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Atlantic Gold is going to court

The St. Barbara Limited company is facing 32 environmental charges, even as more complaints roll in.

January 20, 2021 By Joan Baxter 3 Comments

Just over a month after the construction company contracted by Atlantic Gold to excavate clay for the tailings facility at its open pit gold mine at Moose River assured Krista Gillis of Mooseland that the excavation work wouldn’t cause any more sedimentation in a nearby brook, it has happened again. On Saturday, January 17, Gillis […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News Tagged With: Adele Poirier, Atlantic Gold, Atlantic Mining NS Inc, carbon neutral, climate change, climate emergency, Dartmouth Provincial Court, DDV Gold, Dustin O’Leary, Environment Canada, Fifteen Mile Stream mine, Guysborough Journal, heavy rainfall, Kip Keen, Krista Gillis, Lake Charlotte, Moose River Consolidated Project, Moose River gold mine, Nova Scotia Environment (NSE), Rachel Boomer, rainfall records, S&P Global, Scraggy Lake, Seloam Brook, Ship Harbour Long Lake Wilderness Area, St. Barbara Limited, tailings management facility (TMF), Tangier Grand Lake Wilderness Area, Touquoy mine

After the gold rush

Nova Scotia is ignoring the toxic legacy of past mining manias while rushing headlong into the next

June 25, 2019 By Joan Baxter 3 Comments

If learning from past mistakes were a government tradition in Nova Scotia, the current government would not be exhibiting all the symptoms of gold fever. But it is, and it looks like a raging bout of the affliction. In the past few years, it has amended legislation based on recommendations made by the industry’s cheerleader-in-chief, […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, Investigation, Province House Tagged With: 2012 Geological Survey of Canada, Adele Poirier, arsenic from mining, arsenic in well water, Arsenic Task Force, Atlantic Gold, Bruce Nunn, Christian West, Cooper Quinn, cyanide, Department of Energy and Mines, Donald James, Dustin O’Leary, Enfield, Gary Andrea, George O’Reilly, gold mining, gold rush, Gold Show, grants for mineral exploration, Historic Gold Mines Advisory Committee, historic mines tailings sites, IAMGOLD, Jacob Hanley, James Millard, John Wightman, Linda Campbell, Lisa Jarrett, Lori Blackburn, Magnum Resources, mercury, Mineral Resources Development Fund (MRDF), Mining Association of Nova Scotia (MANS), Mining Society of Nova Scotia, Montague Mines, Moose River gold mine, Osprey Gold, Perry MacKinnon, Prospectors and Developers Association Convention (PDAC), Prospectors Association of Nova Scotia, Rick Horne, Sean Kirby, St. Barbara Limited, tailings, tailings dams, Touquoy mine, Waverley

Nova Scotia has a mercury problem

Facilities associated with Northern Pulp Mill's proposed effluent pipe are immediately adjacent to a mercury-contaminated toxic waste site left over from the Canso Chemicals operation

April 9, 2019 By Joan Baxter 2 Comments

Cover photo: A Mad Tea-Party by Lewis Carroll with the Hatter, March Hare and Alice. It turns out that using a lot of mercury, as human beings have done for centuries — in everything from haberdashery to gold production to medicine — wasn’t such a great idea after all. Although this realization came only in […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, Investigation, News, Province House Tagged With: Abercrombie Point, Adele Poirier, Canso Chemicals, David Depew, Dillon Consulting, Domtar, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), erithism mercurialis, Federal Contaminated Sites Action Plan (FCSAP), gold mines, Grassy Narrows First Nation, Liberal Party fundraiser, Linda M Campbell, mercury, mine tailings, Minimata Convention on Mercury, Minimata disease, Neil M Burgess, Northern Pulp Mill, Nova Scotia Environment (NSE), Olin Corporation, Paper Excellence, Peter Hodson, Pictou Harbour, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Reed Paper, United Nations Environment (UNEP), Wabaseemoong First Nation, Wabigoon River

Environment Minister Margaret Miller isn’t talking about Northern Pulp’s much-criticized environmental assessment

Morning File, Friday, March 15, 2019

March 15, 2019 By Tim Bousquet and Jennifer Henderson 9 Comments

News 1. Spill at Moose River gold mine “Atlantic Gold’s manager of environment and permitting, James Millard, calls it a ‘spill’ or a ‘loss of control’ caused by a ‘gasket failure,’” reports Joan Baxter: By whatever name, the event happened on the night of January 3, 2019, at the company’s open pit gold mine at […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Adele Poirier, Biodiversity Act, Biodiversity Council, Boat Harbour, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Service, Chris Miller, David Pugliese, Dillon Consulting, Duncan Reid, Ecology Action Centre, Extinction Rebellion, George Farmer, Irving Shipbuilding, Joan Baxter, Justice Jamie Campbell, Kevin McCoy, Matthew Halliday, Minister Iain Rankin, Minister Margaret Miller, Northern Pulp environmental assessment, Postmedia, Ray Plourde, Stephen Archibald and the CSTF drill shed, Tim wonders about a thing, violations of privacy laws

Spill at Moose River gold mine raises environmental concerns

Atlantic Gold springs an effluent leak, plugs a new mine, and sells itself to investors 

March 15, 2019 By Joan Baxter 6 Comments

Cover photo: the tailings facility at the Touquoy gold mine. Photo: Saint Mary’s River Association Atlantic Gold’s manager of environment and permitting, James Millard, calls it a “spill” or a “loss of control” caused by a “gasket failure.” By whatever name, the event happened on the night of January 3, 2019, at the company’s open […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News, Province House Tagged With: Adele Poirier, arsenic, Atlantic Gold, Atlantic Mining NS, Barbara Markovits, Barry Clattenburg, Beaver Dam, Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA), Charles Clattenburg, Cochrane Hill, Craig Hudson, cyanide, D.D.V. Gold, Dustin O’Leary, Eastern Shore Forest Watch, Eastern Shore Wildlife Association, Eastern Shore Wildlife Centre, Fifteen-Mile Stream, Friends of the St. Mary’s River, James Millard, Jim Turner, Maryse Belanger, Moose River, Moose River Consolidated Project, Mount Polley, Nova Scotia Environment, Nova Scotia Salmon Association, Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC), Scraggy Lake, Sean Thompson, Sheet Harbour, Torquoy Gold Mine, Wayne Oakley, West River

PRICED OUT

A collage of various housing options in HRM, including co-ops, apartment buildings, shelters, and tents
PRICED OUT is the Examiner’s investigative reporting project focused on the housing crisis.

You can learn about the project, including how we’re asking readers to direct our reporting, our published articles, and what we’re working on, on the PRICED OUT homepage.

2020 mass murders

Nine images illustrating the locations, maps, and memorials of the mass shootings

All of the Halifax Examiner’s reporting on the mass murders of April 18/19, 2020, and recent articles on the Mass Casualty Commission and newly-released documents.

Updated regularly.

Uncover: Dead Wrong

In 1995, Brenda Way was brutally murdered behind a Dartmouth apartment building. In 1999, Glen Assoun was found guilty of the murder. He served 17 years in prison, but steadfastly maintained his innocence. In 2019, Glen Assoun was fully exonerated.

Halifax Examiner founder and investigative journalist Tim Bousquet has followed the story of Glen Assoun's wrongful conviction for over five years. Now, Bousquet tells that story as host of Season 7 of the CBC podcast series Uncover: Dead Wrong.

Click here to go to listen to the podcast, or search for CBC Uncover on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast aggregator.

The Tideline, with Tara Thorne

Two young white women, one with dark hair and one blonde, smile at the camera on a sunny spring day.

Episode 79 of The Tideline, with Tara Thorne, is published.

Grace McNutt and Linnea Swinimer are the Minute Women, two Haligonians who host a podcast of the same name about Canadian history as seen through a lens of Heritage Minutes (minutewomenpodcast.ca). In a lively celebration of the show’s second birthday, they stop by to reveal how curling brought them together in podcast — and now BFF — form, their favourite Minutes, that time they thought Jean Chretien was dead, and the impact their show has had. Plus music from brand-new ECMA winners Hillsburn and Zamani.

Listen to the episode here.

Check out some of the past episodes here.

Subscribe to the podcast to get episodes automatically downloaded to your device — there’s a great instructional article here. Email Suzanne for help.

You can reach Tara here.

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Recent posts

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