The people of Labrador opposing Muskrat Falls, tired of having their voices ignored, and are happy with the response for a day of action at Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Monday May 7. Solidarity actions are happening in many cities, and we are glad to see Halifax among them.
In this episode of the Shades of Green podcast on environmental justice Sadie Beaton challenges us to reflect on a future without environmental racism and colonialism. It’s not just about the absence of these things, it’s also very much about what would replace it.Lots of voices will help you articulate an answer to that question. I am sorry to say that this is the final podcast in this excellent series, I don’t really want it to end quite yet.
News release by the Labrador Land Protectors and Grand Riverkeeper Labrador, calling for a national day of action on Muskrat Falls in May of this year. Nova Scotia is complicit through the Maritime Link, but unfortunately the Ecology Action Centre remains silent on this impending act of cultural genocide.
Episode 4 of Shades of Green, the excellent podcast by Sadie Beaton, looks at environmental organizations and how willing they are to change to accommodate issues of social justice. You’ll hear from Joanna Bull, Eriel Deranger, Barbara Low, Randolph Haluza-Delay, Lynn Jones, Stephen Thomas, and Dr. Ingrid Waldron.
Thursday is Shades of Green day, but Shades of Green has a case of laryngitis and needs to rest her voice this week. There will be no new podcast episode until next week. Fortunately, CBC’s The Current has just released a special edition from a town hall exploring anti-black racism in Nova Scotia, including environmental racism, gentrification, and violence against women.
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.”
Episode 2 of the Shades of Green podcast looks at the 500-year old roots of environmental racism in Nova Scotia, and features Dr. Wanda Thomas Bernard, James Desmond, Jaden Dixon, El Jones, Lynn Jones, Roger Lewis, Barbara Low, Catherine Martin, and Dr. Ingrid Waldron. Join us as we pull back and take a bit of a long view, exploring some of the histories of colonization on these lands and how these severed relationships with the land connect to the environmental racism we see today.
Reporter Rebecca Hussman braved last Tuesday’s snowstorm and attended a panel on environmental racism and the law. “The weakest link, they thought, is the African Nova Scotian and Mi’kmaq communities, so therefore we will locate anything and everything we’ve got to get rid of in and around those communities. We know they have no large incomes. We know their levels of education is lower. So let’s locate this dump over here…we don’t care.”
Check out the excellent first episode of the Shades of Green podcast, featuring Barabara Low, El Jones, Ingrid Waldron, Carolyn Phinney, Catherine Martin, and many more. What is environmentalism? What do we mean when we talk about “the environment” here on unceded Mi’kmaq territory? Who defines what’s included in that meaning, and what’s left out? At Shades of Green, these juicy questions have led to… well, more questions.
We talk with Sadie Beaton of the Ecology Action Centre, who put together a brand new five part podcast series on environmental justice and environmental racism everywhere, but with a focus on Nova Scotia. She talked with some fascinating folks, and the series promises to be truly excellent. A new podcast will be issued each Thursday, starting tomorrow. Sadie will write a brief intro, and offer some further reading suggestions for each one, and we are very happy she allowed us to share these write-ups on the Nova Scotia Advocate website. Stay tuned.