CBC Massey Lectures Come to Halifax This September

The CBC Massey Lectures are making a stop in Halifax on September 12, bringing one of the country's biggest public lecture series right to the downtown stage at Neptune Theatre. Broadcast annually on CBC IDEAS since 1965, the series is a joint project between CBC, House of Anansi Press, and Massey College at the University of Toronto. This year, the national tour visits five cities across Canada, with the local Halifax date tucked between stops in Toronto and Yellowknife before heading out west to Vancouver and Ottawa.

Taking the stage for the 2026 lectures is Leilani Farha, a human rights lawyer and the Global Director of The Shift, an international housing rights organization she co-founded in 2017 alongside the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and United Cities and Local Governments. Farha, who previously served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing from 2014 to 2020, brings a deep background in global housing issues to this year's series, titled Housing, Inc.: A Global Takeover and Our Fight for Home. Her talk examines how residential real estate has shifted into a global commodity valued at roughly $287 trillion USD—a figure that far exceeds global GDP—and explores how four decades of financialization have impacted communities, tenant security, and housing access.

The Halifax event takes place in the heart of the downtown district at Neptune Theatre, located at 1593 Argyle Street. As Atlantic Canada's largest professional theatre, the space offers full wheelchair accessibility across both Fountain Hall and the Scotiabank Stage, alongside select accessible programming options like ASL-interpreted and audio-described performances. For those heading down for the evening, the venue sits a short walk from the Halifax Ferry Terminal and main transit routes, with several parking garages available nearby, including the MetroPark and Halifax Convention Centre lots.

If you are planning to attend, tickets are available directly through the Neptune Theatre box office online, by phone, or in person from Tuesday to Sunday. The venue advises purchasing directly to ensure valid admission, as third-party resale tickets cannot be verified or refunded. For those who want to read ahead or follow along after the event, House of Anansi Press is releasing the accompanying book version in September, coinciding with the live cross-country lecture tour.