By Xixi Jiang • Halifax
Nova Scotia Rainbow Action Project (NSRAP) which has been active since 1996 and was officially established in 2000, has not held an Annual General Meeting since 2023.
A long-time board member, who wished to remain anonymous, said at the end of 2023, the NSRAP board passed a motion to dissolve the organization. The board then needed to address financial and bylaw issues to complete the closure, but no updates have been provided.
“It’s all very upsetting!” this member said. “A special general meeting must be held with notice to wind up the society. I have not heard anything further from the board.”
The board member noted that around $10,000 was in the NSRAP’bank account. She brought some other members who raised this fund as volunteers to do SOGIESC (sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics) educational presentations. Equipment like a computer and a projector used for these presentations was also still unaccounted for.
[Publisher's note: some time in the next couple of months, the Elderberries will be organizing a Special General Meeting to decide on the next steps for the organization. Details below.]
“They're required by law to provide a notice to all the members of NSRAP,” the member said. She emphasized that the board should make the decision to dissolve the organization at a special general meeting and explain how they plan to sell the remaining equipment and address the financial balance.
“You just can't stop and not take care of those legal obligations. But nobody, to my knowledge, has done that work. Nobody,” she said and commented that it’s “very unusual for a board to handle things this way.”
The NSRAP board informed her that the dissolution stemmed from insufficient personnel and funding. With members leaving and no new ones joining, the organization struggled to support new initiatives. Local organizations offering similar services in the area further compounded the issue.
NSRAP’s last Annual Report stated that a key goal for their next plan is to continue recruiting, training, and retaining a complete Board and Executive Committee.
“This is sort of a new phase where NSRAP isn't doing anything, but it hasn't also closed up," the same long-time board member commented, "It's just like a question mark in a lot of people's minds."
According to the most recent ratified file from NSRAP for the Registry of Joint Stock Companies, the current executive members are Kristina Wakfer, Sejal Adya, Alanna MacNevin, Tynan Bramburger, and Susanne Litke. Two members told Wayves they had already left NSRAP and were unsure who remained or what was happening. The other members did not respond to interview requests.
Much of the content on the NSRAP website has been erased and its media release hasn't been updated for over 10 years. The "Board of Directors" page still lists three members, including Tam Pham, who left the organization in October 2023.
Pham said she heard that NSRAP began filing some documents for closure in early 2024.
"I'm sad to hear," Pham said. "But I also feel it's inevitable because things are a little mismanaged in general—understaffed, underfunded, and conflicts arise due to differing opinions on the direction."
Pham was excited when she joined NSRAP in 2019 hoping to address issues affecting 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals in the community and advocate for policy change. At the 2020 AGM, she said, “We are trying to establish a Queer Atlantic Canadian community. I think it’s important for my home community to have a voice.”
However, Pham observed increasing roadblocks over the years. By 2022, as pandemic restrictions lifted and activities shifted back to in-person formats, these challenges became more pronounced.
“The pandemic hit us so hard in terms of funding and engagement,” Pham said.“The lack of a steady funding stream and the disagreement in the directions becomes more clear.”
Pham noticed that many members didn’t share a common voice at the time, so they couldn’t move forward in the same direction as the organization.
“There’s so much disagreement. It’s really hard to keep our organization going,” Pham said. “That was also the reason why I left the organization because I didn’t think that my values and beliefs aligned with it."
Another former board member, Kevin Kindred, expressed sadness about the dissolution but acknowledged that other LGBTQ rights groups face similar challenges. “I have nostalgia for some really good work that was done by NSRAP,” Kindred said. “It's a little sad to think of that as being in the past and not continuing.”
Kindred joined NSRAP in 2003 and served until 2013. During that time, the organization led significant legal reforms, including advocating for same-sex marriage in Nova Scotia and expanding Medicare coverage for trans-related surgeries.
“It's an organization that's constantly evolving. It looked very different over different periods of its life,” Kindred said. “There was an era from about 2001 to 2012 or '13, where it was probably the most formal structure it ever had. The 10 years that I was involved, [NSRAP] probably was the most organized and active."
Kindred stated that NSRAP focused on legal reform during its most active period. However, after 2013, it lost momentum, reorganized and became smaller. “I feel like that shift started around 2013,” Kindred said. “After 2013, the issues that the community faced weren't as clearly legal issues that required that kind of legal reform approach.”
“That’s a great solution to a couple of specific problems, but once you move on to new problems that don't fit as well in that legal reform model, the organization loses some steam, doesn't quite know what to do, doesn't know how to apply old strategies to new problems,” Kindred explained.
Kindred noted that the community's needs have changed and many other organizations are also having trouble keeping up. "Halifax Pride has gone through several rebirths and iterations; Egale Canada which is the national LGBTQ rights group is growing and shrinking and reforming and refocusing its mandate, so it's not NSRAP alone that's gone through this."
Kindred said he hopes to host one final event, inviting individuals involved in NSRAP activities for a long time. He knows many of these people and wants to recognize their shared history in fighting for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.
"It's a reflection of what's going on in activism and the communities it serves. It would be nice to have a final [gathering]," Kindred said, "I'm not investing any time into keeping an organization alive that struggled to stay alive. But it's still nice to mark the evolution of the community and the things that have come to replace them."
NSRAP Reboot With A Special General Meeting
As a result of a "What do senior LGBT folk need?" conference in 2010, the Elderberries activism and social group for Q seniors in Nova Soctia, was created. And now, 16 years later, they may be returning the favour.
Some time in the next couple of months, the Elderberries, which was created as an NSRAP project in 2010, will be organizing a Special General Meeting to decide on the next steps for the organization. We will need a few interested new people, and a number of NSRAP members, and people who attended meetings. If you were ever at an NSRAP meeting and can show up for that in person or in Zoom, or want to help with the reboot, please drop us a line using this link.
Here's the Elderberries' page in the Halifax Rainbow Encyclopedia.
Xixi Jiang is from China and graduated from the University of King's College’s journalism program in 2024. Based in Halifax, she works as a freelance reporter. While she hadn’t written many 2SLGBTQA+ stories before, her work for Wayves has given her newfound courage and inspiration, drawn from the vibrant and supportive community.
