Image is from this article on the excellent Canadian environmental journalism outlet, The Narwhal.


The Giant Mine just outside of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada is one of the country’s largest recognized environmental liabilities. The mine’s 100 plus year history illustrates the continuity between resource colonialism in the late 19th/early 20th century and neoliberalism at the turn of the millennium.

There were several gold rushes in northern Canada/US in the late 19th century, such as the Klondike. The Giant gold strike on was first discovered by settlers about the same time as the Klondike, but as Giant is on Great Slave Lake (named for an Anglicization of the name of local peoples, not after slavery) instead of the Pacific Ocean, it is much less accessible and didn’t take off like the Klondike. Parallel with displacement of local Yellowknives Dene people https://ykdene.com/, the town of Yellowknife sprung up around small mining operations through the 30s. It wasn’t until after WW2 that the mine was developed at a large scale. Starting operation in 1948, Giant was owned by a Canadian mining conglomerate through the 80s, then some Australians, and for the last ten years of its operating life, by Americans, who went bankrupt and abandoned the property in 1999. The Canadian federal government is responsible for the site and its remediation now, similar to the way the EPA has Superfund sites in the USA.

The project is infamous for poisoning the people and environment of the surrounding area through arsenic poisoning. The ore at giant is arsenopyrite, an arsenic sulphide mineral that often contains gold. Roasting it in large furnaces or kilns releases the gold as well as fine arsenic trioxide dust. The most infamous arsenic poisoning incident was in 1951 when a Yellowknives Dene toddler in died after eating contaminated snow in the fallout area, 2 kilometers from the processing mill’s smokestack. Over the years, improvements to the mill reduced the amount of toxic dust released to the environment. This is better than blasting it into the air wildly, but meant that the site accumulated hundreds of thousands of tonnes of arsenic trioxide dust that they chucked in empty mine workings underground. Unfortunately, arsenic trioxide dissolves in water as easily as sugar and so represents a tremendous risk to groundwater and waterbodies nearby, like Great Slave Lake and Yellowknife’s water supply.

Arsenic issues contributed to labour disputes as well. In 1991 the union workers of the plant went on strike, refusing management’s demand to reduce their salary and wanting better safety measures for workers . The company brought in Pinkertons and strikebreakers, backed by RCMP thugs. The situation escalated, culminating in a bomb planted on a train track deep in the mine. When it was triggered, it killed 6 scabs and 3 Pinkertons. For the next year, the RCMP interrogated mine workers, their family and community without determining who did it, supporting the company in their refusal to sign a new contract until an arrest was made. Finally a worker named Roger Warren confessed to doing it alone and was sentenced to life in prison. He was released in 2014 and died in 2017.

Since 1999, the site has been the responsibility of the Canadian federal government and is being every so gradually remediated. Operated through what are effectively private-public partnership contracts, environmental engineering companies are attempting to clean up and isolate the huge amounts of arsenic trioxide dust. The concept is move the dust into specially ventilated chambers of the underground mine, where it is frozen in place and thus prevented from leaching into groundwater. Active remediation is supposed to be finished in about 15 years at a cost of $1 billion CAD, but will surely take longer and cost more than this. Also, freezing material in place will definitely work because the climate isn’t changing, and the Canadian north is definitely not seeing extreme levels of temperature rise.

After active works are complete, the site will require perpetual care.


Please check out the HexAtlas!

The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week’s thread is here.

Israel-Palestine Conflict

If you have evidence of Israeli crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.

Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:

UNRWA reports on Israel’s destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.

English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.

English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.

Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Sources:

Defense Politics Asia’s youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don’t want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it’s just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists’ side.

Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.

Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:

Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.

https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR’s former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR’s forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster’s telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a ‘propaganda tax’, if you don’t believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.

Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:

Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.


  • Al_Sham [she/her]@hexbear.net
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    8 hours ago

    Al Manar reporter Ali Shoeib || Situation on the front in Southern Lebanon on the border with Occupied Palestine.

    ¡Comprehensive update!

    spoiler

    35 days into the start of the ground offensive on the frontline villages along the border with occupied Palestine, the Zionist occupation forces have failed to establish a foothold in any of the towns they entered with the goal of fully controlling these areas, eliminating the Resistance, and pushing it back from south of the Litani River.

    In Naqoura, the enemy forces failed to capture the town’s neighborhoods after 4 of their tanks were destroyed near its northern border in the al-Msahyrfeh area and amid defensive operations in al-Labbouneh. The enemy continued to carry out airstrikes and artillery shelling on the town’s neighborhoods. The enemy army aims to make an incursion by occasionally attempting to infiltrate, from time to time, the Hamoul area between Naqoura and Alma al-Shaab under fire cover. However, these attempts fail due to the continued defense by the Resistance fighters.

    Recently, the enemy managed to enter the towns of al-Dhaira, Yarine, al-Bustan, and the outskirts of Marwahin following bombardments, destructive airstrikes, and the demolition of buildings and places of worship. However, they then retreated to the border and are now attempting to maintain control over these towns through firepower due to the rocket barrages targeting their forces in the area.

    The towns of Ramieh and al-Qawzah witnessed fierce confrontations between the invading forces and the Resistance fighters, during which the enemy acknowledged losing a large number of soldiers and tanks. After demolishing buildings, the enemy retreated to the Ramieh and Zar’it outposts to prevent further losses, while continuing to target the area with intermittent artillery shelling.

    In Aita al-Shaab, the enemy’s attempts to infiltrate the town continue to face heroic defensive operations, and they have not achieved any penetration into the center of the town despite entering and demolishing the western and southern neighborhoods. The town is still under artillery shelling.

    The confrontations in the town of Yaroun have decreased after the enemy lost its fire control over the town, leaving some positions at the southern edges.

    In Maroun al-Ras, some enemy forces are stationed around the park and eastern outskirts, and they are subjected to daily rocket attacks.

    To secure this position, the enemy continues to bombard the northern outskirts overlooking the city of Bint Jbeil, which is subjected to daily airstrikes and artillery shelling, in addition to the surrounding towns of Tiri, Kawnin, and Ainatha, as well as all the highgrounds overlooking them, in what resembles a preparatory operation that may be a preemptive measure to attempt an infiltration to the city’s outskirts.

    In Aitaroun, some of the town’s neighborhoods continue to witness defensive operations; the enemy has been unable to control or enter these areas due to the Resistance within.

    After the destruction of buildings and civilian and religious structures in the towns of Mhaybib and Blida, the enemy retreated east but continued to maintain fire control over the two towns.

    In Mays al-Jabal, the enemy army continues its infiltration operations and targets civilian structures in its northern outskirts, failing to control or enter the center of the town due to the defensive operations carried out by the steadfast Resistance fighters despite the airstrikes, destruction, and artillery shelling. All “israeli” movements in the town are targeted daily.

    After advancing into the eastern neighborhood of the town of Hula under heavy fire cover for several days, and while 5 bulldozers were conducting sapping works and demolition operations in the eastern outskirts adjacent to the al-Abbad site, the Resistance targeted these gatherings with a series of rocket barrages and guided missiles, resulting in the destruction of 2 bulldozers. This prompted the enemy to withdraw towards the outpost while keeping the area under the fire of machine guns and artillery shelling.

    In Markaba and Rab el-Thalathine, enemy forces continue to maintain fire control over some of the neighborhoods facing the border, moving only within the area of Wadi Hunin, which is only exposed to the occupied Palestinian territories.

    The enemy army has failed to achieve its objectives of reaching the town of Tayb through the town of Odaisseh after numerous attempts, during which the 2 towns witnessed fierce confrontations between the enemy and the Resistance, resulting in significant losses among the enemy’s soldiers and tanks.

    The enemy’s movements are currently confined to the eastern neighborhoods of the town of Kfarkila and the Metula settlement, where rocket barrages and guided missile strikes continue daily against all [enemy] movements, gatherings, and tanks. The most recent incidents included the destruction of a tank near the wall and the targeting of a gathering with a guided missile.

    For 4 days, the city of Khiam and its surroundings witnessed fierce confrontations, during which the Resistance fighters fought valiantly against the advancing tanks and infantry troops in the eastern and southern neighborhoods, inflicting a large number of casualties among the enemy. The intensity of the clashes prompted the enemy to launch airstrikes close to the engagement points, fearing that Zionist soldiers might be captured. Under a barrage of heavy artillery and phosphorus shelling, the advancing forces retreated towards Wata-Khiam to the east and then to the al-Amra area near al-Wazzani. Enemy bulldozers were seen retrieving tanks that had been destroyed by guided missiles. The incident ended with a complete withdrawal of enemy forces from Khiam and its surroundings, with all troops retreating from al-Hamames and al-Wazzani back to the Metula settlement and the Ma’ayan Baruch site after the enemy’s failure to achieve an infiltration into the city of Khiam.

    On the front of the Shebaa Farms, Kfarchouba Hills, Halta, and Kfar Hamam: some hills and high grounds in the area are witnessing infantry and vehicle movements towards the Saddeneh high ground and the Shebaa entrance. These movements are being targeted with rocket barrages, while the remaining forested areas in the 2 towns are exposed to artillery shelling and airstrikes from time to time.


      • Al_Sham [she/her]@hexbear.net
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        8 hours ago

        The crazy thing is that each of these towns has no more than a few dozen Hezbollah fighters at the very most. We’re talking squads of 8-10 holding down most of these smaller villages.

        This was one of the strategies they revealed in the Secrets of the Second Liberation documentary I posted awhile back. I think it was the battle of Mando Hill where the commander talked about it? Something like 12 Hezbollah fighters holding off over 100 daesh.