Over the past year, I\u2019ve broadly noted the widespread notoriety and influence of Archbald\u2019s fight against industrialized annihilation, but lacked a dramatic example to cite as living, organizing, protesting proof.<\/p>\n
I found one in Maritime Canada.<\/p>\n
Actually, it found me. On antisocial media, no less.<\/p>\n
After Archbald Borough Council unanimously made the sane, solidly reasoned decision to reject<\/a> the Wildcat Ridge Data Center Campus application last Wednesday, I filmed a 33-second reel<\/a> of the crowd\u2019s jubilant reaction and posted it to my Chris Kelly, The Times-Tribune<\/a> Facebook page. It immediately drew likes and shares, some from people in the room.<\/p>\n Then Archbald went viral.<\/p>\n As of Tuesday, the reel was viewed more than 51,000 times and widely shared as a victory for communities rallying against the AI hyperscale data center invasion. How widely shared? How about Nova Scotia?<\/p>\n The Archbald victory was celebrated by members of Nova Scotia Against Data Centres<\/a>, a fledgling grassroots resistance group almost identical to Stop Archbald Data Centers<\/a> when it began as a pact between co-founders Tamara Misewicz-Healey and her husband Justin Healey.<\/p>\n I reached out to Nova Scotia Against Data Centres (how it\u2019s spelled up there) and was connected with organizer Benjamin F. Lauzon. We chatted on the phone Tuesday like gossiping neighbors in the small world the global data center invasion has made of the planet.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t allow a lot of things on our group (page) because it just gets too overwhelmed with information and misinformation and comments,\u201d Lauzon said. \u201cYours got in there because people needed to see (Archbald neighbors) cheer when they were actually able to beat the data center that was coming to their community. It is inspiring and people need to see that it is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n A lack of aggressive, local accountability journalism combined with government and corporate pro-data center propaganda were driving forces in the founding of Nova Scotia Against Data Centres, Lauzon said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been really hard here, because the community is not aware that these things are happening,\u201d he said. \u201cThey don\u2019t know about these billion-dollar companies and the million-dollar lobbyists that they have\u2026 and just getting information out has been hard.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s why I was up until three o\u2019clock in the morning last night (making an informational video) even though I have full-time employment and I\u2019m here at work today at 8:30 in the morning.\u201d<\/p>\n Lauzon, 45, declined to disclose his profession. It\u2019s a union position and his anti-data center activism is personal. I don\u2019t have the space to share all the details of the project Lauzon and his neighbors are fighting. Suffice it to say the Canadian government is backing it with sweet talk and taxpayer subsidies, it was birthed in political and business backrooms, it keeps changing in scope and size and the profiteers pushing it are holding everyday Nova Scotians hostage while the process plays out.<\/p>\n Sound familiar?<\/p>\n It did to Misewicz-Healey, who was happy to hear Archbald is inspiring its neighbors far north, but not surprised.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we got involved in this, you\u2019re so in survival mode that you\u2019re really not looking at the bigger picture of influence,\u201d she said Tuesday. \u201cYou\u2019re kind of just trying to see what you have to do next \u2026<\/p>\n \u201cAnd you\u2019re so busy in the now that we didn\u2019t really notice how important our fight was not only to our local region, but we\u2019ve had people from across the state, across the country, we\u2019ve had people from other countries message us (for advice), Canada being one, Australia being another.\u201d<\/p>\n She said Stop Archbald Data Centers has received useful advice, too, notably from distressed residents of Loudoun County, Virginia, now known as \u201cData Center Alley<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve had people from Loudoun County reach out and tell us, \u2018Don\u2019t let this get started there,\u2019 you know, warning us,\u201d she said. \u201cSo, yeah, I think an unexpected surprise that kind of came with our movement was realizing the impact it was going to have across our country and the globe, really.\u201d<\/p>\n