J.D. Irving, Limited traces its origins to a sawmill operated in Bouctouche, New Brunswick, by its namesake, James Dergavel Irving.[1] Ownership of J.D. Irving's operations passed to his children, one of whom—Kenneth Colin Irving—assumed majority control and used JDI to expand into pulp and paper and other forestry-related businesses between the 1920s and 1940s.
In the post-war years, JDI acquired pulp mills in Saint John and upstate New York, as well as sawmills throughout New Brunswick. During the 1950s, JDI took control of a shipyard in Saint John and established several trucking and heavy industry companies, such as Irving Equipment, to meet the growing needs of its operations.
As a major regional industrial conglomerate, subsidiaries of J.D. Irving have been involved in several notable incidents:
In 1970, an oil barge named Irving Whale sank in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, causing periodic oil spills until it was raised by the federal government in 1996.
In 2007, the Irving Pulp & Paper Ltd. mill at Reversing Falls accidentally released 680,000 litres of green liquor into the Saint John River. The company pleaded guilty and was fined $50,000. In November 2008, Environment Canada investigators exercised a search warrant at Irving Pulp & Paper's head office to gather further information about the spill.
In November 2008, JDI Logistics and Atlantic Towing made headlines following an accident involving the transport of two new turbines from Saint John Harbour to the nearby Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station. The subsidiaries had been subcontracted by Siemens AG—the turbine replacement subcontractor for NB Power, the facility's owner. The turbines, manufactured in Scotland, were shipped to Saint John aboard a cargo vessel on a road transport vehicle. During offloading onto a barge owned by Atlantic Towing Ltd., the cargo shifted, causing the barge to capsize and sending both the turbines and the transport vehicle into Saint John Harbour.
Later that month, the Atlantic Towing Ltd. dredging barge Shovel Master was being towed by the company's tugboat Atlantic Larch from Saint John to Halifax for a refit when it foundered in heavy seas 20nmi (37km) west of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. The three crew members were rescued by a CH-149 Cormorant search-and-rescue helicopter before the barge capsized. Several Atlantic Towing tugboats and commercial divers responded; the tug Atlantic Oak secured a tow line to the capsized (but still floating) barge. The barge was towed 45nmi (83km) south of Yarmouth but ultimately sank in 150m (490ft) of water, carrying 70,000L (18,000USgal) of diesel fuel, 1,000L (260USgal) of hydraulic fluid, and 5,000L (1,300USgal) of waste oil.
Controversies
J.D. Irving’s ownership of most major media outlets in New Brunswick has led to ongoing concern regarding control of the media. A report from the Canadian Senate in 2006, on media control in Canada singled out New Brunswick because of the Irving companies' ownership of all English-language daily newspapers in the province, including the Telegraph-Journal. Senator Joan Fraser, author of the Senate report, stated, "We didn't find anywhere else in the developed world a situation like the situation in New Brunswick."[5] The report went further, stating, "the Irvings' corporate interests form an industrial-media complex that dominates the province" to a degree "unique in developed countries." At the Senate hearing, journalists and academics cited Irving newspapers' lack of critical reporting on the family's influential businesses.[6]
Censorship
On multiple occasions, J.D. Irving has attacked CBC News and Jacques Poitras,[7] a journalist and author who is employed by CBC as their New Brunswick provincial affairs reporter.[8] In 2014, Poitras published Irving vs. Irving: Canada's Feuding Billionaires and the Stories They Won't Tell, which Bruce Livesey of Canada's National Observer described as detailing about "the recent history of the Irvings' media holdings, as well as the deteriorating relationship among the Irving brothers and cousins as they squabble over the empire's wealth and future direction."[7] On December 2, 2015, Poitras published an article about Eilish Cleary's sudden leave from her position as Chief Medical Officer of Health in New Brunswick, noting that Cleary had been studying glyphosate, a herbicide recently labelled as "probably carcinogenic to humans" by the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer, at the time. In the article, Poitras briefly mentioned that glyphosate was used by J.D. Irving and NB Power.[9] Two days later, J.D. Irving spokesperson Mary Keith released a "sharply worded" statement in response,[10] calling the article a "sensational story" and accusing CBC News of presenting "an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory as fact," further claiming that CBC "falsely implied that J.D. Irving, Limited (JDI) is or was involved in some sort of conspiracy against Dr. Cleary because JDI uses glyphosate".[11] In their statement, Irving also demanded that CBC "immediately remove the story from their website, publish a full retraction, and apologize for their appalling behavior". Poitras responded back on Twitter with a tweet stating, "We stand by our story."[10][12] In 2016 and 2017, J.D. Irving made two attempts to have Poitras banned from writing about the Irvings and their operations by filing complaints to the CBC ombudsman; both complaints were reviewed and dismissed. According to Esther Enkin, who reviewed the second complaint, restricting Poitras from writing about the Irvings or using his personal Twitter account "would amount to a form of censorship".[7]
East Isle Shipyard is a shipbuilding facility in Georgetown, Prince Edward Island and owned by Irving.[13] The small shipyard is located on Water Street with single slipway along Georgetown Harbour. It is the sole shipbuilding facility in the province.
It was founded as Bathurst Marine in Bathurst, New Brunswick in 1961,[14] before moving to Georgetown in 1965.[15] The facility has operated in various names but with current name since the 1990s.[15]
The yard built trawlers in the 1960s, the diversified in the 1970s, before it began to specialize in tugs in the 1990s.[15]
In 2010, the shipyard laid off staff due to lack of orders.[16]
12"History". J.D. Irving, Limited. Archived from the original on 13 March 2014. Retrieved 27 July 2014.
↑"About Us". J.D. Irving, Limited. Archived from the original on 17 August 2014. Retrieved 27 July 2014.
↑"J.D. Irving, Limited". Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada. Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada. Archived from the original on 13 March 2014. Retrieved 27 July 2014.
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