Summer: a blissful time to load the kids and the dog in the car, drive a mere 20 minutes to the beach, unload the kids, hastily apply sun screen, and watch the two- and four-legged freaks fling themselves into the water. Moments later, a mischievous smile from your child and—unnoticed but likely still happening—a second […]
Water
Posted inNews + Opinion
The Wet’suwet’en struggle is far from over
Sixty-five kilometres up a logging road near Houston, British Columbia, just beyond a river from which you can drink directly, lies an unceded territory actively defended by its original people. To enter, you need to go through a free, prior, and informed consent protocol designed to keep people out who do not benefit the land […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
SCIENCE MATTERS Lessons from Cape Town’s water crisis
Many of us in Canada take water for granted, despite drinking water problems in First Nations communities—the subject of a recent column. World Water Day (March 22) reminds us that as the human population continues to grow, putting greater demand on all resources, and as climate change exacerbates drought in many places, we can’t be […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Protest potpourri scheduled for Province House
Nova Scotians are spoiled for choice when it comes to protesting their government. In what’s practically become an annual tradition, this week hundreds of people will once again gather outside Province House demanding change and voicing their opposition to a growing portfolio of disappointments. The Nova Scotians Rise Up event—scheduled for noon on the 27—will […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
SCIENCE MATTERS: Site C exposes economic folly of flooding farmland
As many countries move away from big hydro projects, B.C.’s government must decide whether to continue work on the Site C dam. The controversial megaproject would flood a 100-kilometre stretch of the Peace River Valley and provide enough power for the equivalent of about 500,000 homes. The BC Utilities Commission, an independent body responsible for […]
Posted inLifestyle
Six beaches worth the drive
Carters Beach 105-minute drive This is a long way to go for a day on the beach, but one look at its three snow-white crescents and that mileage will drift out to sea, forever forgotten. Bask in beauty, search for sand dollars, take a quick dip (the water can be a bit chilly here, because […]
Posted inLifestyle
Four ways to become one with the waves
Four ways to become one with the waves 1 Kayak in Lower Prospect Rent a sea kayak from the paddling experts at East Coast Outfitters and spend a day meandering around every rocky inlet of the Lower Prospect—you can make your own self-led adventure, or book a tour (half-day or full-day) with one of ECO’s […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Liberals not offering details on Harrietsfield cleanup plans
Whatever plans the Liberal party has for cleaning up toxic water in Harrietsfield, HRM knows as much about it as the general public. In a Facebook Live announcement on Wednesday, incumbent MLA candidate Brendan Maguire announced the province and HRM would be working together to finally flush out toxic heavy metals leaking from the RDM […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
The unsinkable Marlene Brown
Despite the many hurdles and setbacks, she has experienced over the years, Marlene Brown refuses to give up the fight to bring safe drinking water to Harrietsfield. The rural community along the Old Sambro Road has been stuck dealing with the repercussions of an environmental contamination that took place at a construction recycling and disposal […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Tapped out in Harrietsfield
This March, Nova Scotia Supreme Court justice Timothy Gabriel rejected an appeal from two companies with the catchy names of 3012334 and 3076525 Nova Scotia Ltd—AKA RDM Recycling Ltd. It was the third time the companies had tried, unsuccessfully, to appeal a 2016 Ministerial Order—itself a revised version of a 2010 order—to complete a $10.6-million […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
SCIENCE MATTERS: Intact wilderness is a hedge against our ignorance
In 2011, I travelled with my family down Yukon’s Hart River. It’s one of seven pure rivers in the Peel River watershed, a 68,000-square-kilometre wilderness that’s been at the centre of a legal dispute for many years and a land-use planning debate for more than a decade. For two weeks, we fished from the river’s […]