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The demise of Mountain Equipment Co-op could spell expensive trouble for Nova Scotia

In 2020, a federal law and a BC judge dismantled Mountain Equipment Co-op. Now, the same federal law that was used to destroy MEC is being cited by Paper Excellence in its $450 million lawsuit against the province of Nova Scotia related to the creditor protection of Northern Pulp. And the case is being heard by the same judge.

June 9, 2022 By Joan Baxter

Mountain Equipment Co-operative is no more. In September 2020, Mountain Equipment Co-operative filed for creditor protection. A month later, a judge ordered that the co-ops’ assets be sold to a Los Angeles-based private equity firm, and Mountain Equipment Co-operative became Mountain Equipment Company. Now, the same federal law that was used to dismantle Mountain Equipment...

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Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: Alvarez and Marsal, Anna Lund, Brandon Pullan, British Columbia Supreme Court, Companies" Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA), David Smart, Harley Rustad, Justice Shelley Fitzpatrick, Kevin Harding, Kingswood Capital Management, Michael Parent, Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC), Mountain Equipment Company (MEC), Northern Pulp, Paper Excellence, Save MEC campaign, Yuill Herbert

Northern Pulp and its wealthy owners seem intent on taking Nova Scotians to the cleaners

But the Pictou pulp mill has had plenty of Nova Scotian accomplices helping them fleece the province.

April 4, 2022 By Joan Baxter 3 Comments

On April 1, in the British Columbia Supreme Court, Justice Shelley Fitzpatrick issued an order that forces Nova Scotia into a “mediation” process in the BC court, where Northern Pulp and six related companies have been enjoying creditor protection since June 2020. The process will be handled by a “court appointed” monitor that Northern Pulp […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Featured Tagged With: Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), BC Premier John Horgan, Bernie Miller, Biodiversity Act, Boat Harbour Act, Brazil, British Columbia Supreme Court, Bruce Chapman, Catalyst Paper, Companies" Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA), Competition Bureau of Canada, creditor protection, Darrell Dexter, default, deforestation, Domtar, Eldorado Brazil Celulose, environmental assessment, environmental assessment report, GI Smith, Hervey Investment B.V., Indemnity Agreement, Jackson Widjaja, John Hamm, John Savage, Justice Shelley Fitzpatrick, Kamloops, Kirby McVicar, lawsuit, Maurice Chiasson, mediation process, Netherlands, Northern Pulp, Nova Scotia, Nova Scotia Environment and Climate Change (NSECC), Nova Scotia Pension Benefits Act, Nova Scotia Superintendent of Pensions, nova scotia supreme court, Ontario, Paper Excellence, Paper Excellence Canada Holdings Corporation, Paper Excellence Group, Pensions, Pictou County, Public Affairs Atlantic, pulp mill, Quebec, Robert Grant, Robert Stanfield, Rodney MacDonald, Sasha Irving, Sinar Mas Group, statment of claims, Stephen McNeil, tax haven, Unifor, Widjaja family

Northern Pulp mill plans “best in class” or best in BS?

The Paper Excellence company that is part of the global corporate empire of the Widjaja family has submitted plans for the “transformation” of its hibernating pulp mill to the Nova Scotia government for approval, even as it sues the same government for hundreds of millions of dollars.

December 17, 2021 By Joan Baxter 3 Comments

Northern Pulp is claiming that the changes it’s proposing for its 54-year-old pulp mill in Pictou County will make it “best in class.” Even the blurb that appears on the Nova Scotia Environment and Climate Change page for the “mill transformation and effluent treatment facility project” includes the phrase “best in class.” And although Northern […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, Investigation Tagged With: 1057863 B.C. Ltd., 3243722 Nova Scotia Limited, 3253527 Nova Scotia Limited, A’se’K, Abercrombie Point, AP&P, Asia Pulp & Paper, Boat Harbour, British Columbia Supreme Court, British Virgin Islands, Bruce Chapman, Canso Chemicals, Catalyst Paper, climate change, climate crisis, Companies" Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA), Competition Bureau of Canada, Domtar, Eldorado Brasil Celulose pulp mill, Environmental Paper Network, Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), France, Friends of the Northumberland Strait, FSC, Golden Agri Resources, Graham Kissack, greenhouse gases, Greenpeace, Hervey Investment BV, Inter-corporate Ownership index, Jill Graham Scanlan, Jim Ryan, Kamloops pulp mill, Karta Halten B.V., MacKenzie pulp mill, Maurice Chiasson, mercury, Northern Pulp, Northern Pulp Mill, Northern Pulp Nova Scotia, Northern Pulp Nova Scotia LP, Northern Pulp NS GP ULC, Northern Resources Nova Scotia Corporation, Northern Timber Nova Scotia Corporation, Northern Timber Nova Scotia LP, Northumberland Strait, Nova Scotia Envrionment and Climate Change, Olin Corporation, Paper Excellence, Paper Excellence Canada Holdings Corporation, Pictou, Pictou Harbour, Pictou Landing First Nation, Powell River pulp mill, pulp mill, Robert Grant, Scott Paper, Sinar Mas, Sinar Mas Group, Singapore, Statistics Canada, tax havens, Tax Justice Network, The Netherlands, Widjaja family

Woo and sue: Northern Pulp’s strategy in Nova Scotia

Colchester County Mayor Christine Blair accuses the Halifax Examiner of publishing "misinformation" about the county's wastewater agreement with Northern Pulp, but won't tell us what we supposedly got wrong.

October 31, 2021 By Joan Baxter 2 Comments

Item number 15 on the agenda of last week’s council meeting of the Municipality of the County of Colchester County was “Northern Pulp Misinformation.” Four hours into the meeting, held on Zoom, the item finally made the floor. The municipality’s director of public works, Michelle Boudreau, told Council she had put together a “Frequently Asked […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Environment, Featured Tagged With: Andy MacGregor, Bay of Fundy, Boat Harbour Act, British Columbia Supreme Court, Canadian Institute of Forestry, Central Colchester Wastewater Treatment Facility, Companies" Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA), Earle Miller, Elmsdale Lumber, FOIPOP, Forest Nova Scotia, Forest Products Association of Nova Scotia, Friends of a New Northern Pulp, litigation, Maurice Chiasson, Maurice Rees, Mayor Christine Blair, Michelle Boudreau, Municipality of the County of Colchester, Northern Pulp, Paper Excellence, Peter Spicer, Phillip Redden, Registered Professional Foresters Association of Nova Scotia, Robert Grant, Robin Wilber, Ryan Scott, SaltWire, Scott Fraser, The Shoreline Journal, wastewater, Widjaja family

Paper Excellence holds a media show and piles on the PR

Northern Pulp’s owner is working on a $350 million “complete transformation” for the mill in Pictou County, but doesn’t say whether any of that money will be public, or why Nova Scotians should trust them.

July 16, 2021 By Joan Baxter 7 Comments

On the morning of July 15, Iris Communications’ Sean Lewis sent out a press release on behalf of Paper Excellence. It was chockablock with carefully calibrated and curated PR, informing us that Northern Pulp’s 54-year-old pulp mill in Pictou County was set to become “a “best-in-class operation” and “one of the world’s cleanest, most environmentally […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News Tagged With: AP&P, Asia Pulp & Paper, Boat Harbour, CBC, Chief Andrea Paul, Class I, Class II, clearcutting, Companies" Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA), Dale Paterson, Darrell Dexter, Domtar, Effluent Treatment Facility, Eldorado Brasil Celulose, environmental assessment, Environmental Liaison Committee, Fibre Excellence, forestry, France, Graham Kissack, herbicide, Iris Communications, Lahey report, Mi'kmaq, Michael Gorman, no pipe, Northern Pulp, Nova Scotia, Nova Scotia Environment, Paper Excellence, Paper Excellence B.V., Paper Excellence Canada Holdings Corporation, Pictou, Pictou County, Pictou Harbour, Pictou Landing First Nation, pulp mill, Sean Lewis, Sinar Mas, Supreme Court of British Columbia, Widjaja family

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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Recent posts

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  • Stuck on stick: clinging to the manual in an automatic world June 29, 2022
  • Halifax council votes to plan for Centennial Pool replacement, support universal basic income, and more June 28, 2022

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