“Creating some noise in the world”: Press freedom and Canada's first newspaper, the “Halifax Gazette”, 1752–1761

Abstract

The Halifax Gazette, the first newspaper published in what would become Canada, has been dismissed the “timid” product of a “docile” printer dependant on government patronage. This study explores the relationship between Nova Scotia's colonial administrators and John Bushell, the Gazette's publisher from 1752 to 1761, and assesses this relationship within the context of contemporary notions of press freedom in Britain and America. It questions assumptions that official support was vital to the paper's survival and shows Bushell published criticism of Nova Scotia's military-dominated regime and the British government. While the provincial secretary acted as an official censor during the 1750s, shortcomings in this form of control allowed the Gazette to make important contributions to the development of a public sphere in early Nova Scotia.