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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

Northern Pulp, past and future: It ain’t over till it’s over

January 10, 2020 By Joan Baxter Leave a Comment

On December 20, 2019 Premier Stephen McNeil announced that the province would be respecting the Boat Harbour Act, and that Northern Pulp would have to stop pumping its effluent into the Boat Harbour treatment facility on January 31, 2020. Without the use of Boat Harbour, the Northern Pulp mill in Pictou County would have no […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Environment, Featured, News, Province House Tagged With: Adam McInnis, Atlas Holdings, Blue Wolf Capita, Boat Harbour Act, Brian Baarda, Brian Hebert, Chief Andrea Paul, Elmsdale Lumber, Graham Kissack, hot idle, Kathy Cloutier, Kelliann Dean, Minister Gordon Wilson, MP Peter MacKay, Northern Pulp closure, Northern Pulp loans, Northern Resources Nova Scotia Corporation, Northern Timber, Paper Excellence, Pictou Landing First Nation (PLFN), Premier Darrell Dexter, Premier John Hamm, Premier Stephen McNeil, Robin Wilber, Widjaja family

Pulp Culture

How Nova Scotia’s Faustian bargain with the pulp industry may leave the sawmills in ruins 

March 12, 2019 By Linda Pannozzo 7 Comments

I wonder if Billy Freeman, a sixth generation saw-miller with 15 years experience, saw this juncture coming. A few weeks ago, Freeman, the process improvement manager at Harry Freeman and Son Ltd. in Greenfield, Nova Scotia wrote an illuminating op-ed in the Chronicle Herald supporting Northern Pulp in its request for an extension of the […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Environment, Featured, Investigation, Province House Tagged With: Abercrombie Point, Anders Sandberg, B.E. Fernow, Billy Freeman, biomass, Boat Harbour, Bowater Mersey, Bruce Nunn, Canadian Forestry Service, Cassie Ledwidge Turple, Central Wood Suppliers Division, Department of Lands and Forestry (DLF), Dr. Paul Arp, forestry, Glyn Bissix, Harry Freeman and Son Ltd, Honathan Porter, Jeff Bishop, Joe MacDonnell, Josh Noseworthy, Kimberly Clark, Krista Higdon, Laurie Ledwidge, Ledwidge Lumber, lumber recovery, Maritime Lumber Bureau, Murray Anderson, Northern Pulp, Nova Scotia Primary Forest Products Marketing Board (PFPMB), Nova Scotia Pulpwood Marketing Act, Nova Scotia Pulpwood Marketing Board, Nova Scotia Woodlot Owners and Operators Association (NSWOOA), Permanent Sample Plot (PSP), Peter Clancy, Peter Duinker, pulp mills, Resolute Forest Products, Robert Stanfield’s Conservatives, sawmills, Scotsburn Lumber, Scott Paper, Stora, Tom Miller, United States Forest Service Studies, Wade Prest, Widjaja family, William Lahey, wood chips

The Canso Chemicals mystery: With the chemical plant long gone, why is the company still alive? And what about all that mercury pollution?

March 7, 2019 By Joan Baxter 6 Comments

Canso Chemicals hasn’t produced any chemicals for 29 years, but — contrary to what I wrote in the Halifax Examiner in “Northern Pulp’s environmental documents: missing mercury, a pulp mill that never was, and oodles of contradictions” — the company lives on. Sort of. For two decades Canso Chemicals produced chlorine for the pulping process […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Environment, Featured, Investigation, Province House Tagged With: Abercrombie Point, Canadian Industries Limited (CIL), Canso Chemicals, Choong Wei Tan, Curtis Richards, Dillon Consulting, Ferguson MacKay, Fisheries Minister Jack Davis, Friends of the Northumberland Strait (FONS), ICI Canada, Jack Pink, Jill Graham Scanlan, John M. Olin Foundation, mercury, Minimata disease, Northern Pulp, Northern Resources Nova Scotia Corporation, Nova Scotia Pulp Ltd., Olin Corporation, Pictou Harbour, Pierre Ducharme, Pioneer Chemicals Limited, Pioneer Companies LLC, Scott Maritimes, Seymore Thomas Dewtie, Sinar Mas Group, Widjaja family

Northern Pulp, Scotsburn Lumber, and U.S. tariffs

Morning File, Tuesday, January 8, 2019

January 8, 2019 By Tim Bousquet 9 Comments

News 1. Northern Pulp, Scotsburn Lumber, and U.S. tariffs Last month, Scotsburn Lumber sent out a letter encouraging “all our employers, contractors, business owners, forest landowners and associated suppliers to call or write a letter to your local or elected official” to express support for Northern Pulp Mill and its efforts to continue operating after […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Andreas Kammenos, Andy Thompson, Boat Harbour Act, Bruce Nunn, Chester Dewar, Chief Andrea Paul, Darla MacKeil, David Parker, Deborah Wadden, Donald Hume, Duff Montgomerie, former Premier John Hamm, G. Wayne Gosse, Joan Baxter, John Laroche, Larry Turner, Mark Baillie, Marla MacInnis, Neenah Paper Company, Northern Pulp, Northern Pulp history, Northern Pulp Mill effluent, Northern Pulp Scotsburn Lumber government money, Pedro Chang, Peter Boyles, Pictou County Municipal Council, Pictou Landing First Nation, Premier Stephen McNeil, Randy Palmer, Ronnie Baillie, Scotsburn Lumber history, Scott Standen, Shannon Kerr, Spring Garden Road redesign, taxi driver sexual assault, Tracey Ferguson, Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal (TIR), U.S. tariffs, Wayne Murray, Widjaja family, Yarmouth, Yarmouth aggravated assault, Zane Woodford, Zoltan van Heyningen

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

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