Nova Scotia ministers silent on environmental racism report, to meet with authors
Global News
The minister of African Nova Scotian Affairs says she has read a report about environmental racism in her province, but she won't talk about what it says.
Nova Scotia government ministers say they will meet with a panel tasked with examining environmental racism in the province, although they remain tight-lipped on the panel’s findings, which were submitted a year ago.
Following a cabinet meeting Thursday, Minister of African Nova Scotian Affairs Twila Grosse confirmed the meeting, adding she will attend.
“We want to ensure that we collaborate and that we move forward,” she said on the report by the eight-member panel appointed in June 2023 to look at how racism affects a community’s natural environment. It was delivered to the province about a year ago.
The panel’s members included community leaders with expertise in subjects such as Mi’kmaw and African Nova Scotian history, law, health and environmental sciences. Environmental racism can occur in instances where landfills, trash incinerators, coal plants, toxic waste facilities and other environmentally hazardous activities are located near communities of colour, Indigenous territories and the working poor.
Last month, Becky Druhan, justice minister and minister response for the office of equity and anti-racism, refused to give any details about the report and wouldn’t confirm whether she had read it.
On Thursday, Grosse said she has read the report but refused under repeated questioning to discuss the panel’s recommendations. “I am not prepared to comment on the content of that report,” she said, adding that its findings are the responsibility of the anti-racism office.
Nor would Grosse discuss whether as minister of African Nova Scotian Affairs she was comfortable with keeping the findings under wraps, saying she would continue to be the government voice for her community. She added that she is well aware of the environmental effects of racism from “lived experience.”
Environment Minister Tim Halman told reporters he had been briefed on the report, but he too wouldn’t release any details on what he had learned. Halman said he would be one of the ministers meeting with the panel.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday unveiled a series of regulatory actions designed to effectively ban gender-affirming care for minors.
Treacherous road conditions led to several crashes on the QEII highway that forced RCMP to shut down the road between Calgary and Red Deer, where about 100 vehicles got stuck.
U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order that would reclassify marijuana and ease federal restrictions on research for potential new medical products.
The report was released by the Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union and is based on feedback from crews and other staff involved in the wildfire fight.
Opponents of coal mining in the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains have some sharp criticism for Alberta's UCP government after being told to resubmit their citizens petition.
Three children in Ontario have died from influenza A-related complications since the start of December, health officials said Monday.
The company that operates the Trans Mountain pipeline has paid a $196,000 fine for environmental lapses along its B.C. pipeline route in the aftermath of a massive Jan. 2024 storm.
Alberta's provincial government has announced the creation of three new all-season resort areas that it claims could generate thousands of jobs and billions in economic benefits.
Corb Lund says he's seeking the intervention as new coal mines could threaten land and water on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains and affect the Prairies downstream.
Officers had recently captured four grizzly bears, but forensic results came back to confirm that none of the bears, an adult female and three young, were linked to the attack.
The research recommends occipital nerve blocks should be offered in emergency rooms to treat acute migraine attacks.
A federal vaccine advisory committee voted on Friday to end the longstanding recommendation that all U.S. babies get the hepatitis B vaccine on the day they’re born.
Darlene Hensch, who once struggled with unexplained infertility, is now expecting quadruplets and preparing for a high-risk delivery and life-changing journey.