{"id":102590,"date":"2026-03-09T09:01:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T13:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=102590"},"modified":"2026-03-09T09:01:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T13:01:16","slug":"portion-of-n-s-legislature-closed-to-public-after-week-of-protests-demonstrations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/09\/portion-of-n-s-legislature-closed-to-public-after-week-of-protests-demonstrations\/","title":{"rendered":"Portion of N.S. legislature closed to public after week of protests, demonstrations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A floor of the Nova Scotia legislature is now closed to the public following a week of rallies and demonstrations over grant cuts. Speaker of the House Danielle Barkhouse said Friday public access would be temporarily closed to the second floor of Province House in downtown Halifax. The gallery of the legislature and the main floor remain open to the public. Barkhouse says the public restriction is needed to ensure a safe environment for the members of the legislative assembly. There have been protests outside the legislature throughout the week over $130 million in cuts to funding for arts, tourism and culture programs, as well as money set aside for Indigenous and African Nova Scotian projects. Barkhouse did not say when the second floor would reopen to the public. The&#8230; <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription &#8211; Corporate, Print Subscription Only, and Canada Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2026%2F03%2F09%2Fportion-of-n-s-legislature-closed-to-public-after-week-of-protests-demonstrations%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A floor of the Nova Scotia legislature is now closed to the public following a week of rallies and demonstrations over grant cuts. Speaker of the House Danielle Barkhouse said Friday public access would be temporarily closed to the second floor of Province House in downtown Halifax. The gallery of the legislature and the main floor remain open to the public. Barkhouse says the public restriction is needed to ensure a safe environment for the members of the legislative assembly. There have been protests outside the legislature throughout the week over $130 million in cuts to funding for arts, tourism and culture programs, as well as money set aside for Indigenous and African Nova Scotian projects. Barkhouse did not say when the second floor would reopen to the public. The... <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\"><div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\"><div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription - Corporate, Print Subscription Only, and Canada Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div><div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2026%2F03%2F09%2Fportion-of-n-s-legislature-closed-to-public-after-week-of-protests-demonstrations%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Portion of N.S. legislature closed to public after week of protests, demonstrations - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/09\/portion-of-n-s-legislature-closed-to-public-after-week-of-protests-demonstrations\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Portion of N.S. legislature closed to public after week of protests, demonstrations - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A floor of the Nova Scotia legislature is now closed to the public following a week of rallies and demonstrations over grant cuts. Speaker of the House Danielle Barkhouse said Friday public access would be temporarily closed to the second floor of Province House in downtown Halifax. The gallery of the legislature and the main floor remain open to the public. Barkhouse says the public restriction is needed to ensure a safe environment for the members of the legislative assembly. There have been protests outside the legislature throughout the week over $130 million in cuts to funding for arts, tourism and culture programs, as well as money set aside for Indigenous and African Nova Scotian projects. Barkhouse did not say when the second floor would reopen to the public. The\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/09\/portion-of-n-s-legislature-closed-to-public-after-week-of-protests-demonstrations\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TurtleIslandNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-09T13:01:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/facebooklogo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"725\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/09\\\/portion-of-n-s-legislature-closed-to-public-after-week-of-protests-demonstrations\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/09\\\/portion-of-n-s-legislature-closed-to-public-after-week-of-protests-demonstrations\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lynda Powless\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b188fd7503577895ef8b306988cd458\"},\"headline\":\"Portion of N.S. legislature closed to public after week of protests, demonstrations\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-09T13:01:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/09\\\/portion-of-n-s-legislature-closed-to-public-after-week-of-protests-demonstrations\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":202,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"National News\",\"ticker\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/09\\\/portion-of-n-s-legislature-closed-to-public-after-week-of-protests-demonstrations\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/09\\\/portion-of-n-s-legislature-closed-to-public-after-week-of-protests-demonstrations\\\/\",\"name\":\"Portion of N.S. legislature closed to public after week of protests, demonstrations - 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