of Nova Scotia. He has four children (Asta Ellen, Susan Kirsten, Nicholas Kevin, and Timothy Steven) from a previous marriage.
Richard Apostle is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at Dalhousie University. He received his BA from Simon Fraser University, MA and PhD from University of California, Berkeley. HIs major publications deal with maritime social science, socioeconomic segmentation, library and information science, and white racial social attitudes. His current research activities focus on the global scientific tracking of endangered marine species.
Richard Apostle is a professor in the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at Dalhousie University. He received a Bachelor of Arts Honours degree from Simon Fraser University and a Master of Arts and PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. In 1988, Apostle co-wrote Public Policing in Nova Scotia with Philip Stenning for the Royal Commission on the Donald Marshall Jr. Prosecution. From 1988 to 1989, he conducted an employment trends survey for the Information Services profession. In addition to these two projects, Apostle was also involved in the Marginal Work World Project and was a member of the Individual Quotas committee, which dealt with quotas for Nova Scotian fisheries. He has also done extensive research on the Faroese political economy.