N.S. opposition call government out over withholding environmental racism report
Their comments came after Becky Druhan, minister responsible for the Office of Equity and Anti-Racism Initiatives, told reporters Thursday that government has requested a meeting with the environmental racism panel that created the report to 'discuss with them before sharing any additional information.'
The report was completed by an eight-member panel appointed in June 2023 to look at how racism affects a community's natural environment in Nova Scotia. Environmental racism is a form of systemic racism where environmentally hazardous activities like landfills, trash incinerators, coal plants and toxic waste facilities are set up near Black and racialized communities or Indigenous territories.
The report was delivered to the province about a year ago.
'In this instance, the (panel's) mandate didn't include a public report. The mandate was advice to government. So we want to respect the parameters of that,' Druhan said after a cabinet meeting when asked if she will release the report.
The panel members included community leaders with expertise in subjects such as Mi'kmaw and African Nova Scotian history, law, health and environmental sciences.
'We do know that Nova Scotians want to hear more, and we want to respect the panel and have a conversation with them before we do that,' Druhan said.
Nova Scotia NDP Leader Claudia Chender and Liberal member Derek Mombourquette both said Thursday it's puzzling the province is choosing to withhold this critical information about environmental racism.
'I think they probably don't like what it (the report) says,' Chender said of the provincial government.
'We're talking about a legacy of wrongdoing and harm that this government is now complicit in, because they will not address what it was that came forward' from this panel's work, she added.
The idea for the panel came from the NDP, who proposed it in an amendment to climate change legislation that was passed in the fall of 2023. Chender said it 'was no one's understanding' that this panel's work would be kept from the public.
'That report came from an amendment that was put forward by our caucus that specifically called for the establishment of a panel that would provide recommendations to the province for redress,' Chender said. 'It didn't say that it would privately provide some things that the government might consider, and then not tell anyone about it. That doesn't make any sense.'
Mombourquette agreed, saying it's 'really shameful' that the report has not yet been made public to Nova Scotians, adding that he represents a constituency that has faced environmental racism in the form of the Sydney tar ponds and coke oven sites in Cape Breton.
'I think that the government should release it immediately. I don't buy this argument that there needs to be a meeting with the panel beforehand. Release the report, let Nova Scotians see what's in it,' he said.
When asked if he thinks the report ought to be made public, Premier Tim Houston did not directly answer.
'We're using that to formulate public policy. It's having a positive impact. There is a meeting being organized with a number of ministers and the panellists to talk about… the ways forward,' he said after Thursday's cabinet meeting.
When pressed on if he is of the opinion that it should be public, he said 'we'll have a discussion with the panels. I think the most important thing is that the work is actually used.'
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 11, 2025.
By Lyndsay Armstrong
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
National Post
13 minutes ago
- National Post
Trump slaps sanctions on Canadian International Criminal Court judge
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration slapped a Canadian judge on the International Criminal Court with sanctions as the U.S. State Department continues to push back on the tribunal. Article content The State Department said Wednesday that Kimberly Prost was sanctioned for 'ruling to authorize the ICC's investigation into U.S. personnel in Afghanistan.' Article content Prost has been a judge in the trial division since 2018, following a two-year stint as Chef de Cabinet for the ICC president, according to the tribunal's website. Before joining the court, she was the first Ombudsperson for the United Nations Security Council Al Qaida Sanctions Committee. Article content She also worked for the Canadian Department of Justice for nearly two decades. Article content Article content The State Department also took action against other ICC officials from France, Fiji and Senegal linked it to the tribunal's investigation into Israel's actions in Gaza and the West Bank. Article content The department said French judge Nicolas Guillou was sanctioned for ruling to authorize the ICC's issuance of arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant. Deputy prosecutors Nazhat Shameem Khan and Mame Mandiaye Niang were sanctioned for upholding the arrest warrants. Article content The State Department has sanctioned a growing list of ICC officials with similar actions since U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order targeting the international tribunal in February. The sanctions freeze any assets the officials have in U.S. jurisdictions. Article content The ICC previously condemned the actions of the Trump administration, calling it an attempt to undermine the independence of an international judicial institution. Article content Neither the U.S. nor Israel is a member of the international court. The State Department alleged it is a 'a national security threat that has been an instrument for lawfare against the United States and our close ally Israel.' Article content 'The United States has been clear and steadfast in our opposition to the ICC's politicization, abuse of power, disregard for our national sovereignty, and illegitimate judicial overreach,' the State Department said. Article content Trump also targeted the ICC during his first administration over its probes into Israel and complaints over the war in Afghanistan. The first Trump administration took significant efforts to block preliminary investigations into the Afghanistan situation, which eventually paused the court's probe. Article content Trump and other Republicans have criticized the court saying it could lead to warrants for American politicians, diplomats and military personnel. They say the ICC has no jurisdiction over Israel or the United States. Article content Trump's initial sanctions on officials were rescinded by President Joe Biden in 2021 and the ICC resumed its investigation into Afghanistan the following year. The court in July issued warrants for two senior Taliban leaders as part of the investigation. Article content
CBC
14 minutes ago
- CBC
Canada Post union tables new offers seeking higher wages
Politics ·New Workers rejected Crown corporation's latest offer earlier this month The Canadian Union of Postal Workers says it presented new offers to Canada Post on Wednesday seeking higher wages than the Crown corporation's latest proposal. Unionized workers rejected Canada Post's most recent offers in a direct vote earlier this month.
CBC
14 minutes ago
- CBC
Education minister open to eliminating Ontario school trustees
Ontario's education minister says the way schools are governed in the province is "outdated" and that, as he pursues a review, he's open eliminating elected trustees altogether. Already, Paul Calandra has appointed supervisors who have taken over five of Ontario's biggest school boards. Trustees have been shut out of their accounts, and those appointees have been tasked with making decisions to improve boards' financial situations and avoid deficits. But Calandra has consistently told all 72 school boards in the province they are on notice and must direct money to classrooms. He has talked of more centralization and creating greater consistency from board to board. "The ministry needs to step up to the plate moreso than it has over the last 40 years," he told hundreds of municipal politicians Tuesday in Ottawa, where he and cabinet colleagues fielded questions at the annual conference of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario. "We have to stop downloading responsibility to trustees who neither have the authority to tax or the expertise to undertake some of the things that we're asking them to do." CBC News asked Calandra if he would go so far as to eliminate trustees in the province, even ahead of the next school board elections. Nominations are scheduled to open next May and the votes held alongside municipal elections in October 2026. Everything is on the table and the governance model for education is being reviewed, Calandra answered. "If it looks like we can deliver the product better, provide better outcomes for students, better resources for teachers, and give parents certainty, and if that means eliminating trustees, then I'm going do it," he said. 5 boards under watch Calandra assumed the education file in cabinet in March. By April, he had put the Thames Valley District School Board in southwestern Ontario under provincial control after an investigation, spurred by news trustees having taken a retreat at an expensive Toronto hotel even while the board struggled with deficits. Then, at the end of June, he announced the results of third-party reviews of the finances at Toronto District School Board, Toronto Catholic District School Board, Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board and the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB). They too are now under supervision. Bill 33 has been tabled at Queen's Park to make it easier for the government to take over a board without an outside review. The report from PricewaterhouseCoopers into the Ottawa-Carleton board found "no examples of reckless or deliberate wrongdoing, lack of financial oversight or governance or actions resulting in potential reputational damage." But trustees in Ottawa had been struggling to avoid a fifth deficit, and have consistently said boards are underfunded, without enough money to cover special education, inflation, or to pay substitutes for staff on sick leave. The OCDSB managed to make $18 million in cuts and pass a balanced budget in June. Now that the board is under supervision, they have been locked out of their accounts. That access to accountable local trustees is critical as families navigate the education system, says opposition education critic Chandra Pasma, the NDP member of provincial parliament for Ottawa West—Nepean. Pasma says she is concerned that without trustees, directors of education would be accountable only to an out-of-touch education minister in Toronto. She has watched developments in Quebec and Nova Scotia, where those provinces have moved to abolish boards. "We're talking over 175 years of democratically elected school boards in what is now Canada," said Pasma. "Unfortunately what we're seeing now with this attempt to grasp more and more power is part of a pattern with the Ford government." Ontario has 72 school boards, including public and Catholic systems in both French and English. The education minister has consistently told them they are all on notice and must direct spending to classrooms, even as Calandra acknowledges there are many talented and hardworking trustees at many school boards. "But ultimately the governance structure is based on a system that is outdated and old and that needs to be modernized, and we're going to do that work," Calandra told CBC News, noting the government will also respect the constitutional rights of French-language boards and Catholic boards. "I don't foresee a situation where governance of our public English public schools remains the same," he added.
