Nova Scotians have a huge lawsuit hanging over their heads, but they can be forgiven for not dwelling on it in the summer of 2022, given the never-ending storm of crises swirling around them — COVID-19, the climate crisis, biodiversity collapse, runaway inflation and disaster capitalism run amok, and disintegrating democracy around the world. Still, […]
Elizabeth May: the consolidation of the Canadian pulp industry is ‘a remarkable and ominous story’ covered only by Joan Baxter and the Halifax Examiner
Morning File, Monday, July 18, 2022
News 1. Mass Casualty Commission Lisa Banfield testified in person at the Mass Casualty Commission on Friday. I was in the room and followed the testimony on my Twitter feed, but needed to think about it before writing an article. In the meanwhile, Stephen Kimber stepped in and asked “What was it that lawyers for […]
Vision, lobbying, and high-profile stunts: lessons on how to become a cycling city
Morning File, Thursday, July 7, 2022
News 1. Protecting yourself and others from COVID-19 With the end of COVID-19 restrictions in Nova Scotia, Yvette d’Entremont talks to Dr. Scott Halperin, director of the Canadian Center for Vaccinology and a professor of pediatrics and microbiology and immunology at Dalhousie University and infectious disease at the IWK Health Centre. In other words, someone […]
An Indonesian company is increasingly controlling Canada’s pulp industry, but regulators seem unwilling to act
Paper Excellence, already Canada’s largest pulp and paper producer, now plans to swallow Resolute Forest Products.
Today news broke that pulp and paper giant Paper Excellence is about to swallow up Canada’s Resolute Forest Products in a deal worth US$2.7 billion. “We are very alarmed by this development,” says Shane Moffatt, head of Greenpeace Canada’s Nature and Food Campaign. “It calls for much greater scrutiny of the ownership of Paper Excellence. […]
Investors gone wild: gum, weed, and space
Morning File, Monday, June 13, 2022
News 1. $450 million “Three months before Mountain Equipment Co-op went to the British Columbia Supreme Court for creditor protection in 2020, Northern Pulp — a Paper Excellence company — together with five affiliates and its immediate owner 1057863 B.C. Ltd, had already done so,” reports Joan Baxter: In June 2020, Northern Pulp et al. […]
The “weird” legal mechanism being used by Northern Pulp in its $450 million lawsuit against Nova Scotia
Northern Pulp's biggest debt is a paper debt to its owner, Paper Excellence, and that indebtedness is being used to circumvent Nova Scotia's environmental laws.
This is the second of a two-part story examining how the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act is being employed in a lawsuit seeking $450 million from the province of Nova Scotia. Read Part 1 here. Three months before Mountain Equipment Co-op went to the British Columbia Supreme Court for creditor protection in 2020, Northern Pulp – […]
‘We really don’t need any more police officers; we really don’t need any more money’
Morning File, Friday, June 10, 2022
News 1. When the hammer drops If all you have is a hammer, every problem is a nail. I’ve been thinking a lot about that aphorism — attributed both to psychologist Abraham Maslow and philosopher Abraham Kaplan, but it’s probably as old as hammers and nails — as I watch the Mass Casualty Commission. It’s just […]
The demise of Mountain Equipment Co-op could spell expensive trouble for Nova Scotia
In 2020, a federal law and a BC judge dismantled Mountain Equipment Co-op. Now, the same federal law that was used to destroy MEC is being cited by Paper Excellence in its $450 million lawsuit against the province of Nova Scotia related to the creditor protection of Northern Pulp. And the case is being heard by the same judge.
Mountain Equipment Co-operative is no more. In September 2020, Mountain Equipment Co-operative filed for creditor protection. A month later, a judge ordered that the co-ops’ assets be sold to a Los Angeles-based private equity firm, and Mountain Equipment Co-operative became Mountain Equipment Company. Now, the same federal law that was used to dismantle Mountain Equipment […]
Public importance of private woodlots
Morning File, Wednesday, May 25, 2022
News 1. Public importance of private woodlots This item was written by Ethan Lycan-Lang. There’s been a lot of discussion about how we manage our forests in this province; forests that are both disappearing and deteriorating in health. Ask most biologists, environmentalists, and non-industry foresters and they’ll tell you “discussion” is all there’s been when […]
Northern Pulp says it is ‘insolvent’ and can’t pay its pension obligations, but it’s got plenty of cash to bankroll legal assaults on Nova Scotia’s government and laws
At the end of this month, Northern Pulp and six of its affiliates will be back in the British Columbia Supreme Court, and odds are they will ask for and get yet another extension — the seventh to date — of the creditor relief they’ve been afforded under the federal Companies Creditor Arrangement Act. Northern […]
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