Pagan interfaith on Cape Breton Island

SYDNEY, Nova Scotia – On the east coast of Canada, looking out across the Atlantic Ocean, is Cape Breton Island, the northeastern portion of the province of Nova Scotia. This island’s only connection to the mainland is a 1,385 metre (4,500-foot) long causeway across the Strait of Canso. On this rocky, picturesque outpost of Canada is a population of slightly more than 147,000 people, mostly in the urban area of Sydney. The Mi’kmaq are the indigenous people of the land, and were joined first by French settlers in the seventeenth century. English settlers followed, bringing the large and hugely influential Gaelic-speaking population.