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Atlantic Gold’s lobbying blitz

The company is now in court on charges of harming the environment, regulators are casting a wary eye at its plans for future environmental protection, and investors are getting worried, so Atlantic Gold has hired a lobbyist to fast track federal approval of its Nova Scotia projects.

February 5, 2021 By Joan Baxter

Last year it was a propaganda blitz. For several weeks in the spring of 2020, Atlantic Gold, which operates an open pit gold mine in Moose River in the Halifax Regional Municipality and wants to open three more along the Eastern Shore, bombarded people in Nova Scotia with its PR. Atlantic Gold’s owner, Australia’s St...

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Filed Under: Commentary, Environment, Featured, News, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: Aaron Beswick, Alex Barkley, Archibald Lake, Archibald Lake Wilderness Area, Atlantic Canada Opportunity Agency (ACOA), Atlantic Gold, Atlantic Mining NS, Beaver Dam, CBC, Chronicle Herald, Cochrane Hill gold mine, Craig Jetson, Credit Suisse, Darmouth Provincial Court, DDV Gold, Department of lands and Forestry, Dustin O’Leary, Eastern Shore, Environmental Impact Statement, Fifteen Mile Stream mine, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), Freedom of Information request, Friends of the St. Mary’s River, Goldman Sachs, Impact Assessment Agency of Canada, J.P. Morgan, Joel Bakan, John Perkins, Krista Gillis, lobbyist, Lobbyists Registration Act, Margaret Anne McHugh, Maryse Belanger, Mi'kmaq, Mining Association of Nova Scotia (MANS), Mitchell Glawson, Mogran Stanley, moose, Moose River, Moose River Consolidated Project, Narrative Research, NATIONAL Public Relations, Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), NOPE campaign, Nova Scotia Environment, Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil, open pit gold mine, Ottawa, proposed Beaver Dam mine, protected wilderness areas, Sean Kirby, Sherbrooke, St Barbara Ltd, St. Mary's River, The Corporation, Tiéoulé Traoré, Touquoy mine, Tracy Barron, Wilderness Areas Protection Act

Small dam, big controversy

How the contentious aboiteau at the Windsor Causeway could generate a national conversation about fish passage.

December 8, 2020 By Joan Baxter 8 Comments

The Mi’kmaq call the Avon River “Tooetunook,” which means “flowing square into the sea,” or more specifically, into the Minas Basin in the upper Bay of Fundy. Since 1970, when the Windsor causeway was constructed across the Avon, the river hasn’t exactly been able to “flow square” at all. That’s because the aboiteau — the […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News Tagged With: aboiteau, Acadian settlers, Annapolis Valley First Nation, Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs, Atlantic salmon, Avon River Causeway, Avon River Heritage Society, Bay of Fundy, Bernadette Jordan, Chief Gerald Toney, Dan Davis, Darren Porter, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, dyke, Ecology Action Centre, fish kills, Fisheries Act, Fisheries and Oceans Minister Bernadette Jordan, Friends of the Avon River, Gaspereau, herring, Innder Bay of Fundy salmon, Kwilmu’kw Maw-klusuaqn Negotiation Office (KMKNO), Lake Pisiquid, Lake Pisiquid Canoe Club, Mi'kmaq, Mi'kmaw Conservation Group, Minas Basin, ministerial order, moderate livelihood fishery, Nikki-Marie Lloyd, Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture, Nova Scotia Environment, Nova Scotia Power, Oceans North, Petitcodiac River, Pisiquid, Sheldon Hope, Sipekne'katik First Nation, Ski Martock, Sonja Elizabeth Wood, Species at Risk Act, St. Croix River, St. Mary's Bay, Susanna Fuller, Treaty Truckhouse, Victor Oulton, water keepers, Windsor, Windsor causeway

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)

Spill at Moose River gold mine raises environmental concerns

Atlantic Gold springs an effluent leak, plugs a new mine, and sells itself to investors 

March 15, 2019 By Joan Baxter 6 Comments

Cover photo: the tailings facility at the Touquoy gold mine. Photo: Saint Mary’s River Association Atlantic Gold’s manager of environment and permitting, James Millard, calls it a “spill” or a “loss of control” caused by a “gasket failure.” By whatever name, the event happened on the night of January 3, 2019, at the company’s open […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News, Province House Tagged With: Adele Poirier, arsenic, Atlantic Gold, Atlantic Mining NS, Barbara Markovits, Barry Clattenburg, Beaver Dam, Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA), Charles Clattenburg, Cochrane Hill, Craig Hudson, cyanide, D.D.V. Gold, Dustin O’Leary, Eastern Shore Forest Watch, Eastern Shore Wildlife Association, Eastern Shore Wildlife Centre, Fifteen-Mile Stream, Friends of the St. Mary’s River, James Millard, Jim Turner, Maryse Belanger, Moose River, Moose River Consolidated Project, Mount Polley, Nova Scotia Environment, Nova Scotia Salmon Association, Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC), Scraggy Lake, Sean Thompson, Sheet Harbour, Torquoy Gold Mine, Wayne Oakley, West River

Northern Pulp’s environmental documents: missing mercury, a pulp mill that never was, and oodles of contradictions

March 5, 2019 By Joan Baxter 9 Comments

Cover photo: “Point D,” where treated Northern Pulp wastewater currently flows from Boat Harbour into the Northumberland Strait, just a few hundred metres from Pictou Landing First Nation. There is much to wade through in the documents Northern Pulp submitted to Nova Scotia Environment on February 7, 2019, when it registered its “Replacement Effluent Treatment […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Environment, Featured, Investigation, News, Province House Tagged With: Bell Bay Tasmania, Boat Harbour, Bruce Chapman, Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA), Canso Chemicals, Chief Andrea Paul, Clean the Mill Group, Dave Gunning, Dillon Consulting, dioxins and furans, Dr. John Krawczyk, Environment Minister Iain Rankin, Environment Minister Margaret Miller, Gary Porter, Greg Egilsson, Gulf NS Herring Federation, Human Health Risk Assessment (HHRA), Jamie Simpson, Kathy Cloutier, KSH Consulting, mercury, Mi’kmaq Conservation Group, Northern Pulp, Northern Pulp effluent, Northern Pulp environmental assessment, Nova Scotia Environment, oxygen delignification system, Paper Excellence Canada, Pictou Harbour, Pictou Landing, Pictou Landing First Nation (PLFN), Point D, Rachel Boomer, Terri Fraser, Toxikos

Containing Northern Pulp’s mess

A half century of toxic waste in Boat Harbour, a leaky pipeline, and what happens next in the mill saga.

November 3, 2018 By Joan Baxter 8 Comments

The numbers are staggering. Over the past 51 years, the bleached kraft pulp mill on Abercrombie Point in Pictou County has piped about 1.25 trillion litres of toxic effluent into Boat Harbour.[1] That’s enough to fill about half a million Olympic-size swimming pools, or a pipeline one metre in diameter stretching about 1.6 million kilometres, […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News Tagged With: Boat Harbour, Boat Harbour Act, Boat Harbour remediation project, Bruce Nunn, Chief Andrea Paul, Chief Dan Paul, Christine Skirth, Environment Minister Margaret Miller, GHD, Kathy Cloutier, Ken Swain, Mi’kmaq of Pictou Landing, Northern Pulp, Northern Pulp cleanup, Northern Pulp effluent leak, Nova Scotia Environment, Nova Scotia Lands, Pictou County, Pictou Landing First Nation, Rachel Boomer, Stephen McNeil, Sydney Tar Ponds, William Palmer

Biomass, Freedom of Information, and the Silence of the DNR Company Men

Part 5: Publicly funded information — not available to Nova Scotians — was provided to pipeline company based in Texas.

February 8, 2017 By Linda Pannozzo 8 Comments

Documents show that the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources provided publicly funded forest age class data, currently being withheld from the public, to Texas-based Bear Paw Pipeline Corporation Inc., a firm set to build a natural gas pipeline in DNR Minister Lloyd Hines’ riding of Guysborough-Eastern Shore-Tracadie. In December 2016, Nova Scotia Environment (NSE) […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, Province House Tagged With: Bear Paw Pipeline Corporation Inc., Bruce Nunn, culture of transparency, Data Sharing Agreement, Ghislain Pitre, Lloyd Hines, Mary Kennedy, Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources, Nova Scotia Environment, Open Data Portal, Sara Wallace, Stantec Consulting Ltd.

The Tideline, with Tara Thorne

Phyllis Rising — Rebecca Falvey (left) and Meg Hubley. Photo submitted

Episode #19 of The Tideline, with Tara Thorne is published.

Meg Hubley and Rebecca Falvey met as theatre kids at Neptune and have been friends ever since. As Phyllis Rising — that’s right, Mary Tyler Moore hive — they’re making films, plays, and are in production on The Crevice, a three-part sitcom streaming live from the Bus Stop in March. They stop by to talk with Tara about its development, their shared love of classic SNL and 90s sitcoms, and the power of close friendship. Plus: A new song from a new band.

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

  • Nova Scotia will receive the AstraZeneca vaccine; 3 new cases of COVID-19 announced on Wednesday, March 3 March 3, 2021
  • SIRT says ballistics report confirmed officers fired just five shots outside Onslow Fire Hall March 3, 2021
  • The new provincial rebate is just the first step to getting more electric vehicles on Nova Scotia roads March 3, 2021
  • The cops who shot up the Onslow Fire Hall committed no crime, rules SIRT March 3, 2021
  • Greenwashing the goldfields March 3, 2021

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