The Local Paradox
The Local Paradox examines how top-down policy agendas collide with weak or fragmented local governance in Newfoundland—creating a feedback loop where community input is demanded, but rarely empowered. This section focuses on contemporary dynamics: state-led consultations, Net Zero industrialization, and the repackaging of "community voices" into legitimacy tools for externally driven plans. It asks: What happens when locals are mined for narratives but excluded from strategy? And what role does institutional incapacity play in enabling or resisting these efforts?
📄 You can download the full academic paper that inspired this series — The Local Paradox in Grand Policy Schemes: Lessons from Newfoundland and Labrador — from the Downloads section.
Posted by Holly Revollà n-Huelin on August 9, 2025 — 9 min read
This article examines how the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) — a global coalition of banks, insurers, and asset managers aligned with the Paris Agreement — leverages financial power to shape Newfoundland’s development without democratic oversight. Drawing on the “local paradox” framework, it shows how weak, fragmented local governance leaves the province vulnerable to top-down financial agendas. Projects like Port au Port’s wind-to-hydrogen proposal illustrate how Paris-aligned funding bypasses local consent, reinforcing the governance gap and shifting decision-making power from communities to creditors. Read More...
Posted by Holly Revollà n-Huelin on August 7, 2025 — 9 min read
When Atlantic Canada issued sweeping fire bans in 2025—locking down trails, banning dog-walking, and threatening $25,000 fines—it didn’t just mark a shift in emergency response. It marked a shift in how people are governed. This article explores the broader pattern: how fire is being used not just to manage risk, but to manage people. From Maui to Jasper to Newfoundland, crisis is becoming opportunity—and the public is being pushed out of the decision-making process. It’s not about whether the fire is real. It’s about what burns afterward. Read More...
Posted by Holly Revollà n-Huelin on August 4, 2025 — 6 min read
This article distills key insights from a peer-reviewed study exploring why grand policy schemes like the Great Reset often fail in places like Newfoundland and Labrador. The authors introduce the concept of the local paradox: that bold, top-down strategies rely on strong local governance for successful implementation — yet those very strategies often emerge in regions where such local capacity is absent, fragile, or disincentivized. The case of Newfoundland illustrates how path dependencies, historic shocks, and a long-standing culture of patronage politics have eroded the institutions needed for democratic reinvention. The province’s cycle of failed resets — from resource megaprojects to federal development boards — reveals why transformative planning cannot succeed without real local strategy, legitimacy, and capacity. Read More...
Posted by Holly Revollà n-Huelin on July 28, 2025 — 9 min read
When Jasen Benwah — formerly Jasen Benoit — posted a fabricated DNA result claiming 98% Indigenous ancestry, it triggered deeper questions about identity fraud, false consensus, and stakeholder manipulation in Newfoundland. Despite quickly deleting the post, two named witnesses confirm its existence. This article exposes the post’s inaccuracies, the psychology behind the “just joking” defense, and how surrounding support creates a manufactured sense of legitimacy. It argues that identity fraud in consultation politics is not just unethical — it’s strategic. When silence enables deception, complicity becomes the norm. Read More...
Posted by Holly Revollà n-Huelin on July 21, 2025 — 6 min read
In the third and final installment of The Consultant and the Keepers series, we examine the internal collapse of the Screaming Eagles opposition group and the emotional unraveling that followed. Using the recent all-caps posts by Coreen Tourout as a lens, this piece explores how Newfoundland’s resistance movements often replicate the very dysfunctions they claim to fight. While factions implode and narratives are hijacked, the Kitchen sisters remain focused on the bigger picture—emerging governance frameworks, stakeholder influence, and the quiet restructuring of local authority. This article connects the public meltdowns to deeper systems of control and offers a warning: when chaos becomes the norm, real resistance risks being written out of the story. Read More...
Posted by Holly Revollà n-Huelin on July 19, 2025 — 6 min read
Following a staged photo-op with SSHRC-backed researcher Nick Mercer, Newfoundland’s local resistance to industrial wind development fractures into infighting. This editorial unpacks how federal consultants exploit emotional divisions to construct curated opposition narratives, neutralizing dissent while capturing optics. Drawing from Van Assche’s "Local Paradox" theory, it reveals how narrative control replaces real governance in vulnerable communities. Read More...
Posted by Holly Revollà n-Huelin on July 18, 2025 — 4 min read
This is a closer look at how federal consultant Nick Mercer embedded himself in a local resistance movement and used a single photo-op to manufacture the illusion of dialogue, trust, and consent. Framed in smiles and solidarity, the image was anything but neutral—it served as a calculated piece of policy theatre, transforming grassroots opposition into optics that support Newfoundland’s top-down Net Zero agenda. Read More...
Posted by Holly Revollà n-Huelin on July 15, 2025 — 4 min read
A federally funded academic study led by UPEI’s Dr. Nick Mercer is quietly collecting local narratives in Newfoundland’s Port au Port region— one of the most outspoken communities against Net Zero industrialization. Disguised as grassroots consultation, this project taps into federal SSHRC grants and local activist groups to legitimize future development plans under the banner of "community research." This editorial exposes how story-gathering is being weaponized as policy justification—and how locals, unpaid and unguarded, may be surrendering more than they realize. Read More...
