Explore

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...

This first-person exposé unpacks how charm and consultation are used as instruments of control in weak governance environments. Drawing from the author’s lived experience with ARCO (L'Association régionale de la côte Ouest) and FFTNL (Fédération des francophones de Terre-Neuve et du Labrador) in early 2000s Newfoundland, it traces how a routine website contract and a parallel community job offer unraveled into a pattern of manipulation, silence, and erasure. From RCMP-style charm tactics to abrupt contract terminations, the piece reveals how institutional actors—often under the guise of civility—extract credibility while suppressing dissent. With firsthand documentation and academic grounding, the article exposes how consultation becomes performance, and participation becomes permissioned. In places like Newfoundland, where governance structures are hollowed out, charm often replaces consent—and the muzzle comes with a smile. Read More...

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...

A genome-wide cancer study based in Newfoundland labeled participants “unrelated,” despite drawing from a founder-effect population known for deep ancestral ties. This editorial unpacks how Memorial University researchers bypassed consent, ignored relatedness, and turned a genetically unique population into academic capital—while denying locals access, feedback, or ethical oversight. Featuring the rarely discussed Alldrice syndrome, this article confronts data colonialism and the illusion of advocacy in modern genomic science. Read More...

This exposé reveals how international geopolitics—specifically Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement—played a direct role in the collapse of Newfoundland’s wind projects. Yet despite the scale of this influence, key voices within local activist groups actively suppressed the topic. Framed as “too political” or “divisive,” discussions about U.S. climate policy and global decarbonization financing were systematically silenced by moderators like Paul Pike. The article uncovers how tone policing, selective censorship, and the illusion of neutrality created a sanitized narrative—one that hid the project’s vulnerability to global market shifts. By stifling essential context, this strategy not only misinformed the public but shielded federal and corporate interests from scrutiny. The piece ties into broader themes from the Peer Pressure section, emphasizing how global agendas rely on local compliance—and how silence, enforced socially, becomes a tool of strategic misdirection. Read More...