The Hook — Water for Industry, Not for Us
On August 26, 2025, the Environmental Transparency Committee (ETC) published a post about water on the Port au Port Peninsula. They claimed that the Lower Cove Quarry uses over 100,000 gallons of water per day, while nearby communities struggle with shortages and boil-water advisories. The post ended with a slogan-like demand: “We deserve water.”¹
The outrage seemed righteous. But the silence behind it is louder. ETC’s leaders have openly supported hydraulic fracturing during the 2013–2015 fracking debate — an industry that uses millions of gallons of water per well and leaves it permanently contaminated².
The Performance of Outrage
By targeting the quarry, ETC framed themselves as protectors of the community. Quarries are visible villains, while families boiling water are sympathetic victims. It looks like transparency, but it is selective outrage — strategically safe because it avoids challenging the energy sector that some ETC leaders remain tied to.
What Gets Erased — The Silence on Fracking
The difference in scale is staggering:
- Quarry water use: ~100,000 gallons/day, much of it recycled through settling ponds.
- Fracking water use: 2–10 million gallons per well, permanently removed from the water cycle²,³.
A Duke University study estimated that from 2005–2014, U.S. fracking consumed over 250 billion gallons of water and produced 210 billion gallons of wastewater⁴. In many jurisdictions, wells are drilled in areas already under medium to high water stress⁵.
Yet the ETC post never mentions fracking. This is what I call a soft deletion: not a post removed after the fact, but a threat erased from the conversation before it can be named.
Strategic Silence vs. Active Erasure
Vanishing evidence takes two forms:
Active Erasure – something was public, then removed.
- Jasen Benwah’s DNA post (later deleted), confirmed by named witnesses Douglas Jones and Denis Benoit⁶.
- Land claim documents returning 404s, preserved only through the Wayback Machine⁷.
- Petitions suppressed before they could reach government, as in the Rae Miller case⁸.
Strategic Silence – something should be public, but never appears.
- ETC’s omission of fracking from their water post¹.
- Heritage-linked groups documenting only “positive” narratives⁹.
- Protest leaders focusing on tone and optics, while silencing geopolitical drivers¹⁰.
Both achieve the same effect: evidence inconvenient to power is made to vanish.
Historical Continuity — The Warning Ignored
In 2014–2015, I submitted a letter to the Newfoundland and Labrador Hydraulic Fracturing Review Panel warning that local complacency would pave the way for future harms. I cautioned that silence toward industrial incursions would leave communities vulnerable to exactly this — selective outrage and erased accountability¹¹.
That warning was ignored. A decade later, the cycle has not just repeated — it has been perfected.
Oil-Linked Leadership — The Guardians of Silence
Why would a committee dedicated to “transparency” vanish the subject of fracking? The answer may lie less in what is said and more in who is connected behind the scenes.
The early membership of the ETC included Catherine Fenwick and Rae Miller, both of whom have had organizational overlaps with the francophone institutions FFTNL and SANB — networks that also connect back to political and bureaucratic figures such as Ali Chaisson, Tony Cornect, and Robert Cormier. Chaisson and Cornect have long been associated with energy-linked initiatives in the province¹², while Cormier — former Deputy Mayor of Cape St. George during the fracking development debate — is still currently a member of the CBDC, a regional economic development board with direct ACOA connections. Their presence doesn’t need to be public for their influence to shape what is emphasized, and what is left unsaid.
Meanwhile, Kevin Phillips, who now presents himself as a voice of accountability, has his own likely ties to local resource ventures. At a family gathering in 2016, a relative — a geologist — looked directly at me and gave a stern warning that I should leave a place I had often visited, since a close friend lived there. The warning carried weight: it was not casual, but defensive and threatening. That moment tipped me off to the financial and emotional stakes bound up in local oil and gas plays such as Garden Hill #1, Shoal Point, and the Investcan/Robinsons well.
Taken together, these connections sketch a pattern: those with structural ties to energy, either through political office, bureaucratic networks, or personal investment, are also those most likely to decide what evidence appears in public, and what evidence is made to vanish.
Their silence on fracking is not neutral. It reflects networks and loyalties that extend well beyond the quarry.
The Mini-Archive — When Erasure Becomes the Evidence
The cycle of vanishing can be seen in four documented cases:
- Benwah’s DNA Post – Public → Deleted → Saved by witnesses⁶.
- Land Claim 404s – Public → Removed → Archived via Wayback⁷.
- Rae Miller Petition Suppression – Public → Blocked → Prevented from becoming a record⁸.
- ETC’s Silence on Fracking – Never Public → Strategically Omitted → Omitted in real time¹.
Each case shows the same cycle: public → removed → archived → reframed.
The Psychology of Vanishing
Erasure doesn’t just clean the record — it reshapes perception.
- Doubt: When something disappears, people wonder if it ever existed.
- Shame: Those who remember are told they misinterpreted or imagined it.
- Consensus: Silence becomes agreement, enforced by peer pressure.
This is how communities are trained to accept official narratives, even when they contradict lived memory.
Who Benefits
- Opportunists earn credibility by attacking safe targets while avoiding energy agendas.
- Governments avoid scrutiny on fracking, hydrogen, or offshore deals.
- Committees and NGOs keep funding by staying inside “acceptable outrage.”
The result is a province where truth is rationed as carefully as water.
Closing — The Evidence of What Isn’t There
ETC declared: “We deserve water.”
Yes. But we also deserve truth. We deserve transparency that does not vanish when it touches the oil and gas sector. We deserve leaders who do not erase what threatens their networks.
When evidence disappears — whether deleted, suppressed, or never spoken — the truth does not vanish. It lingers, waiting for those willing to remember, archive, and refuse silence.
That refusal is Newfoundland’s only real transparency left.
References
[1] ETC Facebook post (Aug 26, 2025). (User-provided screenshot) https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19fjdR2AHC/
[2] American Geosciences Institute — “How much water does a typical hydraulically fractured well require?” https://profession.americangeosciences.org/society/intersections/faq/how-much-water-does-typical-hydraulically-fractured-well-require/
[3] Ceres — “Hydraulic Fracturing & Water Stress: Water Demand by the Numbers.” https://www.ceres.org/resources/reports/hydraulic-fracturing-water-stress-water-demand-numbers
[4] Duke University — “Fracking’s water footprint: 250 billion gallons consumed, 210 billion wastewater produced.” https://today.duke.edu/2015/09/frackfoot
[5] Ceres — Water stress locations for new wells. https://www.ceres.org/resources/reports/hydraulic-fracturing-water-stress-water-demand-numbers
[6] Witness testimony of Douglas Jones (Stephenville) and Denis Benoit (Cape St. George) confirming deletion of Jasen Benwah DNA post. (User archive; no public URL) "98% Pretendian: The Screenshot That Vanished" https://baymansparadox.com/explore/local-paradox/post.php?id=133
[7] Bayman’s Paradox — “Gatekeeping the Land: How Claims, Secrecy, and Global Agendas Collide in Newfoundland.” https://baymansparadox.com/explore/governance/post.php?id=148
[8] Bayman’s Paradox project log — Rae Miller petition suppression incident (2022). (Project log; no public URL)
[9] Bayman’s Paradox — “The ABCD Project Exposed: Federal Funding, Local Voices, and the Soft Face of Occupation.” https://baymansparadox.com/explore/local-paradox/post.php?id=127
[10] Bayman’s Paradox — “The Whisper Network: When Narrative Control Replaces Public Truth.” https://baymansparadox.com/explore/asch-experiments/post.php?id=130
[11] Author submission to the NL Hydraulic Fracturing Review Panel (2014–2015). (Local Download) https://nlhfrp.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Letter-from-H.-Simon.pdf
[12] Bayman’s Paradox project notes — Ali Chaisson lobbying/management roles in offshore projects and fracking debates. (User-Provided Screenshot; User-Provided Screenshot) https://www.cnlopb.ca/wp-content/uploads/investcan/inv_trans_sr.pdf; https://ca.vlex.com/vid/geophysical-v-vulcan-minerals-680587793; https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/showthread.php?p=4923345
[13] Bayman’s Paradox project notes — Tony Cornect political history and ties to extractive industries. (User-Provided Screenshot; User-Provided Screenshot; User-Provided Screenshot;) https://www.gov.nl.ca/exec/files/expenseclaims-june14nov14-pdf-cornect-tcr.pdf; https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/oil-exploration-brings-mix-of-emotions-1.255125; https://news.novascotia.ca/en/2014/12/18/offshore-workers-be-better-protected; https://www.cnlopb.ca/wp-content/uploads/pdidrill/pdiamen.pdf