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“Yacobo O’Hanley” and some other old boys have hurt fee-fees about protecting Tatamagouche’s water supply

January 27, 2022 By Joan Baxter 16 Comments

That didn’t take long. On Tuesday, Nova Scotia Environment and Climate Change granted protected status to the French River watershed that provides the village of Tatamagouche with its water, which means that henceforth mineral exploration and mining will be prohibited in the watershed. The Halifax Examiner covered the decision to protect the watershed almost immediately, and […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Environment, Featured Tagged With: CBC, climate change, Cobequid Hills, Department of Energy and Mines, Department of Natural Resources, Department of Natural Resources and Renewables, FOIPOP, French River watershed, Garth DeMont, geology, George O’Reilly, Geoscience and Mines Branch, gold, Haley Ryan, Jacob Hanley, mineral exploration, Mineral Resources Development Fund (MRDF), Municipality of the County of Colchester, NIMBY, Nova Scotia Environment and Climate Change, Nova Scotia Registry of Claims (NovaROC), Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC), Saint Mary's University, Sustainable Northern Nova Scotia (SuNNS), Tatamagouche, Warwick Mountain Project, water supply

New protected status for Tatamagouche water supply means an end to mineral exploration, mining in the watershed

Sustainable Northern Nova Scotia "delighted" with the decision from the province, but says work continues to stop five other large-scale gold mining projects that are ongoing or planned for Nova Scotia.

January 25, 2022 By Joan Baxter 2 Comments

It took close to two years, and a change of government, but the province has now approved protection of the French River watershed, which provides Tatamagouche with its water. According to the press release today from Nova Scotia Environment and Climate Change: Environment and Climate Change Minister Tim Halman designated the French River watershed as […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured Tagged With: Anaconda Mining, Atlantic Gold. St Barbara Ltd, Atlantic Mining NS, Beaver Dam, Cochrane Hill, Department of Energy and Mines, Department of Natural Resources and Renewables, Don James, Earltown, Fifteen-Mile Stream, FOIPOP, French River watershed, gold, gold exploration, gold mining, Goldboro, John Perkins, Mi’kmaq Grassroots Grandmothers, Michael Gregory, Michelle Boudreau, Mining Asssociation of Nova Scotia (MANS), Moose River, Municipality of the County of Colchester, Nova Scotia Environment and Climate Change, protected status, Sustainable Northern Nova Scotia (SuNNS), Tatamagouche, Warwick Mountain Gold, water supply, Wentworth

Woo and sue: Northern Pulp’s strategy in Nova Scotia

Colchester County Mayor Christine Blair accuses the Halifax Examiner of publishing "misinformation" about the county's wastewater agreement with Northern Pulp, but won't tell us what we supposedly got wrong.

October 31, 2021 By Joan Baxter 2 Comments

Item number 15 on the agenda of last week’s council meeting of the Municipality of the County of Colchester County was “Northern Pulp Misinformation.” Four hours into the meeting, held on Zoom, the item finally made the floor. The municipality’s director of public works, Michelle Boudreau, told Council she had put together a “Frequently Asked […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Environment, Featured Tagged With: Andy MacGregor, Bay of Fundy, Boat Harbour Act, British Columbia Supreme Court, Canadian Institute of Forestry, Central Colchester Wastewater Treatment Facility, Companies" Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA), Earle Miller, Elmsdale Lumber, FOIPOP, Forest Nova Scotia, Forest Products Association of Nova Scotia, Friends of a New Northern Pulp, litigation, Maurice Chiasson, Maurice Rees, Mayor Christine Blair, Michelle Boudreau, Municipality of the County of Colchester, Northern Pulp, Paper Excellence, Peter Spicer, Phillip Redden, Registered Professional Foresters Association of Nova Scotia, Robert Grant, Robin Wilber, Ryan Scott, SaltWire, Scott Fraser, The Shoreline Journal, wastewater, Widjaja family

Worse than Russia: Access to information in Nova Scotia places 66th in world rankings

One expert says the FOIPOP Act needs improvements, but that isn't all: "We need an attitude change within the public sector, in which people would see themselves as servants of the people, working for the people, and being open and transparent with the people."

September 24, 2021 By Joan Baxter Leave a Comment

This, the second of a two-part series about the state of the public’s “right to know” in Nova Scotia, looks at what options are available to those dissatisfied with a Freedom of Information (FOIPOP) result, and how the province’s access to information ranks internationally — spoiler alert: rather poorly — and what should be done […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: access to information, Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP), Arilea Sill, Brad Johns, Centre for Law and Democracy, FOIPOP, Freedom of Information, Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy, Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, French River watershed, Information Access and Privacy (IAP), Information and Privacy Commissioner, Michelle Boudreau, Municipality of the County of Colchester, Nova Scotia Environment and Climate Change, Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC), public interest, redactions, Right to Information, Right to Know, Right to Know Week, Supreme Court of Canada, Tim Halman, Tim Houston, Toby Mendel, Tracy Barron, Yarmouth ferry

The “Right to Know” in Nova Scotia often goes right to “no”

It’s almost “Right to Know Week” in Nova Scotia, but that doesn’t mean that access to information in the province is something to celebrate, as a recent freedom of information request illustrates.

September 23, 2021 By Joan Baxter 3 Comments

In this article, Part 1 of a two-part series about the state of the public’s “right to know” in Nova Scotia, the focus is on what happened when the Halifax Examiner submitted a Freedom of Information (FOIPOP) request to the province about whether it would agree to protect the French River watershed — the water […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured Tagged With: access to information, arsenic, Cape Breton Spectator, CBC, Cobequid Hills, Darth DeMont, Department of Energy and Mines, Department of lands and Forestry, Department of Natural Resources (DNR), Don James, Earltown, FOIPOP, Frances Willick, Freedom of Information, Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, French River, French River watershed, Geoscience and Mines Branch, gold, Gordon Wilson, Information Access and Privacy (IAP), Information Access and Privacy Commissioner, International Right to Know Day, Jim Vibert, Mary Campbell, Mi’kmaq Grassroots Grandmothers, Michelle Boudreau, MIchelle Newell, Mike Allen, mineral exploration, mining, Mining Association of Nova Scotia (MANS), Municipality of the County of Colchester, Nova Scotia Environment and Climate Change, NSE, Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC), Right to Know, Right to Know Week, SaltWire, Sarah Kirby, Sean Kirby, Sustainable Northern Nova Scotia (SuNNS), Tatamagouche, Tatamagouche (French River) Source Water Protection Advisory Committee, the Coast, Tim Bousquet, Warwick Mountain Gold, Warwick Mountain Project

Wastewater from Northern Pulp’s hibernating paper mill is being discharged into the Bay of Fundy

September 7, 2021 By Joan Baxter 13 Comments

Wastewater from Northern Pulp’s mill is being discharged into the Bay of Fundy. Since July 2020 Northern Pulp has been shipping run-off and “landfill leachate” from its hibernating pulp mill site on Abercrombie Point in Pictou County to Colchester County’s municipal sewage treatment facility in Lower Truro, which discharges into the Bay of Fundy. Invoices […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News Tagged With: Abercrombie Point, allnovascotia, asbestos, Bay of Fundy, BC Supreme Court, bismuth, Boat Harbour, Bruce Chapman, Canso Chemicals, Central Colchester Wastewater Treatment Facility, Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), creditor protection, Don Cameron, FOIPOP, Fracking, hydraulic fracturing, industrial wastewater, landfill, leachate, Lower Truro, Maurice Rees, mercury, Michelle Boudreau, MIchelle Newell, municipal sewage treatment, Municipality of the County of Colchester, Northern Pulp, Nova Scotia Environment and Climate Change, Paper Excellence, Paper Excellence Holdings Corporation, Pictou County, Scott Fraser, The Shoreline Journal, Tom Taggart, treatment, trichloroethane, wastewater, Widjaja family

PRICED OUT

A collage of various housing options in HRM, including co-ops, apartment buildings, shelters, and tents
PRICED OUT is the Examiner’s investigative reporting project focused on the housing crisis.

You can learn about the project, including how we’re asking readers to direct our reporting, our published articles, and what we’re working on, on the PRICED OUT homepage.

2020 mass murders

Nine images illustrating the locations, maps, and memorials of the mass shootings

All of the Halifax Examiner’s reporting on the mass murders of April 18/19, 2020, and recent articles on the Mass Casualty Commission and newly-released documents.

Updated regularly.

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.

The Tideline, with Tara Thorne

A young white woman with dark hair and a purple shirt lies on a large rock at dusk, looking up at the sky and playing her banjolele.

Episode 85 of The Tideline, with Tara Thorne, is published.

Logan Robins (writer/director/composer) and Katherine Norris (star/composer) of the Unnatural Disaster Theatre Company are on the show this week ahead of their provincial tour of HIPPOPOSTUMOUS, Robins’ musical exploration of invasive species, colonization, environmentalism, and history. Hear how Pablo Escobar’s personal hippos have invaded and are ruining a section of Colombia, why Robins was intrigued to make a show about it, and all the places you can catch it this July. Plus Norris cracks out the banjolele to perform one of the show’s songs. And the new jam from Beauts!

Listen to the episode here.

Check out some of the past episodes here.

Subscribe to the podcast to get episodes automatically downloaded to your device — there’s a great instructional article here. Email Suzanne for help.

You can reach Tara here.

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Recent posts

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  • Stuck on stick: clinging to the manual in an automatic world June 29, 2022

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