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Calling the quarantine hotline

Morning File, Tuesday, June 21, 2022

June 21, 2022 By Philip Moscovitch 2 Comments

News 1. Police board to launch limited independent review of August 18 actions “Halifax’s Board of Police Commissioners is moving ahead with an independent civilian review of the police actions of August 18, 2021,” Zane Woodford reports. The board had considered launching such a review last fall, but was waiting on a legal opinion to […]

Filed Under: Featured, Morning File Tagged With: Andy Molinsky, Bayers Road, Cape Breton, Cape Breton Spectator, Cape Breton University, CBC, Chronicle Herald, clock time, coal, Cross-Cultural Research, David Jala, Donkin mine, event time, fossil fuels, George Karaphillis, Germany, Greece, Halifax, Halifax Infirmary, Harvard Business Review, Italy, Jane Engle, Los Angeles Times, mall theft, Mary Campbell, Michael Gorman, Montreal, Nova Scotia, payphone, Philip Moscovitch, QEII Health Sciences Centre, Stephen McNeil, sunglasses, Switzerland, Syros, tardiness, The Quarantine Hotline, time is a social construct, Vince Lombardi, Vuk Dragojevic

The Examiner quizzed the four main political parties on gold mining issues. Here are their responses.

July 30, 2021 By Joan Baxter 9 Comments

Nova Scotia is experiencing a 21st century gold rush. Unlike the three previous gold rushes in the province in the 1800s and 1900s, this one involves a whole new kind of destructive extractive industry — open pit gold mines so massive they can be seen from outer space. These mines leave behind mountains of toxic […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News Tagged With: Aaron Beswick, Anaconda Gold, Archibald Lake, Atlantic Gold, Aurelius Minerals, biodiversity, Catherine Klimek, Chronicle Herald, clean technology, climate crisis, critical minerals, Dartmouth, Earthworks, Eastern Shore, Eastern Shore Forest Watch Association, environmental charges, French River watershed, gold mining, gold rush, GPNS, Green Party of Nova Scotia, green technology, Halifax, Liberals, Lucas Wide, Matt Hefler, Meguma Gold, Mining Association of Nova Scotia, Moose River, Muncipality of the County of Colchester, NDP, New Democrats, Northern shield Resources, Nova Scotia Liberal Party, Nova Scotia New Democratic Party, Nova Scotia Progressive Conservative Party, open pit gold mine, PC, Progressive Conservatives, protected areas, protected wildnerness status, provincial election, royalty rate, Sherbrooke, St Barbara Ltd, St. Mary's River, Tatamagouche water supply, taxes, Transition Metals, water supply, wetlands, World Gold Council

How the Biodiversity Act was killed

Forest Nova Scotia, which represents the biggest forestry players, gets an awful lot of public money — including millions of dollars to administer a forest roads program panned by the auditor general. It also has a paid lobbyist swaying the policies of the very government that funds it, and who started working on its behalf just as the Biodiversity Act was gutted.

April 20, 2021 By Joan Baxter 11 Comments

Last month Forest Nova Scotia, an industry group representing the most powerful shapers of forestry policy in this province, spearheaded a propaganda campaign against the Biodiversity Act, which the Liberal government of Iain Rankin had introduced on March 11, calling it legislation that would “preserve and protect Nova Scotia’s unique ecosystems, wild animals, plants, lakes […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, Investigation, News, Province House Tagged With: All Terrain Vehicle Association of Nova Scotia (ATVANS), Andrew Fedora, ARF Enterprises, Astroturf, Auditor General, Bill 4, biodiversity, Biodiversity Act, Bowater Mersey, Brian Taylor, Canadian Federation of Forest Owners, Canadian Woodlands Forum, Cassie Turple, CBC Information Morning, Christmas Tree Council of Nova Scotia, Chronicle Herald, climate crisis, Concerned Priavate Landowner Coalition, Cumberland Forestry Advisory Committee, Darrell Dexter, Darrin Carter, Dean Produce Co-op, Debbie Reeves, Department of lands and Forestry, Department of Natural Resources, Downey Thompson, Elmsdale Lumber, Extinction Rebellion, Federation of Nova Scotia Woodland Owners, Forestry Nova Scotia, Forestry Transition Fund, Forestry Transition Team, Gas Tax Access Program, Great Northern TImber, Harry Freeman and Son, Howard Epstein, Ian Johnstone, Jacob Fillmore, JD Irving, Jeff Bishop, Jeff Black, Jim Ketterling, Jim Meek, Jonathan Porter, Kevin Saunders, Krista Fulton, Ledwidge Lumber, Leitha Haysom, Linda Pannozzo, Louisiana Pacific, Maibec CanExel, Marcus Zwicker, Mark Baillie, Mayor Carolyn Bolivar-Getson, Michael Pickup, Municipality of the District of Lunenburg, Neenah Paper, Nina Newington, Noel Sampson, Northern Pulp, Northern Timber Nova Scotia Corporation, Nova Scotia Landowners and Forest Fibre Producers Association, Paper Excellence, Port Hawkesbury Paper, Premier Iain Rankin, Public Affairs Atlantic, Resolute Forest Products, Richard Freeman, Rick Archibald, Round Table on Environment and Sustainable Prosperity, Ryan Cameron, Sasha Irving, Scotia Investments, Scotsburn Lumber, Scott Paper, Sean Lewis, Snowmobilers Association of Nova Scotia (SANS), Stephen Marsters, Stephen Thompson, Stop Bill 4, Taylor Lumber, Timberland Holdings, Todd Burgess, Wagner Forest Management, WestFor Management

Communications specialist: “hundreds of thousands of dollars” were spent to produce “blatant lies” for the campaign against the Biodiversity Act

April 15, 2021 By Joan Baxter 11 Comments

Last month Forest Nova Scotia, an industry group representing the most powerful shapers of forestry policy in Nova Scotia spearheaded a propaganda campaign against the Biodiversity Act. The Liberal government of Iain Rankin had introduced the Act on March 11, calling it legislation that would “preserve and protect Nova Scotia’s unique ecosystems, wild animals, plants, […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News, Province House Tagged With: advertising, advertising code, advertising standards, Astroturf organization, Bill 4, Biodiversity Act, CBC Information Morning, Center For Media and Democracy, Chronicle Herald, Chuck Porter, Concerned Private Landowners Coalition, Department of Lands and Forests, Department of Natural Resources, Forest Nova Scotia, Jeff Bishop, Law Amendments Committee, Premier Iain Rankin, Preston Mulligan, propaganda, R&G, SaltWire, Saltwire Network, Sarah Riley, Species at Risk, Stephen Kimber, Stop Bill 4 campaign

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 5 Comments

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 […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Environment, Featured, News, Province House 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

Corporate shell game

Northern Pulp seeks protection from creditors in a BC court — and its largest creditor is its owner, Paper Excellence

July 19, 2020 By Joan Baxter 11 Comments

Northern Pulp — the mill in Pictou County — has gone into hibernation. And Northern Pulp — the company — is “insolvent.” It is one of seven related companies petitioning for creditor protection in the British Columbia Supreme Court, while it seeks “a plan of compromise or arrangement.” The petitioners seeking relief from debt payments, […]

Filed Under: Featured, Investigation, News Tagged With: 1057863 B.C. Limited, Asia Pulp and Paper, Associated Press, Bloomberg, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Bruce Chapman, Canso Chemicals, Catalyst Paper Corporation, Chetwynd Mechanical Pulp Inc., Chronicle Herald, corporate tax haven index, corporate welfare, deforestation, Ed Roste, Eduardo Bolsonaro, Eka Tjipta Widjaja, Euromomey, Euromoney, Forbes, former Premier John Hamm, Globe and Mail, Greenpeace, Hardi Wardhana, Hervey Investment B.V., Howe Sound Pulp and paper, Indonesia, Inter-corporate Ownership index, Jackson Widjaja, Jan Willem van Gelder, MacKenzie Pulp Inc., Mattell, Meadow Lake Mechanical Pulp, Mongabay, Netherlands, Northern Pulp, Northern pulp creditor protection, Northern Pulp loans, Northern Pulp Mill, Northern Resources Nova Scotia Corporation, Northern Timber, Paper Excellence, Paper Excellence B.V., Paper Excellence Canada Holdings Corporation, Pedro Chang, Petra Spaargaren, Prince Albert Pulp Inc., Reuters, Sinar Mas Group, Singapore, Skoomkumchuck Pulp Inc., Sugiarto Kardiman, Supreme Court of British Columbia, tax havens, Tax Justice Network, Tejuh Widjaja, Unifor

Saltwire finds one scientist who thinks Northern Pulp’s effluent isn’t toxic

Morning File, Monday, December 9, 2019

December 9, 2019 By Tim Bousquet and Joan Baxter 3 Comments

News 1. Stadium David Fleming is an economist who has worked with the Greater Halifax Partnership and the North End Business Association, and is now working on PEI. He reviewed the case for public financing of a stadium, and found it wanting. Click here to read “There’s not a good financial case for a publicly […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Anaconda Mining, Anthony Leblanc, Atlantic Schooners, Bathurst Police Force, Boat Harbour, Brian Baarda, CFL funding, Chief Andrea Paul, Chris Lambie, Chronicle Herald, David Fleming, Donald Gordon, Elkhorn, Frances Willick, Insp. Richard Haye, Jim Williams, Karissa Donkin, Lori Marino, Lynn Hammond, Michael Dadswell, Michael MacDonald, Michel Vienneau, Mike Rainone, Northern Pulp effluent, Pedro Chang, Pictou Landing First Nation (PLFN), power rates, RCMP, RCMP Sgt. Ron DeSilva, SaltWire, Sharphead First Nations Reserve, Terri Fraser, Whale Sanctuary Project

Back to the drawing board, Bill

Finance Minister Bill Morneau says his budget will provide support for journalism. It won't. It will only provide demise-delaying bailouts for badly managed media corporations. There are better ways.

March 24, 2019 By Stephen Kimber

Start with this from Page 173 of the federal budget Finance Minister Bill Morneau tabled in the House of Commons last week: “Support for Journalism.” No one — certainly not I — would argue “a strong and independent news media” isn’t “crucial to a well-functioning democracy,” or that the news media doesn’t play a “vitally important...

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Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, Journalism, Subscribers only Tagged With: allnovascotia, April Lindgren, Canada Council, Chris Waddell, Chronicle Herald, legacy print media, Mark Lever, Minister Bill Morneau, Postmedia, Qualified Canadian Journalism Organizations(QCJO), SaltWire, Sarah Dennis, Star Metro, Steph Wechsler, subsidy, Support for Journalism, tax credit, Torstar

The Trudeau government’s tax subsidy for journalism puts the Halifax Examiner in an impossible situation

Morning File, Friday, March 22, 2019

March 22, 2019 By Tim Bousquet 14 Comments

News 1. Holly Bartlett Last night, I went to a special preview of the first episode of AMI TV’s six-part series on Holly Bartlett (I wrote about the series here). It’s as good as I expected. I like that we can see where Holly lived, and how the police theory of her death makes no sense […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Aaron Beswick, allnovascotia, Canada population, Canso spaceport, Chronicle Herald, Frances Willick, Holly Bartlett, Maritime Launch Services, Mark Lever, Nova Scotia population, Postmedia, Qualified Canadian Journalism Organization (QCJO), Sarah Dennis, SpaceQ, Stephen Archibald and government wharfs, Steve Matier, subsidy for reporters, Support for Canadian Journalism, tax credit, tax subsidy, Torstar, Trudeau government

Erica Butler’s deep dive into the transportation beat

Morning File, Thursday, November 8, 2018

November 8, 2018 By Tim Bousquet 3 Comments

News 1. Erica Butler As the Examiner’s transportation columnist, Erica Butler gets into the nitty gritty of, yep, transportation: she attends the planning meetings, pesters the bureaucrats for more information, and interviews the experts and advocates. The resulting columns are incredibly detailed and thorough. For some readers, this holds little interest. But for others, Butler’s […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA), Boston Christmas tree, cargo plane crash Halifax airport, CFL franchise in Halifax, Chronicle Herald, Entrevestor, Erica Butler, James Drage, journalism, Orpheus, Peter Moreira, Quentin Casey, T-shirt

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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

A young white woman with dark hair and a purple shirt lies on a large rock at dusk, looking up at the sky and playing her banjolele.

Episode 85 of The Tideline, with Tara Thorne, is published.

Logan Robins (writer/director/composer) and Katherine Norris (star/composer) of the Unnatural Disaster Theatre Company are on the show this week ahead of their provincial tour of HIPPOPOSTUMOUS, Robins’ musical exploration of invasive species, colonization, environmentalism, and history. Hear how Pablo Escobar’s personal hippos have invaded and are ruining a section of Colombia, why Robins was intrigued to make a show about it, and all the places you can catch it this July. Plus Norris cracks out the banjolele to perform one of the show’s songs. And the new jam from Beauts!

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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