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Province: Sipekne’katik First Nation should blame itself for lack of consultation over Alton Gas project

February 20, 2020 By Jennifer Henderson

A lawyer for the Province of Nova Scotia says the Sipekne’katik First Nation has no one but itself to blame when it argues there was “inadequate consultation” with the government over the Alton Gas decision. The First Nation opposes the development of natural gas storage caverns at Alton, a $130 million project that was approved...

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Filed Under: Environment, Featured, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: Alton Natural Gas Storage Project, Assembly of Mi’kmaw Chiefs, Chief Paul Prosper, Chief Rufus Copage, Conestoga-Rovers, Environment Minister Iain Rankin, Environment Minister Margaret Miller, Kwilmu’kw Maw-klusuaqn Negotiation Office (KMKNO), Robert Grant, Sean Foreman, Shubenacadie River, Sipekne’katik First Nation (Indian Brook), Supreme Court Justice Frank Edwards

“There’s something in the water”

Ellen Page speaks to the Halifax Examiner about her forthcoming feature film and what she hopes it will accomplish

August 14, 2019 By Joan Baxter 6 Comments

It was a Saturday morning and Ellen Page was giving up some of what could have been a bit of down time to do a telephone interview about her forthcoming film on environmental racism in Nova Scotia, which will have its world debut this September at the Toronto International Film Festival. I was hammering her […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Environment, Featured, Province House Tagged With: Alton Gas, Boat Harbour, Dale Poulette, Ellen Page, Environment Minister Iain Rankin, Environmental Noxiousness Racial Inequities and Community Health (ENRICH), Environmental Racism, Gaycation, Ian Daniel, Ingrid Waldron, Julia Anderson, Lil MacPherson, Louise Delisle, Michelle Francis-Denny, Northern Pulp, Pema Chödrön, Pictou Landing First Nation (PLFN), Premier Stephen McNeil, Rachael Greenland-Smith, Umbrella Academy, US Vice President Mike Pence

Northern Pulp’s environmental documents: missing mercury, a pulp mill that never was, and oodles of contradictions

March 5, 2019 By Joan Baxter 9 Comments

Cover photo: “Point D,” where treated Northern Pulp wastewater currently flows from Boat Harbour into the Northumberland Strait, just a few hundred metres from Pictou Landing First Nation. There is much to wade through in the documents Northern Pulp submitted to Nova Scotia Environment on February 7, 2019, when it registered its “Replacement Effluent Treatment […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Environment, Featured, Investigation, News, Province House Tagged With: Bell Bay Tasmania, Boat Harbour, Bruce Chapman, Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA), Canso Chemicals, Chief Andrea Paul, Clean the Mill Group, Dave Gunning, Dillon Consulting, dioxins and furans, Dr. John Krawczyk, Environment Minister Iain Rankin, Environment Minister Margaret Miller, Gary Porter, Greg Egilsson, Gulf NS Herring Federation, Human Health Risk Assessment (HHRA), Jamie Simpson, Kathy Cloutier, KSH Consulting, mercury, Mi’kmaq Conservation Group, Northern Pulp, Northern Pulp effluent, Northern Pulp environmental assessment, Nova Scotia Environment, oxygen delignification system, Paper Excellence Canada, Pictou Harbour, Pictou Landing, Pictou Landing First Nation (PLFN), Point D, Rachel Boomer, Terri Fraser, Toxikos

McNeil government is moving slow with greenhouse gas reduction plan

Details are wanting, industry is worried, and regional cooperation is sidelined.

April 6, 2018 By Jennifer Henderson

Nova Scotia continues to resist a sales pitch from Ottawa to sign on to its system for reducing emissions starting in January 2019. That resistance comes despite a warning different carbon pricing regimes within Atlantic Canada could drive up administrative costs for companies such as Irving Oil, Wilson Fuels, Northern Pulp, and Lafarge Cement. Those...

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Filed Under: Featured, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: Atlantic Provinces Economic Council, carbon pricing, Dale Beugin, EcoFiscal Commission, Environment Minister Iain Rankin, greenhouse gas emissions, Jason Hollett, Jennifer Henderson, minister for Environment & Climate Change John Moffet

Judge refuses to intervene in Lafarge’s tire-burning plan

March 21, 2018 By Jennifer Henderson

A handful of citizens who live beside a cement plant in Brookfield, 10 kilometers south of Truro, have lost a court battle to prevent Lafarge Canada from burning tires for fuel. CABOT (Citizens Against the Burning of Tires) launched a judicial review of Environment Minister Iain Rankin’s decision last July approving the project. Yesterday, Nova...

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Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: CABOT (Citizens Against the Burning of Tires), Douglas J. Hallett, Environment Minister Iain Rankin, Jennifer Henderson, John Keith, Judge Denise Boudreau, Justice James Chipman, Karine Cousineau, Lafarge cement plant burning tires, Lydia Sorflaten, Mark Gibson

Judge rejects motion against Lafarge’s tire-burning plan

January 20, 2018 By Jennifer Henderson

Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Denise Boudreau has rejected a motion from a citizens group opposed to burning tires for fuel at the Lafarge cement plant in Brookfield. The motion was that new evidence from a toxicology expert be admitted as part of a judicial review this March of Environment Minister Iain Rankin’s decision to...

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Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: Bill Mahody, Citizens Against Burning of Tires group (CABOT), Douglas Hallett, Environment Minister Iain Rankin, Jennifer Henderson, Lafarge cement plant, Lenore Zann, Lydia Sorflaten, Supreme Court Justice Denise Boudreau

Brookfield residents ask court to consider new tire-burning evidence

December 15, 2017 By Jennifer Henderson

“I say to the Dept of Environment: Now that you know, what are you going to do about it?” Lydia Sorflaten was a talking about an affidavit by an internationally-known toxicologist expert who accuses the province of applying the wrong scientific data to approve a one-year pilot project to burn tires at the Lafarge cement...

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Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: Bill Mahody, Citizens Against the Burning of Tires (CABOT), Douglas Hallett, Ecology Action Centre, Environment Minister Iain Rankin, Fred Blois, Jennifer Henderson, John Keith, Justice Denise Boudreau, Lafarge cement plant burning tires, Lydia Sorflaten, Sean Foreman

Dirty Dealing 

Northern Pulp Mill and the province are set to roll the dice with Boat Harbour’s replacement, but a cleaner alternative exists.

November 22, 2017 By Linda Pannozzo 17 Comments

This once pristine tidal estuary, Boat Harbour has been used as an industrial waste lagoon for the Abercrombie pulp mill (now Northern Pulp) near Pictou for fifty years. Photo courtesy Dave Gunning. You could cut the tension in the room with a knife. Earlier this month a delegation of fishers from Nova Scotia, PEI, and […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, Investigation, News, Province House Tagged With: Auditor General Michael Pickup, Boat Harbour, Boat Harbour Act, Boat Harbour Timeline (Water and Air Pollution), Central Nova MP Sean Fraser, Charlie McGeoghegan, Clean the Mill, Daniel Paul, Dave Gunning, Douglas Reeve, Douglas Singbeil, Environment Minister Iain Rankin, Howard Rapson, Joan Baxter, Kathy Cloutier, Linda Pannozzo, Melanie Griffin, Mi’kmaq of Pictou Landing, MLA Karla MacFarlane, Northern Pulp's mill waste, Pictou Landing First Nation, premier John Savage

Toxicologist Douglas Hallett raises concerns about Lafarge tire-burning

November 20, 2017 By Jennifer Henderson

A citizens’ group opposed to the burning of tires for fuel at the Lafarge cement plant in Brookfield is asking a court to consider a report from a toxicology expert as part of its judicial review of the Nova Scotia Environment Minister’s decision to approve a one-year pilot project. Douglas J. Hallett (M.Sc and Ph.D...

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Filed Under: Featured, News, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: Bill Mahody, Douglas Hallett, Environment Minister Iain Rankin, Gary Burrill, Jennifer Henderson, Lafarge cement plant burning tires, Lydia Sorflaten

The Tideline, with Tara Thorne

Brian Borcherdt. Photo: Anna Edwards-Borcherdt

Brian Borcherdt came of age in Yarmouth in the 1990s. When he arrived in Halifax, the city’s famous music scene was already waning, and worse, the music he made was rejected by the cool kids anyway. After decades away from Nova Scotia, he and his young family have settled in the Annapolis Valley, where he’ll zoom in to chat with Tara about his band Holy Fuck’s endlessly delayed tour, creating the Dependent Music collective, and the freedom and excitement of the improvised music he’s making now. Plus: Bringing events back in 2021.

The Tideline is advertising-free and subscriber-supported. It’s also a very good deal at just $5 a month. Click here to support 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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Recent posts

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