After talking with with civil servants at Environment and Climate Change Canada, local water protectors believe.that Alton Gas doesn’t have the necessary approvals to start the release of brine into the Shubenacadie River. We asked the feds and the province what’s up, and their responses were pretty vague.
Jack Leonard takes a close look at the Goldboro LNG proposal and finds lots wrong with it. There is climate change, of course, but there are other issues at play as well, both for the province and for Guysborough County.
Letter to Margaret Miller, Minister of the Nova Scotia Department of Environment, sent on October 3 by Alton Gas water protectors Rachael Greenland-Smith and Dale Poulette about a federal non-compliance issue. The group has not yet received a response.
News release: Water protector and Mi’kmaq Elder Dorene Bernard did not mince words during a speech by Premier McNeil this morning. The premier’s talk was entitled ‘Open for Business: Nova Scotia on the Move’, which Bernard says is a blatant glossing over of the Indigenous right to free, prior, and informed consent. “We’re only open for business if treaty rights holders give their free, prior, and informed consent,” says Bernard. “That consent doesn’t come from the KMK termination table, it comes from the people and the traditional governments.”
This weekend’s video is a short trailer for the documentary The water protectors’ journey. This film about the Alton Gas resistance documents a journey along the Sipekne’katik River, which leads to a sacred island known to the Mi’kmaq as the traditional campsite of Glooscap’s grandmother. The full film premieres in Halifax this Saturday March 31.
Check out this Talking Radical Radio podcast episode on Alton Gas. Scott Neigh interviews water protectors Dorene Bernard and Rebecca Moore. Scott has been putting these weekly shows together for years now, talking at length to people fighting the good fight across Canada. You should check it out.
Episode 3 of Sadie Beaton’s wonderful Shades of Green podcast focuses on the work of the Alton Gas water protectors. “Join us at the Treaty Camp to get a taste of what it’s like on the front lines of a movement that is so much bigger than stopping a single project. Let’s listen and reflect on what what stopping a natural gas storage project has to do with Indigenous self-determination, how the Peace and Friendship treaties might help us understand how to build just relationships with the land and each other, and what it means to be a treaty person.”
News release by Alton Gas water protectors: “Sipekne’katik/Fort Ellis — Alton Gas has posted signs outside the Treaty Camp at the Shubenacadie River naming water protectors on site as trespassers and criminals. Grassroots Mi’kmaq water protectors have been holding down a protection camp at the Shubenacadie River for nine months to prevent Alton Gas from dumping thousands of tons of salt brine into the sacred river every day. They are outraged by Alton Gas’ bully tactics and intent to resume work on the project without allowing Sipekne’katik to complete its community consultation process.”
Media release by the Alton Gas water protectors who are concerned about Alton gas’ recent notice of intent to enter the camp and resume work without any meaningful community and public consultation.
A proposed gas pipeline for the Alton Gas storage project is set to cross the stunningly beautiful Stewiacke River Wilderness Area, although naturalists are strongly opposed. As well, the proposed Saint Andrews River Wilderness Area boundaries were modified at the time, presumably to accommodate the pipeline. Investigative reporter Ken Summers looks at the politics of this project in this first of a two-part series.