It’s not the first time I’ve waded through many hundreds of pages of correspondence released by a government under a FOIPOP (Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy) request, but it is the first time that reading the correspondence made me feel slightly queasy, like a voyeur witnessing unhealthy relationships developing between uncritical and subservient […]
Point, Click, Evict
Morning File, Thursday, October 24, 2019
News 1. Crowns strike The province’s crown attorneys have gone on strike. The government says the action is illegal and is seeking an injunction to get them back to work. Writing in The Star Halifax, Taryn Grant explains: About 80 per cent of members of the Nova Scotia Crown Attorneys’ Association (NSCAA) voted in favour […]
Would you like to buy a stadium?
Morning File, Friday, September 27, 2019
News 1. Strike for climate Today’s “strike for climate” is the main local event for this week’s climate actions. People are meeting at 11am at Victoria Park — half the park is closed due to the collapsed crane, but the “back,” southern half is open. From there, strikers will march to Nova Scotia Power, thence […]
Roughed up by the RCMP at a public meeting, John Perkins sues Atlantic Gold and the cops
Sixty-eight-year-old John Perkins of Earltown is striking a blow for democracy after he says he was forcibly hauled out of a public meeting by an RCMP officer last May. Perkins held a news conference in Halifax yesterday to explain why he is filing a lawsuit against Atlantic Gold Corporation which hosted two information sessions on […]
Iain Rankin promises big changes in forestry management, but the province is moving slowly
Give Lands and Forestry Minister Iain Rankin credit for trying. Last November, Rainkin accepted all 45 recommendations from Bill Lahey, a former deputy environment minister and university president hired to figure out how to make Nova Scotia forests healthier and more productive. Lahey’s recommendations were aimed at improving biodiversity and reducing the amount of...
The $722 million deal
An Australian company is buying the Vancouver company that owns Nova Scotia’s largest gold mining operation; what’s in it for us?
Here’s the deal. On Wednesday, May 14, an Australian gold mining company called St. Barbara Limited, with one gold mine in Australia and a second one in Papua New Guinea, agreed to pay $722 million for Atlantic Gold Corporation, which operates one open pit gold mine in Nova Scotia, has proposed three more along the […]
Truth Be Told: Nova Scotia’s forest department hires a PR firm with forest industry ties to help it with transparency
Cover photo: recent drone shot of a clearcut located between Kejimkujik National Park and Lake Rossignol. Photo courtesy Jeff Purdy. The Nova Scotia Department of Lands and Forestry (DLF) recently hired DG Communications, a public relations firm, to assess the department’s progress in meeting the recommendations of William Lahey’s Independent Review of Forest Practices, specifically […]
With increasing sea level rise, does it make sense to build a new Art Gallery of Nova Scotia on the waterfront?
In the last three months, it’s been reported that the Greenland ice sheet is melting faster than expected, which will mean a higher rise in sea-level than earlier projected; that temperatures in Canada are warming at approximately double the average global rate; and that more flooding is predicted for Atlantic Canada over the next 50...
Northern Pulp’s environmental assessment “is simply not credible” says EAC
Morning File, Wednesday, March 13, 2019
News 1. Pulp Culture We’ve published Linda Pannozzo’s detailed review of how through the decades the province has oriented forest policies — and purposefully subverted science — to favour the pulp industry over the lumber industry. As a result, overcutting has resulted in smaller trees that provide less lumber, and now the sawmills are […]