50Things
Our Day In Court
The sidewalk in front of the Halifax Provincial Court, Spring Garden Rd.
Jacinte Armstrong
Do Jacinte’s dances on the sidewalk in front of the courthouse or in the courtyard to the right of the building.
Our Days In Court consists of four visual scores with accompanying audio instructions that invite audience members to embody the EAC’s four major court battles fought between the 1970s and today. Conceived as a “dance” for the audience, by the audience, the work summons individuals (or groups) to move through the motions of each case and its impacts. Guided by a visual “map” and audio cues, the movements are pedestrian in style, but illustrate how a cause gains momentum. This piece celebrates the impacts the EAC has made for Nova Scotians by taking audiences through the feeling of these actions.
The transcript or descriptive text for this piece can be found by touching the "Text" button in the bottom right hand corner of your screen in the "View the Art" section.
Jacinte Armstrong (she/her) is an artist based in K’jipuktuk/Halifax, NS. Her work explores embodied practice through performance, choreography, collaboration, and curation, communicating the experience of the body in relation to objects, materials, and people. Receiving her early training at Halifax Dance, she went on to study at Dalhousie University and at the New World School of the Arts in Miami, FL, and received her MFA from NSCAD University in 2020. Jacinte is a co-founder and Artistic Director of SiNS (Sometimes in Nova Scotia) Dance and was Artistic Director of Kinetic Studio from 2014-18. She performs regularly with SiNS, Mocean Dance, independently, and in her own work. Her choreography ranges from intimate and imagistic to large-scale collaborations with architects, visual artists, radio producers, filmmakers, and musicians. She has worked with many choreographers and collaborators, including Cory Bowles, Sara Coffin, Susanne Chui, Veronique MacKenzie, Lisa Phinney Langley, Liliona Quarmyne, Tedd Robinson, Serge Bennathan, Danièle Desnoyers, Denise Fujiwara, Sarah Chase, Liz Kinoshita, Sarah Joy Stoker, Katie Ward, Secret Theatre, Alicia Grant, Camille-Zoé Valcourt-Synott, Louis-Charles Dionne, and more. Her current and ongoing research is around scores for performance, exploring feminism and regionality through choreography and collaboration, and maintaining a sense of humour.
Photo Credit: Kevin MacCormack
In 1990, EAC (along with Greenpeace, the Cape Breton Coalition for Environmental Protection and the Save Boularderie Island Society) took the federal government to court for not conducting proper public consultation or an adequate environmental review and assessment for the expansion of the Point Aconi coal-fired power plant. The coalition of environmentalists lost and EAC nearly went bankrupt because of it. But that hasn’t stopped them from taking the government to court on a number of other occasions since, to challenge illegal and irresponsible activities. Other court cases concerned bottom dragging on Georges Bank, approving the first genetically engineered salmon for human consumption, and pesticide spraying for spruce budworm.
Spruce Budworm
Use each score as a map. It’s okay to take some liberties. The instructions tell you about four significant Ecology Action Centre court cases. Each score suggests movement and gestures, embodying actions of the EAC’s board, staff and volunteers for Environmental Justice in Nova Scotia and beyond. Use this audio as a hands-free guide for the movements suggested by the map. Press pause any time. Continue to do your movement. And then return to the recording.
To Spray or Not to Spray: Spruce Budworm Score
The Spruce Budworm became an issue for the Nova Scotian forestry industry in the 1970s and the provincial government was considering controlling the budworm with pesticide spray. A campaign against spraying for the Spruce Budworm was led by the Ecology Action Centre (EAC)- a then-newly formed NGO out of Halifax’s Dalhousie University- along with community group, the Cape Breton Landowners Against the Spray (CBLAS).
The EAC widely shared information that pesticide spraying was unproven, and could have potentially harmful effects. The EAC’s activities encouraged citizen participation through community meetings, media coverage, phone calling and letter-writing campaigns to public officials. (Elizabeth May, an EAC board member, lawyer, and activist at the time, was heavily involved, and in 1977 received the EAC’s Sunshine Award for her work.)
In 1980, the EAC helped attain a temporary court injunction followed by an out of court settlement against the aerial spraying of 2,4-D in Big Pond, Cape Breton. In 1982-83 the EAC prepared and presented a brief to the Nova Scotia government’s Royal Commission on Forestry. Concurrent to the Commission were the “Herbicide Trials”, in which a group of land owners launched a legal challenge to aerial spraying. The EAC helped to raise funds for the trials, and raise awareness of the issue at home and abroad. The decision came down against the landowners, (and in favour of the Nova Scotia Forest Industries), but public opinion remained on their side. Despite losing the court cases, the EAC was successful in bringing public and government attention to their cause.
BEGIN: Facing Southwest, inland towards the forests of Cape Breton
1. Face Southwest:
Look inland towards the forests of Cape Breton
2. Travelling forward:
With your arms indicate sharing information with other people, often and widely
With your arms gather support, reaching out and drawing support towards you
Write imaginary letters with one hand until your arm gets tired
phone someone and tell them about your cause and ask them to write a letter too
give an interview.
3. In place:
- Bring your two fists together in front of you, head-to-head
4. Optional travelling:
- Release your fists and firmly press your hands into the sky in an alternating pattern, blocking (imaginary) aerial spray planes.
5. In place:
- Pause. Bring your two fists together in front of you, head-to-head - With one hand, push the other one down
6. Travelling forward:
Slowly raise your arms overhead, and stir up the air
Walk forward, continuing to stir up the air all around you
Point Aconi
Use each score as a map. It’s okay to take some liberties. The instructions tell you about four significant Ecology Action Centre court cases. Each score suggests movement and gestures, embodying actions of the EAC’s board, staff and volunteers for Environmental Justice in Nova Scotia and beyond. Use this audio as a hands-free guide for the movements suggested by the map. Press pause any time. Continue to do your movement. And then return to the recording.
Point Aconi Score
BEGIN: at Eastern Edge of Battleman’s Beach, facing the Point Aconi Power Plant
MOVE: progressively towards the west
In 1990, Premier John Buchanan committed to the building of a new coal-fired power plant at Point Aconi, and limited environmental impact assessments for meeting new federal environmental guidelines. At the same time, (and in cooperation with Buchanan), the federal government decided that the only assessment required was an internal review by the federal Department and Fisheries and Oceans (DFO).
1. In place:
Extend an arm towards the power plant, indicate building the plant from the ground up, draw a protective field around it.
Travel towards point 2, keeping your eyes on the plant.
1990 EAC and 3 other organizations -- Greenpeace, the Cape Breton Coalition for Environmental Protection and the Save Boularderie Island Society -- took the Federal Government to court to demand a federal environmental assessment of the project impacts. They argued that inadequate research had been done into the plant’s environmental impacts, nor into viable alternatives. In 1991, the EAC and its partnering organizations lost the court battle, facing substantial court costs.
2. In place:
Bring your two fists together in front of you, head-to-head, and press them together
Drop your head, drop to your knees (or towards your knees)
3. Travelling:
- Tumble towards the water’s edge.
4. In place:
- Pause in a low position, feel the weight of your body.
Between 1992 and ‘96, EAC members and volunteers held many fundraisers to cover the deficits from the court cases, and eventually got the organization financially back-on-track. The power plant was initially promised to sustain the coal mining industry in Cape Breton, but by 2001 it failed to do so. Coal is now imported from the US.
5. Travelling:
- Walk west along the beach, scrambling a little. Quickly collect some sand, some rocks, some seaweed into a pile. Then, redistribute everything to new places. Make some noise. Repeat making a bigger pile.
6. In place:
Gather yourself, gather your supports
Turn to extend an arm back towards the power plant, and swipe the ground out from under it
Focus on the future
Dragging on Georges Bank
Use each score as a map. It’s okay to take some liberties. The instructions tell you about four significant Ecology Action Centre court cases. Each score suggests movement and gestures, embodying actions of the EAC’s board, staff and volunteers for Environmental Justice in Nova Scotia and beyond. Use this audio as a hands-free guide for the movements suggested by the map. Press pause any time. Continue to do your movement. And then return to the recording.
Dragging on Georges Bank Score
BEGIN:at the edge of the ocean, facing Southwest, facing towards Georges Bank (approx 900km)
MOVE: along the water’s edge
In Jan. 1999, the EAC submitted a 100-page report to the Georges Bank Review Panel written by Erin Rankin, Mark Butler and Tim Church.
1. In place:
- Look towards Georges Bank, about 900km away off the southwest coast of Nova Scotia
- Imagine holding a 100-page report you have written about it, then hand it over.
In 2001, the EAC accused the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) of violating its own legislation to protect fish habitat when it decided to reopen Georges Bank to dragger boats without first conducting an environmental assessment. The EAC sought a judicial review to revisit the decision. In Jan., 2004 the EAC presented arguments against dragging on Georges Bank before a Federal Court judge. The court found against the EAC, but awarded no costs.
2. Travelling:
- Imagine a pressure down on your shoulders until your fingers can touch the ground, then drag them along, following the path on the score. Stop once you arrive at number 3.
3. In place:
- Bring your two fists together in front of you, head-to-head, and press them together
- With one hand, push the other one down.
4. Travelling:
Once again, imagine pressure down on your shoulders. Sink as low as you can. Travel following the path on the score.
Progressively find some energy and regain your original posture
It was really important for EAC to continue to try to communicate to people that the ocean floor is more than just mud and rock - that it can be a complex habitat that requires protection. Fighting against the dragging helped create awareness for an issue that did not get a lot of attention outside of fishing communities.
In Oct. 2005 EAC members and Wayne Eddy, an inshore fisherman, drove to Ottawa with a trailer and dragger nets to demonstrate on Parliament Hill. They dressed up as fish and corals, and put on a “performance” showing fish and corals getting knocked down by a dragger.
5. In an area, you can move around.
- Take a body position of a fish or a coral and exaggeratedly become dragged along the shore by an imaginary dragger. Make some noise.
OR
- imagine yourself as a dragger boat and drag yourself along the ground, disrupting everything in your path. Make some noise.
2010 update: in part, due to the awareness raised by EAC’s actions, there is now a moratorium on oil drilling on Georges Bank. In 2015 the moratorium is extended to 2022, and in 2021 the government continues to commit to the moratorium into the future.
6. . Travelling
- Continue along the path, use to arms to create a zone of protection that keeps moving with you and into the future.
Genetically Modified Salmon
Use each score as a map. It’s okay to take some liberties. The instructions tell you about four significant Ecology Action Centre court cases. Each score suggests movement and gestures, embodying actions of the EAC’s board, staff and volunteers for Environmental Justice in Nova Scotia and beyond. Use this audio as a hands-free guide for the movements suggested by the map. Press pause any time. Continue to do your movement. And then return to the recording.
Genetically Modified Salmon Score
BEGIN: Facing the ocean, NorthWest towards PEI
MOVE: in a direction that feels like it’s “against the current,” such as into the wind
In late 2013, the Government of Canada approved the manufacture and export of genetically modified salmon eggs by an American company, AquaBounty, Inc. at their production facility at Bay Fortune, PEI. The company claimed their salmon could grow faster than wild Atlantic salmon. These salmon are the world’s first genetically modified food animal on the market for people to eat.
The EAC believed that the approval for manufacture of this GM salmon was unlawful under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA), and that the Canadian government failed to properly assess the risks -- particularly to wild Atlantic salmon -- if this new fish were to escape into the wild.
1. In place:
- Use your hands to shield your eyes as you look over towards PEI, then towards the direction you will move.
Thus, in 2013, the EAC and the Living Oceans Society took the federal government to court, with the case being heard at the end of 2015. However, the judge ruled against the EAC.
But the judge’s ruling seems in conflict with an approval previously given to AquaBounty by Environment Canada. So the EAC and the Living Oceans Society appealed the decision. In Oct. 2016, the judge ruled once again against the EAC.
2. Travelling:
- Jump over many hurdles, moving forward and backwards as required. Come to a stop.
3. In place:
- Bring your two fists together in front of you, head-to-head, and press them together
4. Travelling:
- While jumping over a hurdle, push one hand down with the other
5. Travelling:
- Jump over one more hurdle
6. In place:
- Urgently extend both arms out, palms up, then pull them back down onto your thighs. Keep them glued there.
EAC decided not to appeal again, recognizing that because of the existing legislation, the EAC wasn’t losing because their case lacked merit, but because of the wording of the existing law that regulates genetically modified animals in the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.
Subsequent to the Canadian losses, in 2016 the EAC joined as the only Canadian litigant in a US court case and, in 2020, won! In this case the judge ruled that further environmental assessment was needed to study the risks to wild salmon populations if the genetically modified fish were to escape and interact with them.
Meanwhile, the EAC’s Mark Butler, who had worked on all the Canadian court cases, left the EAC and is now working to change the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.
GESTURE: Choose your own adventure: Fish or Gavel
7.Fish. In place:
- Reach arms up into the air in victory!
OR
8. Gavel. Travelling:
- Find your inner motivation. Pick up something with heft and carry it forward as long as you can.