An international organization that often finds itself at the centre of human rights conflicts in developing countries has turned its attention to a small town in southwest Nova Scotia.
Amnesty International has joined a long-standing community fight to bring clean water to a settlement of African Nova Scotians whose properties have wells and are next to an old garbage dump that operated for 70 years in Shelburne.
There are concerns the dump has contaminated well water and caused high rates of cancer among the approximately 50 Black residents who live close by.
Members of Amnesty’s Canadian office toured the area in late October to hear first-hand stories of historical and ongoing concerns.
“It was eye-opening to see what’s happening, it was also a shock,” David Matsinhe, the group’s director of research, policy and advocacy, said in an interview from Ottawa.
The dump is now a fenced-off scrubby bank that conceals decades of buried and burned waste from sources such as residences, the local hospital and a military base. Before it closed in 2016, stoves, fridges and oil tanks were heaped onto the pile.
“It’s very difficult to believe that we are in a First World country because those conditions don’t represent a First World country,” Matsinhe said.
Human rights at stake
Matsinhe said this is a matter of fundamental human rights — the rights to clean drinking water and to land tenure.
“They’ve told us that people had to abandon their house because of health issues that began after, you know, the dump had been there for a long time,” he said.
After the visit, Amnesty drafted a letter to Shelburne town council and the mayor in support of the residents “as they work to address long-standing environmental and racial injustices.”
Amnesty urged officials to provide safe drinking water, a cleanup of the dump site and accountability for what’s “widely recognized as a case of environmental racism.”
Shelburne Mayor Stan Jacklin declined an interview request, telling CBC News in a statement “the Town is going to reserve public comment until we have completed further review and have more comprehensive historical information available.”
Jacklin’s mayoral biography says he is the president of SEED, the South End Environmental Injustice Society, “a volunteer organization focused on delivering clean drinking water to the residents of Shelburne and beyond.”
Louise Delisle, who founded SEED in 2016, has been outspoken about the issue over the years and her advocacy has led to conflict with town officials.
The 75-year-old, currently the co-chair of the Centre for Environmental Justice, welcomed Amnesty’s involvement.
“Thank God,” she said. “People are starting to realize, like you know, that this is not just me running my mouth.”
Delisle lives in the house her father built when she was a child across the road and down a slope from the dump. The property has a dug well, as do many of the neighbouring homes. Even though she had a filtration system installed, she drinks bottled water.
Testing underway
Delisle hopes Amnesty’s campaign will accelerate movement toward redress.
The town is in the early stages of a project to decommission the landfill site, with initial groundwater tests having been conducted.
A 2023 report by Dillon Consulting said electrical conductivity data can “identify areas of potential buried debris or groundwater impacts.” The report identified areas of the dump with “high conductivity values that are usually a sign of potential contaminants or waste.” It also noted that “contaminants may, driven by infiltration, migrate out from the landfill.”
A public notice about the dump said the second phase involves capping the site, a “critical environmental protection measure,” with the eventual goal of turning it into a green space for public use.
Researchers at McMaster and Dalhousie universities have been studying whether the dump has made residents sick. They’re analyzing saliva and toenail samples to determine whether there’s a link between the dump and elevated cancer rates in the area.
Reparations necessary, says Delisle
Delisle was quoted in a 2024 report by a panel on environmental racism that recommended the provincial government apologize for and engage with the community to address environmental racism. Panel members met with cabinet ministers last month to discuss the report.
“I have to congratulate them on hitting that mark because it’s community organizations that have lived that whole environmental racism piece,” said Delisle.
However, she’s critical the panel did not recommend reparations. She said they’re needed, citing lower property values as one of the harms flowing from environmental racism.
“We’ve had no help in terms of improving or helping us bring our homes to the standard where those people in other areas are,” she said. “We’re paying the same taxes.”
So far, the Houston government has not committed to any of the panel’s recommendations.
Matsinhe said remedies are a must “when human rights have been violated, especially in this scale.”
Community well still not a reality
The situation was the subject of a 2019 documentary by actor Elliot Page based on a book by McMaster professor Ingrid Waldron. The film led to Page’s $25,000 donation for a community well, and a pledge of $5,000 annually to maintain it.
In 2021 there were discussions about converting a drilled well on the NSCC campus, property owned by the province, into a community well. Most of Page’s donation was spent testing the well for suitability, said Delisle.
Climate change, drought conditions and dry wells have only amplified the community’s need for it.
The Nova Scotia government said in a statement the community well project is eligible for provincial grant funding, but until a funding agreement is reached, it would not discuss specifics.
Delisle said she’s optimistic that within her lifetime she’ll no longer have to buy bottled drinking water.
“It has not been easy, but God puts us on a road that he wants us to be on,” she said. “I’m doing this for everybody else and myself as well.”
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