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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

“We cannot imagine two locations less suited for extractive projects such as gold mining”

The Nova Scotia Salmon Association comes out swinging against Atlantic Gold’s plans for open pit gold mines on crucial river systems on the Eastern Shore.

December 15, 2021 By Joan Baxter 2 Comments

The Nova Scotia Salmon Association (NSSA) has fired its latest salvo at plans by Atlantic Mining Nova Scotia, a subsidiary of Australia’s St Barbara Ltd, to open a second large open pit gold mine in Nova Scotia, this one at Beaver Dam about 30 kilometres from its existing Touquoy mine in Moose River, Halifax Regional […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured Tagged With: acid rain, Atlantic Gold, Atlantic Mining Nova Scotia (AMNS), Atlantic salmon, Brent Locke, Cameron Flowage, Canada Nature Fund for Aquatic Species at Risk, Cochrane Hill, Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC), French River, Halifax Regional Municipality, Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC), Killag River, lime doser, Mike Bardsley, Millbrook First Nation, Moose River, Nova Scotia Salmon Association (NSSA), open pit gold mine, salmon, Southern Upland Atlantic Salmon, St Barbara Ltd, St. Mary's River, Tatamagouche, Touquoy gold mine, Warwick Mountain, West River, West River Sheet Harbour, wild salmon

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

Updated: Photos suggest that there is a tailings leak at Atlantic Gold’s Moose River gold mine

August 29, 2021 By Joan Baxter 6 Comments

Latest update: On Monday morning (Aug. 30), we published an update (below) with a statement from Dustin O’Leary, spokesperson for Atlantic Gold and Atlantic Mining NS, subsidiaries of the Australian company St Barbara that owns the open pit Touquoy gold mine in Moose River, HRM. O’Leary stated that “there is no leak of any kind […]

Filed Under: Environment, Featured, News, Province House Tagged With: acid mining drainage, Atlantic Gold, Atlantic Mining NS, Beaver Dam, Cochrane Hill, Dustin O’Leary, environmental charges, Fifteen-Mile Stream, French River watershed, French Rivert watershed, Joan Kuyek, John Perkins, Kitco, leak, Meryl Jones, MiningWatch Canada, minister of environment and climate change, Moose River gold mine, Mount Polley, No Open Pit Excavation (NOPE), Nova Scotia Environment, Nova Scotia Environment and Climate Change, Rachel Boomer, Scott Beaver, Sherbrooke, St Barbara Ltd, St. Mary’s River Association, Steven Emerman, tailings dam leak, tailings facility, Tatamagouche, Tim Houson, Touquoy gold mine, Tracy Barron, Vladimir Basov, Warwick Mountain

After reading a Halifax Examiner article, two cops showed up at an author reading at Mount Allison University

Joan Kuyek wrote a book about communities protecting themselves from mining companies, and so the RCMP sicced its Criminal Intelligence Section on her.

January 23, 2021 By Joan Baxter 2 Comments

It was an innocuous event, as most book launches are, but the Royal Canadian Mounted Police didn’t think so, and two officers in plain clothes showed up at Hart Hall at Mount Allison University, apparently concerned by what they read in this Halifax Examiner story and in three Facebook posts advertising the launch. It’s a […]

Filed Under: Featured, News Tagged With: Academic freedom, Access to Information Act, Access to Information and Privacy Branch, Atlantic Gold, Atlantic Gold and RCMP, book launch, Criminal Intelligence Section, Dave Thomas, Halifax, Hart Hall, Information Commissioner of Canada, Joan Kuyek, John Perkins, Lisa Croteau, Maryse Belanger, MiningWatch Canada, Mount Allison University, New Brunswick, RCMP, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Sackville, Sherbrooke, Steven Dean, Tatamagouche, Terry Moser, Twitter, Unearthing Justice, Water Not Gold

The big and silent life of Nova Scotia giantess Anna Swan

Morning File, Wednesday, August 5, 2020

August 5, 2020 By Suzanne Rent 7 Comments

News 1. Documents show horrors at Northwood during COVID outbreak Yvette d’Entremont takes a look at the Neglecting Northwood report that was published by the Nova Scotia Government Employees Union (NSGEU) on Tuesday. There were 53 COVID-19 deaths at the long-term-care facility. The 23-page report include details gathered from NSGEU staff who worked at Northwood […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Anna Swan, Atlantic bubble, Beirut explosion, Brooklyn Currie, Cassidy Chisholm, Chris Palmer, coronavirus, COVID-19, David Alexander, Dr. Theresa Tam, fire Mulgrave Park, Graeme Benjamin, Halifax Explosion, Heritage Centre, Joel Fishbane, John Mills, Kelsey D. Atherton, Martin Van Buren Bates, masks, Maya Johnson, mushroom cloud, New Annan, pandemic, Parents for Pandemic Education, Premier Stephen McNeil, PT Barnum, Raven Watts, Ryan Patrick Jones, self-isolation, Susan Kirkland, Tatamagouche

“Insufficient grounds”

Susie Butlin repeatedly pleaded with the RCMP to intervene to stop her neighbour Junior Duggan from harassing her. The police took no action. A friend says an RCMP officer told Butlin her allegations against Duggan made her, not him, a "menace to society." Three days later, Duggan killed Butlin.

June 18, 2020 By Joan Baxter 3 Comments

Since September 2017, when her best friend, 58-year-old Susan (Susie) Butlin, was shot and killed in her home at Bayhead, near Tatamagouche, Suzanne Davis has been in pain. Davis still thinks about her friend — whom she’d known since kindergarten — all the time. She says if they didn’t speak on the phone three times […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Bible Hill, Councillor Mike Gregory, El Jones, Jeanne Sarson, Judge Al Bégin, Junior Duggan, Linda MacDonald, peace bond, Portapique, PTSD, RCMP, red flags, sexual assault, Susan Butlin, Suzanne Davis, Tatamagouche, violence against women

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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  • Halifax council votes to plan for Centennial Pool replacement, support universal basic income, and more June 28, 2022
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