This research examined changes in culture and agriculture in the rural community of Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia, with a specific interest in understanding and contextualizing (re)localization initiatives. The study employed key-informant interviews with 23 members of the agricultural community to develop a narrative of socio-agricultural transition, which was used to launch discussion on the role of agriculture during a public forum in Tatamagouche. The creamery was found to have played a central role in the community’s history, and its gradual decline coincided with the growing disuse of farmland in the area. New communities of farmers moved onto available farmland in Tatamagouche. Today, current ‘civic’ agriculture initiatives include CSAs, a local currency system, a farmers market, and a community land trust. The challenges and opportunities in the revived local agriculture community are discussed, and policy recommendations to support community-scale sustainable food systems are offered based on findings in Tatamagouche.

With the perpetual advancements in technology and communication the focus and obsession of architectural critique has become surfi cially focused on building “image”. This focus on image of architecture has taken away from the true meaning and focus of what architecture is, space and experience. Although most talks today are focused on image, there are a handful of architects that push for a more phenomenological approach. In the design process, they think more of how a space will feel and stimulate the senses, enrich a viewer’s experience and strengthen the relationship of the space to the context beyond. This thesis attempts to develop methods and concepts that focus on the study of site based phenomena. This thesis attempts to fi nd design processes that will see buildings conceptually conceived from their sites rather than merely placed upon them. The development of these methods and processes is the primary concern of the thesis. It uses Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia as a laboratory for testing.

Japanese knotweed is an invasive plant that grows in disturbed sites across Nova Scotia. This study recorded an average spring growth rate of 6cm per day until reaching a canopy height exceeding 2m in June. Knotweed stands contained on average 17 stems and 8.0kg of fresh biomass per m2. Leaf cover was significantly greater in knotweed patches versus grass and shrub habitats in riparian ecosystems. Plant diversity in knotweed patches was nil, yet invertebrate diversity and abundances were similar across habitats. Small mammal tracks were more abundant in knotweed than shrub patches, but not as much as grass plots. Two herbicides were applied at four different dates in 2011. The following year, Aminopyralid was ineffective while Imazapyr treatments successfully reduced knotweed biomass, density, height, and leaf cover. Imazapyr application is recommended at full growth (June) or flowering (August). This project provides new information on an invasive weed in eastern Canada.

Research in the area of sociolinguistics, African Nova Scotian Ebonics, and literacy achievement never truly developed in Nova Scotia. Unlike previous literacy outcome research, this research study employs a qualitative content analysis and Critical Pedagogy to examine the process of assessment and the Linguistic Deficit Theory embedded within the education system. The sociolinguistic hierarchy of Standard English has caused numerous misconceptions, which impacts the Ebonics speech community across the African diaspora. Yet, previous research found that the promotion of code-switching between Standard English and Ebonics in an anti-racist empowering environment promotes higher literacy achievement among Ebonics speakers. My research findings suggest that the Nova Scotia education system has implemented cultural and linguistic diverse curriculum policies. However, the Linguistic Deficit Theory resurfaces in several sections of the assessment process. These findings suggest that future research should focus on in-classroom participation or observing the assessment practices for more detailed and generalizable findings.

Hardpans, or cemented layers, form from precipitation and subsequent cementation of secondary minerals in mine tailings and can act as both physical and chemical barriers. During precipitation, metals in the tailings are sequestered, making hardpan a potentially viable method of natural attenuation. At Montague Gold Mines, Nova Scotia, tailings are partially cemented by the iron (Fe) arsenate mineral scorodite (FeAsO4•2H2O). Scorodite is known as a phase that can effectively limit aqueous arsenic (As) concentrations due to its relatively low solubility (<1 ppm, pH 5) and high As content (~30 wt.%). However, scorodite will not lower As concentrations from waters to below the Canadian drinking water guideline (0.010 ppm). To identify current field conditions influencing scorodite precipitation and dissolution and to better understand the mineralogical and chemical relationship between hardpan and tailings, coexisting waters and solids were sampled to provide information on tailings-water interactions. Hardpan cement compositions were found to include Fe arsenate and Fe oxyhydroxide in addition to scorodite. End-member pore water chemistry was identified based on pH and dissolved concentration extremes (e.g. pH 3.78, As(aq) 35.8 ppm) compared to most other samples (avg. pH 6.41, As(aq) 2.07 ppm). These end-member characteristics coincide with the most extensive and dispersed areas of hardpan. Nearly all hardpan is associated with historical arsenopyrite-bearing concentrate which provides a source of acidity and dissolved As+5 and Fe+3 for scorodite precipitation. A proposed model of progressive arsenopyrite oxidation suggests localized As cycling involving scorodite is occurring but is dependent on sulfide persistence. Therefore, permanent As sequestration is not expected. Remediation efforts would have to consider the possibility of scorodite dissolution after complete sulfide consumption or as a consequence of applying certain technologies, such as a cover. Conversely, if scorodite stability were maintained, the hardpan could be considered as a component in remediating the tailings at Montague. / Thesis (Master, Geological Sciences & Geological Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2008-12-22 09:36:08.157

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Between 1890 and 1927 hundreds of Nova Scotian children and adults were identified as either feeble-minded or mentally deficient through investigations conducted by physicians and philanthropists in the province. The earliest of these studies were not commissioned by the provincial government but instead reflected the middle-class internalization of the eugenic discourse. Reformers, drawn often from medical, religious, educational, and philanthropic vocations, sought with ever-increasing alacrity to respond to perceived social problems, such as poverty, prostitution, venereal disease, and alcoholism, with a scientific solution. The scientific solution that they embraced was eugenics. Eugenic ideology and programs rose to popularity in Europe and North America at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century. Driven by social anxiety and the medicalization of reproduction, eugenic theory expressed the concerns of the middle classes that those they deemed less fit on the basis of socio-economic class, education or heredity, were reproducing at a higher rate than the ‘desirable’ segments of the population. The application of eugenic theory was shaped by cultural assumptions about gender, class and race which resulted in the same principles finding different expression in different areas across the globe. This dissertation seeks to understand how local circumstances shaped the Nova Scotian understanding of eugenics and its application. It examines the manner in which Nova Scotian physicians and philanthropists, with strong ties to both New England and Britain, participated in the transnational eugenic discourse through both professional and popular publications and organizations. Overall it argues that the expression of eugenics in Nova Scotia culminated in legislation that enforced the inspection, segregation and institutionalization of individuals who were assessed as feeble-minded. In doing so it also calls attention to the need to recognize outcomes other than sexual sterilization as legitimate expressions of eugenic policy. Subsequently the influential role played by regional circumstances in shaping what was considered an acceptable eugenic outcome as well as how eugenic policy was sought and implemented is examined. In investigating what reformers understood to be eugenic, and conversely what they considered dysgenic, a complex discourse surrounding the health of populations and reliant on ideas of gender, race, and class is revealed.

In 1995, fiddler Ashley MacIsaac released the album Hi, How Are You Today? that featured MacIsaac performing traditional Celtic tunes accompanied by modern rock instruments. The musical genre transformation on the album (notable because people who were not fans of Celtic music bought this album, tracks were released for airplay, and music videos accompanied the singles) can be studied according to the types of genre transformation outlined by Alastair Fowler in Kinds of Literature. If MacIsaac's goal was to offer a popular rock album while playing traditional tunes on the fiddle, critics and members of his audience inevitably questioned his motivation, from which charges of pandering and exploitation followed. Alternate interpretations stressed that MacIsaac was merely adapting traditional music to reflect a changing musical climate. This thesis examines such perspectives, along with the global phenomenon of modernizing folk music amidst the ambiguous boundary between popular and folk musical genres.

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