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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

Court hears Sipekne’katik appeal of Alton Gas decision

February 19, 2020 By Jennifer Henderson

How much consultation is enough when it comes to approving development on land where First Nations claim — but have not received — title to Crown land? That’s one of the thorny questions at the centre of the Sipekne’katik First Nation’s appeal of a decision by the Nova Scotia Minister of Environment which gave the...

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Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: Alex Cameron, Alton Gas, Environment Climate Change Canada, Environment Minister Margaret Miller, Mi’kmaq people, Ray Larkin, Sean Foreman, Sipekne'katik First Nation, Supreme Court Justice Frank Edwards

Unearthing the city’s buried history

Morning File, Monday, January 27, 2020

January 27, 2020 By Suzanne Rent 5 Comments

News 1. New street checks almost the same as the old Stephen Kimber writes how even after a ban on street checks and an apology from the police chief, the practice still goes on. As former police officer Maurice Carvery says, “they haven’t stopped; they only changed.” This article is for subscribers. Please subscribe. 2. […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Alton Gas, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS-NS), Carrie Low, Chris Miller, Chris Trider, Darlene Gilbert, David Jones, Eastern Battery, Environment Minister Margaret Miller, Fort Clarence, Grafton Park, Grassroots Grandmothers Circle, Imperial Oil refinery, Jennifer Copage, Jonathan Fowler, Justice John Bodhurtha, Lori MacLean, Madonna Bernard, Matt Spurway, Memorial Library, Michael Gorman, MP Sean Fraser, Owls Head Park, Paula Isaac, Police Chief Dan Kinsella, Ray Larkin, Robert Grant, shooting Chisholm St, Shubenacadie River, Sipekne’katik, Stephen Archibald and Poor House Burying Ground, Supreme Court Justice Suzanne Hood, Transportation and Public Works (TPW), two spaces, vehicle pedestrian collision report

Northern Pulp takes province to court: The saga continues

The unfolding saga of the 53-year-old Pictou County pulp mill operated by Northern Pulp Nova Scotia — a Paper Excellence company that is part of the corporate empire of the billionaire Widjaja family of Indonesia — continues to get “curiouser and curiouser” as Alice in Wonderland once remarked.

January 24, 2020 By Jennifer Henderson and Joan Baxter Leave a Comment

Yesterday afternoon, Northern Pulp issued a news release stating it will ask the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia to undertake a judicial review of the Nova Scotia Environment Minister Gordon Wilson’s December 17, 2019 decision requiring the company to submit a full environmental assessment report before deciding to approve its proposed effluent treatment facility to […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News, Province House Tagged With: Andrew Ross MacGregor, Boat Harbour closure, Brian Baarda, Brian Hebert, Chief Andrea Paul, Environment Minister Gordon Wilson, Environment Minister Margaret Miller, Francis Wayne Chisholm, Gerald William Battist, Ian Joseph Johnstone, Jeffrey Carmen Black, Local 440, Marshall Stewart Bateman, Matthew Lawrence MacGillivray, Northern Pulp, Northern Pulp Nova Scotia Corporation, Pictou Landing First Nation (PLFN), Sipekne'katik First Nation, Teal Forest Resources Inc., Unifor, William Andrew West

Deciding Northern Pulp’s future

A tangled mess of dubious science, loans, and liabilities will determine how government officials will act in coming days — and how much it will cost Nova Scotians.

December 8, 2019 By Joan Baxter 5 Comments

Nova Scotia’s business minister Geoff MacLellan says it’s not the time to talk about all the money that Northern Pulp owes the province, and it won’t be until after environment minister Gordon Wilson makes his decision on the mill’s new effluent treatment facility on or before December 17. CBC reporter Michael Gorman notes that MacLellan […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, Investigation, News, Province House Tagged With: Boat Harbour, Brian Hebert, Chief Andrea Paul, Colton Cameron, Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), Environment Minister Margaret Miller, Health Canada, Jim Vibert, Kathy Cloutier, Keith Doucette, Michael Gorman, Minister Geoff MacLellan, Minister Gordon Wilson, Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, Northern Pulp closure, Northern Pulp focus report, Northern Pulp loans, Northern Resources Nova Scotia Corporation, Pictou Landing First Nation (PLFN), Premier G.I. Smith, Premier John Hamm, premier John Savage, Premier Rodney MacDonald, Public Services and Procurement Canada, Rachel Boomer, SaltWire, Transport Canada

Pictou Landing First Nation to Stephen McNeil: Honour the Boat Harbour Act and No Pipe in the Strait

October 6, 2019 By Joan Baxter 1 Comment

The day-by-day countdown to the closing of Boat Harbour happens on a large painting erected in front of the Pictou Landing First Nation band council office. The painting depicts Boat Harbour as it was before it was dammed (and damned) in 1966, transformed from a healthy tidal estuary to a stinking lagoon for the toxic […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News, Province House Tagged With: A’se’K, Barry Randle, Betsy MacDonald, Boat Harbour, Boat Harbour remediation project, Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, Chief Andrea Paul, Dorene Bernard, Elizabeth May, Environment Minister Margaret Miller, Frank Augustine, Friends of the Northumberland Strait, Gardner Pinfold, George Canyon, Impact Assessment Agency of Canada, Jerry Dias, Josie Augustine, Ken Swain, Michelle Francis-Denny, MLA Darlene Compton, MP Sean Fraser, NDP leader Gary Burrill, Northern Pulp, Pictou Landing First Nation (PLFN), Premier Stephen McNeil, Rob Holten, Tonya Francis

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

Public agencies lost at least $2.2 million on aioTV

Morning File, Tuesday, March 5, 2019

March 5, 2019 By Tim Bousquet and Jennifer Henderson 11 Comments

News 1. Northern Pulp This item is written by Jennifer Henderson. The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency has received 3,200 submissions from people with an interest in whether the federal regulator should carry out a review of Northern Pulp’s plan to pipe treated effluent 4.1 kilometers out into prime lobster fishing area in the Northumberland Strait. […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Aidan McNally, aioTV, Alex Cooke, Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA), Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, Canadian Federation of Students, Canadian Income Survey (CIS), child poverty, Environment Minister Margaret Miller, Friends of the Northumberland Strait (FONS), Hani Abdelrahman, Icarus Report March 5 2019, ice on sidewalks, immigration fraud, Innovacorp, James Gunvaldsen Klaassen, Jason Cannon, Michael Earle, Northern Pulp, Nova Scotia Department of Finance, Nova Scotia Department of Lands and Forestry, PEI Premier Wade MacLauchlan, Premier Stephen McNeil, Richard Starr, university tuition fees

UARB submission raises safety concerns about Alton Gas project

January 14, 2019 By Jennifer Henderson

A retired geologist who worked for the province of Nova Scotia as well as the mining giant INCO says he has safety concerns about the proposed Alton Natural Gas Storage Project. Robert Grantham’s letter to the Utility and Review Board (UARB) states not enough information has been made public about the rock formation near Alton...

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Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: Alton Natural Gas Storage Project, BGC Engineering Inc, Danielle Stewart, Environment Minister Margaret Miller, Heritage Gas, Justice Suzanne Hood, Lori MacLean, Maritimes Energy Association, MLA Larry Harrison, Paul Allen, Ray Ritcey, Robert Grantham, Shubenacadie River, Sipek’natik First Nation, Utility and Review Board (UARB)

Containing Northern Pulp’s mess

A half century of toxic waste in Boat Harbour, a leaky pipeline, and what happens next in the mill saga.

November 3, 2018 By Joan Baxter 8 Comments

The numbers are staggering. Over the past 51 years, the bleached kraft pulp mill on Abercrombie Point in Pictou County has piped about 1.25 trillion litres of toxic effluent into Boat Harbour.[1] That’s enough to fill about half a million Olympic-size swimming pools, or a pipeline one metre in diameter stretching about 1.6 million kilometres, […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News Tagged With: Boat Harbour, Boat Harbour Act, Boat Harbour remediation project, Bruce Nunn, Chief Andrea Paul, Chief Dan Paul, Christine Skirth, Environment Minister Margaret Miller, GHD, Kathy Cloutier, Ken Swain, Mi’kmaq of Pictou Landing, Northern Pulp, Northern Pulp cleanup, Northern Pulp effluent leak, Nova Scotia Environment, Nova Scotia Lands, Pictou County, Pictou Landing First Nation, Rachel Boomer, Stephen McNeil, Sydney Tar Ponds, William Palmer

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The Tideline, with Tara Thorne

Keonté Beals. Photo: Keke Beatz

Episode #21 of The Tideline, with Tara Thorne is published.

The young R&B artist Keonté Beals — Tara’s former NSCC student, by the way — started out singing in church in North Preston and performing popular covers before digging into who he is an artist. On his debut album KING, he sings about love, loyalty, and authenticity. He zooms in for a chat about its creation, his children’s book, and how not even a pandemic can keep him down.

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.

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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