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Atlantic Gold’s lobbying blitz

The company is now in court on charges of harming the environment, regulators are casting a wary eye at its plans for future environmental protection, and investors are getting worried, so Atlantic Gold has hired a lobbyist to fast track federal approval of its Nova Scotia projects.

February 5, 2021 By Joan Baxter

Last year it was a propaganda blitz. For several weeks in the spring of 2020, Atlantic Gold, which operates an open pit gold mine in Moose River in the Halifax Regional Municipality and wants to open three more along the Eastern Shore, bombarded people in Nova Scotia with its PR. Atlantic Gold’s owner, Australia’s St...

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Filed Under: Commentary, Environment, Featured, News, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: Aaron Beswick, Alex Barkley, Archibald Lake, Archibald Lake Wilderness Area, Atlantic Canada Opportunity Agency (ACOA), Atlantic Gold, Atlantic Mining NS, Beaver Dam, CBC, Chronicle Herald, Cochrane Hill gold mine, Craig Jetson, Credit Suisse, Darmouth Provincial Court, DDV Gold, Department of lands and Forestry, Dustin O’Leary, Eastern Shore, Environmental Impact Statement, Fifteen Mile Stream mine, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), Freedom of Information request, Friends of the St. Mary’s River, Goldman Sachs, Impact Assessment Agency of Canada, J.P. Morgan, Joel Bakan, John Perkins, Krista Gillis, lobbyist, Lobbyists Registration Act, Margaret Anne McHugh, Maryse Belanger, Mi'kmaq, Mining Association of Nova Scotia (MANS), Mitchell Glawson, Mogran Stanley, moose, Moose River, Moose River Consolidated Project, Narrative Research, NATIONAL Public Relations, Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), NOPE campaign, Nova Scotia Environment, Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil, open pit gold mine, Ottawa, proposed Beaver Dam mine, protected wilderness areas, Sean Kirby, Sherbrooke, St Barbara Ltd, St. Mary's River, The Corporation, Tiéoulé Traoré, Touquoy mine, Tracy Barron, Wilderness Areas Protection Act

Atlantic Gold paid $0 in taxes in 2019

As the company is in court facing 32 charges of polluting the environment, the promised windfall in tax revenue is proving illusionary.

January 27, 2021 By Joan Baxter 1 Comment

Atlantic Mining NS Inc., an affiliate of the St. Barbara company Atlantic Gold, which operates the Touquoy open pit gold mine at Moose River, has succeeded in delaying its day in court. Arraigned in Dartmouth Provincial Court, Atlantic Mining NS asked for and received an adjournment until March 15. In September 2020, Nova Scotia Environment […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News Tagged With: Atlantic Gold, Atlantic Mining NS, Beaver Dam, Cochrane Hill, Dartmouth Provincial Court, Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), Extractive Sector Transparency Measures Act (ESTMA), Fifteen-Mile Stream, Fisheries Act, gold price, Impact Assessment Agency of Canada, Krista Gillis, Mitchell Glawson, Moose River gold mine, Mooseland, Natural Resources Canada, Nova Scotia Environment (NSE), Prospectors and Developers of Canada Association (PDAC), royalties, Scraggy Lake, St. Barbara Limited, tax, Touquoy mine

After reading a Halifax Examiner article, two cops showed up at an author reading at Mount Allison University

Joan Kuyek wrote a book about communities protecting themselves from mining companies, and so the RCMP sicced its Criminal Intelligence Section on her.

January 23, 2021 By Joan Baxter 2 Comments

It was an innocuous event, as most book launches are, but the Royal Canadian Mounted Police didn’t think so, and two officers in plain clothes showed up at Hart Hall at Mount Allison University, apparently concerned by what they read in this Halifax Examiner story and in three Facebook posts advertising the launch. It’s a […]

Filed Under: Featured, News Tagged With: Academic freedom, Access to Information Act, Access to Information and Privacy Branch, Atlantic Gold, Atlantic Gold and RCMP, book launch, Criminal Intelligence Section, Dave Thomas, Halifax, Hart Hall, Information Commissioner of Canada, Joan Kuyek, John Perkins, Lisa Croteau, Maryse Belanger, MiningWatch Canada, Mount Allison University, New Brunswick, RCMP, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Sackville, Sherbrooke, Steven Dean, Tatamagouche, Terry Moser, Twitter, Unearthing Justice, Water Not Gold

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

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...

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Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News, Subscribers only 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

Nova Scotia has laid charges for 32 environmental infractions against Atlantic Gold

Citizens raise concerns about environmental impacts of gold mining in Nova Scotia's moose country.

December 23, 2020 By Joan Baxter 2 Comments

Much attention is focused on Crown land in Digby County that is threatened by logging operations. And last week, nine people from Extinction Rebellion were arrested while trying to prevent contractors in the employ of the WestFor consortium from accessing the public forest and moose habitat slated for cutting. But in another part of the […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured Tagged With: 15-Mile Stream, Atlantic Gold, Atlantic Mining NS, Beaver Dam, Betty Belmore, biodiversity, Bob Bancroft, Caribou, Cochrane Hill gold mine, Dave Gunning, Deborah Bayer, Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), Department of Lands and Forestry (DLF), Dustin O’Leary, Eastern Shore, endangered species, erosion, Extinction Rebellion, Impact Assessment Agency of Canada, James Millard, Krista Gillis, Mitchell Glawson, moose, Moose River, Moose River Consolidated Project, Moose River gold mine, Mooseland, Mooseland Road, Nature Nova Scotia, Northern Pulp, Northern Timber, Nova Scotia Environment (NSE), proposed Beaver Dam mine, Rachel Boomer, salmon, Save Caribou group, Scraggy Lake, sedimentation, Sherbrooke, St. Barbara Limited, St. Mary's River, Touquoy mine, trout, Veronica Chisholm

What does the mayor do?

Morning File, Thursday, September 17, 2020

September 17, 2020 By Philip Moscovitch 11 Comments

News 1. Mayoral candidates face off for the first time Halifax’s three mayoral candidates debated each other yesterday, at an event hosted by the Downtown Halifax Business Commission. Zane Woodford attended, and reports on the candidates’ replies to questions from moderator Norma Lee MacLeod. While Taylor reiterated his stance that he doesn’t care who you […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Al Poirier, Atlantic Gold, COVID-19 recovery, crossword puzzles, digital news, Dustin O’Leary, gold mining, housing for Indigenous people, Joan Baxter, John Wesley Chisholm, Ken Mallett, limits on gathering, Lita Williams, mayor, mayoral race, Minister Chrystia Freeland, Minister Paul Martin, Natasha Pace, Shaina Luck, social housing, Tass Williams, Tawaak Housing Association, Willy Palov

Moose River betrayal

In 2008, the approval of the Moose River gold mine was conditioned on the mining company giving the province hundreds of acres of conservation land within four years; 12 years later, there's still no approved plan in place.

April 3, 2020 By Joan Baxter Leave a Comment

The Halifax Examiner is providing all COVID-19 coverage for free. On March 31, the Australian company St. Barbara, which last year acquired Atlantic Gold with its open pit gold mine at Moose River and a project to open three more mines along Nova Scotia’s Eastern shore, sent investors a COVID-19 update. It stated: St Barbara’s […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, Investigation, News Tagged With: Atlantic Gold, Barbara Markovits, coronavirus, COVID-19, Dustin O’Leary, Eastern Shore Forest Watch Association, Ecology Action Centre (EAC), Health Protection Act, Marla MacInnis, Maryse Belanger, Minister Mark Parent, Moose River gold mine, pandemic, Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC), Rachel Boomer, social distancing, St. Barbara Limited, Touquoy mine

Atlantic Gold is waging a propaganda blitz in Nova Scotia

March 25, 2020 By Joan Baxter 4 Comments

By now, many people in Nova Scotia will have seen the Atlantic Gold ads on television, read words of self-praise from the company in newspaper opinion pieces, or received Atlantic Gold flyers in their mailboxes. For the past month or so, Atlantic Gold has been blanketing the province with its propaganda. As the Halifax Examiner […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, Investigation, News, Province House Tagged With: Atlantic Gold, Bruce Hudgins, Darrell Dexter, Dustin O’Leary, Historic Mine Tailings Management Plan, historic mines tailings sites, John Perkins, John Wightman, Maryse Belanger, Michael Parsons, mine tailings, Moose River gold mine, Rachel Boomer, Ronald Hawkes, Spur Resources, St. Barbara Limited, Steven Dean, Teck Resources, Touquoy mine, Wally Bucknell

Port Wallace Gamble: the real estate boom meets Nova Scotia’s toxic mine legacy

Part 1: The making of a toxic mess and the uncalculated costs of previous gold rushes.

March 1, 2020 By Joan Baxter 4 Comments

This is Part 1 of a three-part story about the toxic legacy from historic gold mines in Nova Scotia, which its citizens will be paying many millions of dollars to try to clean up, and how the contamination at just one of these sites — Montague Mines in HRM — is still affecting lives today, […]

Filed Under: City Hall, Environment, Featured, Investigation, News, Province House Tagged With: Alexander Heatherington, arsenic from mining, Atlantic Gold, Barry's Run, Canadian Extractive Industries Transparency Measures Act (ESTMA), Clayton Developments, Cochrane Hill gold mine, Damas Touquoy, Department of Energy and Mines (DEM), Department of Lands and Forestry (DLF), Francis Paul, gold mining, gold mining pollution, Goldenville, James Paul, John Drage, John Hartlen, John Pulsiver, Kerry Rowe, Lake Charles, Lake Loon, Linda Campbell, Lisa Jarrett, mercury, Michael Parsons, mine tailings, Mining Association of Nova Scotia (MANS), Mitchell Brook, Montague Mines, Moose River gold mine, Nova Scotia Auditor General Michael Pickup, Nova Scotia Lands, Paul Paul, Raymond Plourde, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, St. Barbara Limited, Touquoy mine

Survey says: Why are people calling me with pro-mining propaganda?

February 5, 2020 By Joan Baxter 4 Comments

It looks as if someone is getting a little nervous about the growing backlash to the latest gold rush in the province, and to the development of new open pit gold mines along the Eastern Shore, particularly the proposal by the Australian company St. Barbara, which acquired Atlantic Gold in July last year for $722 […]

Filed Under: Featured, News, Province House Tagged With: Archibald Lake Wilderness Area, Atlantic Gold, Cochrane Hill gold mine, Environment Minister Gordon Wilson, Friends of St. Mary’s River, gold mining, Margaret Anne McHugh, Margaret Brigley, Moose River Consolidated Project, Narrative Research Poll, No Open Pit Excavation (NOPE), Paul Sobey, St Barbara

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The Tideline, with Tara Thorne

Mo Kenney. Photo: Matt Williams

Episode #18 of The Tideline, with Tara Thorne is published.

Mo Kenney’s new record Covers is a perfect winter companion — songs from across the rock spectrum that she’s pared down to piano or guitar and turned them into sad ballads. She joins Tara to talk about choosing and arranging them, and opens up for a frank discussion of the alcohol dependency it took a pandemic for her to confront. Plus: Movies are back (again).

This episode is available today only for premium subscribers; to become a premium subscriber, click here, and join the select group of arts and entertainment supporters for just $5/month. Everyone else will have to wait until tomorrow to listen to it.

Please subscribe to The Tideline.

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.

About the Halifax Examiner

Examiner folk The Halifax Examiner was founded by investigative reporter Tim Bousquet, and now includes a growing collection of writers, contributors, and staff. Left to right: Joan Baxter, Stephen Kimber, Linda Pannozzo, Erica Butler, Jennifer Henderson, Iris the Amazing, Tim Bousquet, Evelyn C. White, El Jones, Philip Moscovitch More about the Examiner.

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