This is a follow-up to Linda Pannozzo’s investigative articles in The Halifax Examiner detailing the issues around Northern Pulp’s proposed effluent treatment and disposal system: Dirty Dealing Part 1: Northern Pulp mill and the province are set to roll the dice with Boat Harbour’s replacement, but a cleaner alternative exists; Dirty Dealing Part 2: Wading through the quagmire […]
Dirty Dealing
Part 3: Elevated Levels of Cancer-Causing Air Emissions Coming from Abercrombie Pulp Mill, Peer-Reviewed Study Reveals
In a study published in 2017, Dalhousie University researchers reported that air levels of three volatile organic compounds (VOCs) near the Abercrombie pulp mill in Pictou County exceeded cancer risk thresholds and “are of primary health concern in terms of population risk.” Over an eight-year period (2006-2013), 1,3-butadiene, benzene, and carbon tetrachloride were found to […]
The Cornwallis statue and manufactured history: Morning File, Monday, January 29, 2018
News 1. Baillie resignation “While the Conservative response to the sexual harassment allegations against Jamie Baillie represents progress of a sort, there are still lessons we can learn from what the party did — and didn’t do — in this case,” writes Stephen Kimber. Click here to read “The PC party’s response to the Baillie […]
Examineradio, episode #144: Joan Baxter and The Mill
This week we speak with Joan Baxter, author of The Mill: Fifty Years of Pulp and Protest, about the Northern Pulp Mill, provincial forestry practices, the threat to the Northumberland Strait lobster fishery, and what it’s like having a big corporation shut down your book signing. Also: what’s with the Jamie Baillie resignation? (Direct download) […]
A maze of madness and murder! Morning File, Tuesday, January 23, 2018
News 1. Natural Gas “Customers of Heritage Gas and/or Nova Scotia Power are waking up to a little good news today. Prices for natural gas — and as a result the electricity produced from it — will not be going up over the next two years as a result of an important decision released by […]
Northern Pulp bullies Canada’s biggest bookstore chain, wins… and then loses
The good news is that the mill’s heavy-handed attack on freedom of expression and the bookseller’s own cowed response appear to have backfired. The bad news is that, “in 2017, a company can use its power to shut down a book signing in a small bookstore in a small town.”
Joan Baxter’s personal Northern Pulp story begins on “one of those stunningly clear, blue-sky mornings that nature sometimes bestows on Nova Scotia.” It was June 2, 2016, and Baxter had decided to start the day with a run near her home in Colchester County, NS. But as soon as she stepped outside, “the air was...
The hanging of Daniel Sampson: Morning File, Tuesday, December 5, 2017
News 1. IMP “The city has dropped its Integrated Mobility Plan (IMP), a hefty 193-page document designed to help Halifax achieve its Regional Plan target of reducing the share of trips we all make in private vehicles,” reports Erica Butler: In 2006, council set a goal to reduce vehicle trips down to 70 per cent […]
Dirty Dealing
Northern Pulp Mill and the province are set to roll the dice with Boat Harbour’s replacement, but a cleaner alternative exists.
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 […]