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The French Connection

People in southern France are battling pollution at a paper mill owned by a corporate behemoth: Paper Excellence Canada, the owner of the Northern Pulp Mill in Nova Scotia

February 24, 2021 By Joan Baxter

They call their association the “Les Flamants Roses du Trébon” or LFRT (Flamingos of Trébon), and it’s a collective of residents in southern France who are fighting to have the six-decades-old Fibre Excellence Tarascon pulp mill in the province of Alpes-Côte d’Azur clean up its environmental act.  French media report that the mill is owned...

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Filed Under: Environment, Featured, Subscribers only Tagged With: A’se’K, Asia Pulp and Paper, bankruptcy, Boat Harbour, Bouches-du-Rhône, British Columbia, Catalyst Paper, Crofton, Darrell Dexter, Fibre Excellence Tarascon, Flamingos of Trébon, France, French President Emmanuel Macron, Haute-Garonne, insolvency, Jean-Francois Guillot, Les Flamants Roses du Trébon (LFRT), Michel Dufy, Nature Comminges, Northern Pulp, Paper Excellence, Paper Excellence B.V., Paper Excellence Canada, Pictou Landing First Nation, pollution, Port Alberni, Powell River, pulp mill, receivership, Saint-Guadens, Seveso, Sinar Mas, Stephen McNeil, Supreme Court of British Columbia, Tarascon, Tax Justice Network, Widjaja family

Nova Scotia has laid charges for 32 environmental infractions against Atlantic Gold

Citizens raise concerns about environmental impacts of gold mining in Nova Scotia's moose country.

December 23, 2020 By Joan Baxter 2 Comments

Much attention is focused on Crown land in Digby County that is threatened by logging operations. And last week, nine people from Extinction Rebellion were arrested while trying to prevent contractors in the employ of the WestFor consortium from accessing the public forest and moose habitat slated for cutting. But in another part of the […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured Tagged With: 15-Mile Stream, Atlantic Gold, Atlantic Mining NS, Beaver Dam, Betty Belmore, biodiversity, Bob Bancroft, Caribou, Cochrane Hill gold mine, Dave Gunning, Deborah Bayer, Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), Department of Lands and Forestry (DLF), Dustin O’Leary, Eastern Shore, endangered species, erosion, Extinction Rebellion, Impact Assessment Agency of Canada, James Millard, Krista Gillis, Mitchell Glawson, moose, Moose River, Moose River Consolidated Project, Moose River gold mine, Mooseland, Mooseland Road, Nature Nova Scotia, Northern Pulp, Northern Timber, Nova Scotia Environment (NSE), proposed Beaver Dam mine, Rachel Boomer, salmon, Save Caribou group, Scraggy Lake, sedimentation, Sherbrooke, St. Barbara Limited, St. Mary's River, Touquoy mine, trout, Veronica Chisholm

The biomass power shuffle

Not one sawmill in Nova Scotia has closed since Northern Pulp shut down; that's because the province's large biomass boilers are running flat-out

September 30, 2020 By Jennifer Henderson

Despite dire warnings from the forestry industry when Northern Pulp shut down at the end of January, not one sawmill in Nova Scotia has closed. That’s the good news. The bad news is that in order to provide replacement markets for bark, woodchips, and sawmill waste, large biomass boilers in the province are running flat-out. ...

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Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News, Subscribers only Tagged With: biomass, David Patriquin, Jacqueline Foster, Kelliann Dean, Northern Pulp, Nova Scotia Power (NSP), wood chips

Occupy North Mountain

Kings County residents opposed to aerial herbicide spraying on a Northern Pulp clearcut take action to try to stop it.

September 1, 2020 By Joan Baxter 2 Comments

Residents who live close to a piece of land on North Mountain in Kings County that was clearcut two years ago and is now slated for aerial spraying of a glyphosate-based herbicide, have “occupied” the site, and they tell the Halifax Examiner that they don’t intend to leave until the spraying is cancelled or the […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News, Province House Tagged With: Acadian forest, agriculture, Anna Osburn, Bayer, Brian Adams, carcinogenic, Carey Gillam, Century Forestry Consultants, clearcut, Don Osburn, Doug Kemp, Environment Minister Gordon Wilson, Five Islands Forest Development, forestry, genetically engineered crops, Glyphosate, Health Canada, herbicide, JD Irving, June Daley, Kate Adams, Kings County, Leo Glavine, monocropping, Monsanto, North Mountain, Northern Pulp, Nova Scotia Environment, Pat Kemp, Thierry Vrain, Timberline, VP480, World Health Organization (WHO)

Corporate shell game

Northern Pulp seeks protection from creditors in a BC court — and its largest creditor is its owner, Paper Excellence

July 19, 2020 By Joan Baxter 10 Comments

Northern Pulp — the mill in Pictou County — has gone into hibernation. And Northern Pulp — the company — is “insolvent.” It is one of seven related companies petitioning for creditor protection in the British Columbia Supreme Court, while it seeks “a plan of compromise or arrangement.” The petitioners seeking relief from debt payments, […]

Filed Under: Featured, Investigation, News Tagged With: 1057863 B.C. Limited, Asia Pulp and Paper, Associated Press, Bloomberg, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Bruce Chapman, Canso Chemicals, Catalyst Paper Corporation, Chetwynd Mechanical Pulp Inc., Chronicle Herald, corporate tax haven index, corporate welfare, deforestation, Ed Roste, Eduardo Bolsonaro, Eka Tjipta Widjaja, Euromomey, Euromoney, Forbes, former Premier John Hamm, Globe and Mail, Greenpeace, Hardi Wardhana, Hervey Investment B.V., Howe Sound Pulp and paper, Indonesia, Inter-corporate Ownership index, Jackson Widjaja, Jan Willem van Gelder, MacKenzie Pulp Inc., Mattell, Meadow Lake Mechanical Pulp, Mongabay, Netherlands, Northern Pulp, Northern pulp creditor protection, Northern Pulp loans, Northern Pulp Mill, Northern Resources Nova Scotia Corporation, Northern Timber, Paper Excellence, Paper Excellence B.V., Paper Excellence Canada Holdings Corporation, Pedro Chang, Petra Spaargaren, Prince Albert Pulp Inc., Reuters, Sinar Mas Group, Singapore, Skoomkumchuck Pulp Inc., Sugiarto Kardiman, Supreme Court of British Columbia, tax havens, Tax Justice Network, Tejuh Widjaja, Unifor

Nova Scotia government doles out $10 million more for Northern Pulp

The effluent pipeline may have been turned off but the provincial money pipeline continues to flow 

May 12, 2020 By Joan Baxter

The Nova Scotian government will be giving Paper Excellence, the parent company of Northern Pulp and a corporation linked to the multi-billionaire Widjaja family of Indonesia, still more millions. This time, the amount is $10 million. Northern Pulp still owes the province $85 million from previous loans. And the company still owes $65 million on...

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Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: A’se’K, Boar Harbour, Boat Harbour remediation project, Bruce Chapman, Environmental Racism, Ken Swain, Kristina Shannon, Marla MacInnis, Northern Pulp, Northern Pulp effluent, Paper Excellence, Pictou Landing First Nation (PLFN), Premier Stephen McNeil

“Today is a great day! A’SE’K Day!”

The Northern Pulp mill stops dumping effluent into Boat Harbour today, and the pipeline will be sealed tomorrow.

April 30, 2020 By Joan Baxter 1 Comment

Pictou Landing First Nation Chief Andrea Paul is calling today “A’se’K Day.” Although the COVID-19 pandemic has prevented PLFN and allies from gathering to celebrate the occasion, it is a momentous one. A January 29 ministerial order from Environment Minister Gordon Wilson stipulated that by April 30, 2020 the Northern Pulp mill on Abercrombie Point […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News, Province House Tagged With: A’se’K Day, Boat Harbour, Boat Harbour remediation project, Chief Andrea Paul, Environment Minister Gordon Wilson, Graham Kissack, Michelle Francis-Denny, Northern Pulp, Northern Pulp effluent, Paper Excellence Canada, Pictou Landing First Nation (PLFN)

MLAs grill Forestry Transition Team members

February 6, 2020 By Jennifer Henderson

Sawmill operators whose secondary markets for wood chips have taken a hit as a result of the closure of the pulp mill in Pictou County will not be receiving any financial assistance from the Forestry Transition Fund established by the province. “Everything we do must be seen through the lens of international trade and we...

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Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: Andrea Anderson, Ava Czapalay, biomass, deputy Minister Julie Towers, Forestry Transition Fund, Forestry Transition Team, Kelliann Dean, MLA Lisa Roberts, Northern Pulp, Nova Scotia Power (NSP), PC leader Tim Houston, PC MLA Tory Rushton

John Hamm has left the Northern Pulp ship

February 5, 2020 By Joan Baxter 3 Comments

Former Nova Scotia Premier John Hamm has left the boards of the Northern Pulp family of companies. His departure was noticed today by Stacey Rudderham, who contacted the Halifax Examiner with the news. Rudderham has followed the Northern Pulp story closely for her blog “One Not So Bored Housewife,” and in a film she made about Boat […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News Tagged With: Boat Harbor, Bruce Chapman, John Hamm, Northern Pulp, Stacey Rudderham

The province issues tough new orders to Northern Pulp

January 31, 2020 By Joan Baxter 2 Comments

Wednesday afternoon at 3:59 PM an email landed in my inbox. It was from Nova Scotia Environment and it was short, even terse: Environment Minister Gordon Wilson has issued a ministerial order to govern how Northern Pulp must conduct its orderly shutdown of the mill, today, Jan. 29. The ministerial order and terms and conditions […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, Province House Tagged With: Boat Harbour Act, Boat Harbour Effluent Treatment Facility (BHETF), Brian Hebert, Environment Minister Gordon Wilson, Northern Pulp, Northern Pulp effluent, Pictou Landing First Nation (PLFN), Premier Stephen McNeil, Rachel Boomer, William Palmer

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The Tideline, with Tara Thorne

Mo Kenney. Photo: Matt Williams

Episode #18 of The Tideline, with Tara Thorne is published.

Mo Kenney’s new record Covers is a perfect winter companion — songs from across the rock spectrum that she’s pared down to piano or guitar and turned them into sad ballads. She joins Tara to talk about choosing and arranging them, and opens up for a frank discussion of the alcohol dependency it took a pandemic for her to confront. Plus: Movies are back (again).

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. Everyone else will have to wait until tomorrow to listen to it.

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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Recent posts

  • ‘The rest is for the seagulls’ February 28, 2021
  • 4 new cases of COVID-19 announced in Nova Scotia on Saturday, Feb. 27 February 27, 2021
  • How safe is dentistry in the pandemic? Dalhousie researchers aim to find out February 27, 2021
  • Former city lawyer wins fight with Halifax Water over pipe under her property February 26, 2021
  • 10 new cases announced in Nova Scotia: new restrictions imposed in Halifax area February 26, 2021

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