Northern Pulp pollution highlighted at Pictou concert

Pictou County hosted thousands of spectators on Tuesday night at a large-scale concert to raise awareness about emissions from the Northern Pulp mill.

The concert dubbed Clear the Air is featuring 17 artists at a free concert on the Pictou waterfront. The stage is adorned with a sign that reads: "Clean the mill. Safe air is a human right."

Troy Greencorn, the artistic director of the Stan Rogers Folk Festival in Canso, gathered musicians from across the province to send a message to government.

"I think our banner captures it," he said. "You can complicate the issue as much as you want, but at the end of the day everybody has the human right to safe, fresh air."

Thom Swift, a New Brunswick-born singer-songwriter based in Nova Scotia, was one of the first artists to sign up for the show. He said the issue hit him in July when he was performing at the Pictou Lobster Carnival.

"We never made it through the whole night because of the chemicals that I was tasting in my mouth," he said Tuesday.

"It was the first time that I really experienced it firsthand and I just couldn't believe what the people here have been dealing with."

• On mobile? See a tweet of the crowd at the concert

The concert lineup also includes Matt Andersen, Joel Plaskett, J.P. Cormier, Bruce Guthro, Mary Jane Lamond, Wendy MacIssac and Catherine MacLellan. A few musicians, including J.P. Cormier, wrote songs about the pulp mill specifically for Tuesday's show.

Public pressure working, say activists

The concert was organized by Dave Gunning, a singer-songwriter born in Pictou County. He said public pressure to clean up the mill is working.

"The mill is trying to do some things to address some of the problems that are happening over there. I know the electrostatic precipitator they're working on, that's supposed to be built and up and going for May," he said.

"We also feel that most of the reason why they're making efforts to fix some of the problems over there ultimately is because of public pressure."

Residents of Pictou have already been showing their support for the concert. James Murphy made walking sticks as gifts for all of the musicians and presented them to Gunning.

"I've lived here all my life," Murphy said, adding the concert is a good thing. "I like it."

Gunning said there havebeen some detractors on social media, but he suspects it's part of the mill's public relations campaign.

"One person on Facebook might say, 'Close the mill' and then all of a sudden they'll blame us," he said. "They think we want the mill closed, which isn't true at all."

Gunning said activist Erin Brockovich was trying to make it to the show for a surprise appearance, but wasn't able to make it. Brockovich posted her opposition to the Northern Pulp mill on her Facebook page earlier this month.

The guest speaker at Tuesday's concert is Dr. Dan Reid, who was the chief of staff at the Sutherland Harris Memorial Hospital in Pictou in 1989. At that time, he wrote a scathing report about the pulp mill and the comments weren't popular.

"There's no doubt in my mind whatsoever that pulp mill is having deleterious effects to the health of people in Pictou County, he said during a news conference in January 1990.

Nearly 25 years later, it's the same message activists are delivering on stage Tuesday night.