Explore

Newfoundland keeps cycling back to “the next big project” because of path dependency (how ideas, institutions, goals, and infrastructure lock in repetition) and soft budget constraints (bailouts that reward risk). Muskrat Falls shows the pattern: a 2005 cable promised 2015 power, but delivery came nearly a decade late at double the cost—while dissent like Brad Cabana’s was sidelined. The new Churchill Falls MOU repeats the trap: external leverage, political optics, and deferred accountability, unless governance reforms and hard budget rules break the cycle. Read More...

Vanishing Evidence: The 404 Strategy of Selective Activism exposes how inconvenient truths in Newfoundland activism are erased — sometimes through outright deletion, sometimes through strategic silence. Using the Environmental Transparency Committee’s August 2025 post about quarry water use as a case study, the article shows how selective outrage distracts from bigger threats like fracking, despite leaders’ political, bureaucratic, and financial ties to the energy sector. From deleted posts and suppressed petitions to institutional 404s, the piece demonstrates how vanishing evidence shapes consensus, silences dissent, and reinforces hidden loyalties. Read More...

In Newfoundland, protest often begins as resistance but too often ends in opportunism. From Muskrat Falls to offshore oil to fracking, the loudest voices have turned outrage into political bids, industry appointments, or personal leverage. Figures like Andrew Parsons and Kevin Aylward illustrate how quickly protest visibility can shift into corporate roles, while local archetypes — the ambitious candidate, the elder, the enforcers, the gatekeeper, and the consultant-in-disguise — show how movements fracture into manageable pieces. The result is predictable: credibility is spent, trust erodes, and outside agendas advance. Protest becomes currency, traded for status, reputation, or influence — until even the evidence of resistance begins to vanish. Read More...

In Newfoundland, land is treated less as heritage and more as leverage. Sweeping claims, untested legal structures, curated “documentation,” and a surge of mineral exploration all reveal how governance vacuums are exploited. From the silenced 6(1)/6(2 debate to UNDRIP consent politics, outside agendas thrive on ambiguity. Land becomes currency, heritage becomes narrative, and without transparent governance, decisions about Newfoundland’s future are already being signed elsewhere. Read More...

This piece exposes how “outrage” in Newfoundland’s environmental and political movements is often selective, serving alliances rather than principles. Using examples from Jasen Benwah’s shifting stance on wind projects, UNDRIP land claim gatekeeping, and Darrell Shelley’s opportunistic politics, it shows how ecological harm is condemned or excused depending on who benefits. The article ties these local double standards to global financial agendas like GFANZ, where narrative control matters more than actual environmental impact, and warns that until consistent standards are applied, the land will remain a bargaining chip and truth negotiable. Read More...