” On Friday July 6, Pictou harbour will fill with fishing and pleasure boats and the Pictou waterfront with citizens gathered for the first major Nova Scotia #NOPIPE Land & Sea Rally in support of a healthy Northumberland Strait.
“We cannot allow 70-90 million litres a day of pulp mill waste to enter the prime fishing grounds of the Northumberland Strait,” says Ronnie Heighton, president of the Northumberland Fisherman’s Association and Gulf of Nova Scotia Fleet Planning Board.
At issue is Northern Pulp’s proposed new effluent treatment system.”
The rally takes place 12 noon – 2 pm
Read more in #NOPIPE Land & Sea Rally Set For July 6
Pictou Advocate, June 27, 2018.
View Pulp and Paper category on this website for some of the background.
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Addendum July 4, 2018
It’s hardly going well for The Mill as the Proposed Northern Pulp pipe route into ocean hits snag (Paul Palmeter, CBC News, July 4, 2018) and opposition solidifies.
I was particularly struck by the words of Andrea Paul expressed on a public Facebook page (June 30, 2018):
We are the First Peoples. NS is the land of the Mi’kmaq. We are stewards of the resources. We have an inherent duty to protect those resources. We speak for the species that need protection. Industry is powerful. Money is powerful. When the mill closes what are we going to do? Met with a couple of women the other day from unifor. Very nice women. They came to talk to me about the “heat” that is happening right now in Pictou County.
One of the women talked to me about how closure of the mill will devastate the county. How children are getting bullied because their parents work at the mill. How unifor workers are uncomfortable to wear their union clothes out in public. How small businesses will close. She painted a very dismal picture.
I said – we have gone through this for over 50 years. We have had an industry come in and strip away our resources. They lied to us. They devastated our culture. Our way of life. They bullied us. While they made their millions – my people suffered. We have watched this industry pollute our waters, our lands and the air. And as past leaders and community fought hard – they were continually bullied. Whenever we fought back we were told we were greedy and just wanted money. We spent millions dealing with government and The Mill. Our past leaders and community never stopped fighting the injustice done to our people. They paved the way for where we are today.
This is going to stop. We are done. We are madder then we have ever been. So – your unifor employees should be mad at their corporate bosses. They did not protect them either. The company set out to put forth a plan as quietly and quickly as they could. The government was ready to support this. Except there is an issue.
We are treaty holders. We have an inherent right to fish. Therefore – we are going to protect our resource. We are the voice of the water and all that live within the waters. We are also not alone. Strong alliances have been formed and the First Nation and Maritime provinces stand strong.
Also – we say #nopipe. You can spin that however you want Northern Pulp. We stand strong with no more effluent in the waters. There is absolutely zero trust with this company. We know our reality. We live with it everyday. We know our history and that will not become our future children’s battle.