Joan Kuyek, one of this country’s most distinguished community organizers and analysts of the mining industry, will be in Nova Scotia this weekend to promote her new book, Unearthing justice: how to protect your community from the mining industry. In 1999, Kuyek co-founded MiningWatch Canada, and was its national coordinator until 2009. She has taught […]
Gold fever is coming to Halifax
Mineral exploration companies have staked claims next to the Halifax and Dartmouth lakes that are the source of our drinking water
Cover photo: Touquoy open pit gold mine at Moose River. Photo courtesy Raymond Plourde On October 17 and 18, mining industry representatives and between five and 10 government officials will gather at the Alt Hotel at the Halifax Airport for the province’s first-ever “gold show.” The gold show is being organized by the Mining Association...
After the gold rush
Nova Scotia is ignoring the toxic legacy of past mining manias while rushing headlong into the next
If learning from past mistakes were a government tradition in Nova Scotia, the current government would not be exhibiting all the symptoms of gold fever. But it is, and it looks like a raging bout of the affliction. In the past few years, it has amended legislation based on recommendations made by the industry’s cheerleader-in-chief, […]
The Nova Scotia government is giving “generous provincial grants” to gold mining companies
Morning File, Thursday, June 20, 2019
News 1. Dylan Corkum tells the true story of his Herald interview To be honest, I felt a little bad yesterday when I called out Dylan Corkum for his vox pox interview with Herald writer Heather Laura Clarke Sara Ericsson*. I mean, Ericsson is fair game (as am I and every other reporter), but Corkum […]
The problem with meritocracy: it destroys our humanity
Morning File, Wednesday, June 12, 2019
News 1. Studenting While Black “On June 2, Black graduate student Shelby McPhee was accused by two white women of stealing a laptop while he was attending the Black Canadian Studies Association session at the 88th annual Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences held at the University of British Columbia,” writes El Jones: The white […]
Halifax police try to intervene in the Glen Assoun document case
Morning File, Thursday, June 6, 2019
News 1. Update on the Assoun documents As I’ve reported, the Halifax Examiner, the CBC, and the Canadian Press are taking legal action to un-seal the court documents related to Glen Assoun’s exoneration. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for July 2. We initiated this legal action back in April, and since then there’s […]
Here’s your chance to speak on the Cornwallis issue
Morning File, Monday, June 3, 2019
News 1. Health care non-crisis “Last week’s ‘mutual’ firing of the province’s deputy health minister shows just how unwilling our premier is to acknowledge our healthcare crisis — let alone do something about it,” writes Stephen Kimber. Click here to read “Crisis? What crisis? Just a(nother) ‘new (lack of) direction’ for healthcare.” This article is […]
St. Barbara still intends to acquire Atlantic Gold
The violent arrest of John Perkins has put the critical spotlight on gold mining on the Eastern Shore, but for the mining companies, operating in low-regulation and low-royalty Nova Scotia is, well, a gold mine.
St. Barbara Limited, the Australian gold mining company that recently announced it was acquiring Atlantic Gold in a $722 million dollar deal, seems to be unfazed by the RCMP’s violent arrest of a citizen last week at a public information session Atlantic Gold was hosting in Sherbrooke (covered by the Halifax Examiner here and here). […]
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 […]