Indigenous people in faraway Labrador face methylmercury poisoning, but never mind, Nova Scotia can claim it’s meeting its green energy targets.
Roberta Benefiel, founding director of Grand Riverkeeper, Labrador, is visiting Nova Scotia to remind us that for the people who live there Muskrat Falls is an environmental disaster that will poison traditional food sources and flood indigenous lands. She believes that through the Maritime Link this is Nova Scotia issue as well. “There may not be that many of us, but people do live here. We need to put a face to these people,” Benefiel tells the Nova Scotia Advocate.
Beatrice Hunter is an Inuk land defender who refused to promise a judge that she would not engage in further protests at Muskrat Falls. Because of that refusal she is now incarcerated in an overpopulated men’s prison in St. John’s, more than 1,000 kilometers from home. Hunter said her decision to remain in prison and not comply with the order to stay away from Muskrat Falls is her way of resisting colonization in Labrador. Nova Scotia, via the Maritime Link, is among those colonizing powers.
We talk with Justin Brake about the serious criminal charges he faces. Brake was the only journalist to report from the indigenous-led occupation of Nalcor property in protest of the Muskrat Falls development. “This is is more than an attack on my right to be a journalist, this is an attack on all journalists everywhere.”
Justin Brake, the fearless Newfoundland and Labrador journalist for the TheIndependent.ca is facing jail for reporting on an occupation of Nalcor buildings at Muskrat Falls by indigenous people. Everybody should care, and Nova Scotians doubly so, because through the Maritime Link these things are a lot closer than they appear.
Land protectors in Labrador continue their resistance against Muskrat Falls. Just because the national and Nova Scotia press stopped reporting doesn’t mean all is quiet. We talk with Ossie Michelin about the Nova Scotia connection. Ossie’s 96-year old aunt was just served with a court order for visiting a protest site.
Should we make Muskrat Falls right, or should we just walk away from a mega project that is terribly destructive in so many ways? Sierra Club Atlantic and the Ecology Action Centre land on different sides of the discussion.
Once in a while the Nova Scotia Advocate likes to remind its readers that the Muskrat Falls development, of which Nova Scotia is a major beneficiary, is destroying the traditional ways of indigenous peoples and other marginalized people.
The Muskrat Falls power generating project is destroying the way of life of Innu and Inuit, and they’re fighting back. Very few reporters tell their story. One of those few is Justin Brake of the Independent. He needs our support.
Nova Scotia stands to benefit from the Muskrat Falls power generating project through the Maritime Link. It’s time to have our voice heard on the severe damage the project threatens to inflict on the Inuit who live there.