“I dress much more soberly,” the law student immediately replies with a smile in her voice.
“But I probably have the same stubborn forehead as her,” she continues. I just recently watched the film again. I think we’ve forgotten that Erin Brockovich was a wonderful listener. She went out into the field, listened to people and took seriously what they had to say. »
Listening is also what Marie-Ève has been doing for the last 18 months. And if a class-action lawsuit could be filed against the Horne Foundry and the Quebec government on Monday, that’s a little, a lot, because it has been studying the issue meticulously for a year and a half.
As a researcher specializing in assessing social impact and social acceptability of large projects and an accredited mediator who also works as a lecturer in the environment at the University of Sherbrooke and UQAM, she has invested without counting, driven by his outrage and by the idea that action needed to be taken.
“The foundry and the government knew and did nothing. »
It’s serious. That’s crazy.
“A polluter will pollute until we perhaps set limits on him, but a government has duties, a mission to protect its people.” We expect more. »
We expect better.
“When it came to light in the media, when I heard about the hidden information and the famous Appendix 6, I was struck by the magnitude of what we discovered. »
Marie-Ève Maillé is not from Abitibi, she has no roots there. She lives in Montreal, but still deals with this topic. Thorough.
“I have a fucking pig face and I wouldn’t give up. Because I think that the citizens of Rouyn-Noranda are victims of great injustice. »
For months she pored over studies, biomonitoring reports and documents, some of which dated back to the 1970s and 1980s.
She gives me a number that hurts and leaves me speechless. At the beginning of the 2000s, the annual arsenic concentration in the air of Rouyn-Noranda was 1000 nanograms per cubic meter. Thousand!
“The standard set by public health is 3 nanograms per cubic meter. Imagine? How come no red light came on? That makes no sense. Seeing a multinational corporation make profits at the expense of the health of those around them, with no regard for them, as if their lives don’t matter, cannot be tolerated. »
She met these people who have been breathing in this cocktail of pollutants for several decades, sometimes even for several decades. The statements of dozens of people were collected to compile a comprehensive file.
“I had a few entries in Abitibi, I sent out my network. »
She collected sad stories and others disturbing ones.
“When I picked up the phone there to speak to someone, it took at least an hour. People have a lot to say, but they hardly find open ears. »
Every time there was worry. Every time there was fear.
“It’s striking: When a report appears in the media about the particularly high amount of arsenic in the city’s air on this or that day, everyone wonders what they were doing that day – there. Everyone is afraid of being exposed. It is a reality that affects the daily life of the entire population. »
It’s hard to imagine what this means in everyday life.
It’s a multitude of small gestures, constant worries. For example, leave your boots or shoes outside to avoid the entry of toxic particles. Like watching over the kids so they don’t put their hands full of dirt in their mouths. Like controlling the comings and goings of pets. Like wondering if you cleaned well enough to remove dangerous dust. Like hesitating before opening the windows.
“You always wonder if you’re taking a risk even though you can’t really protect yourself. »
And that we actually don’t want to or can’t go.
“Citizens feel connected to their city, they feel comfortable there, find a rich cultural life and a valuable community spirit there. »
But they live with a neighbor with poisoned chimneys.
“Arsenic is a non-threshold carcinogen. Even a single exposure can be enough to make people sick. We have sacrificed the health of an entire population. In Rouyn-Noranda everyone is exposed without distinction. Children, the elderly, everyone. »
And the class action lawsuit brought by the law firm Siskinds Desmeules, where Marie-Ève Maillé will do her internship, is directed against all of these people. The authorization request consists of 97 pages. It’s tough. It is the result of several months of work in secret.
“This morning I got up before dawn. I can finally talk about what I’ve been working on for over a year. It creates a little excitement. »
Also a certain feeling of dizziness.
“I’m not a lawyer yet, I still have a year of training ahead of me, but let’s just say I’m learning extremely quickly at the moment. When I went back to study law at the age of 40, it was about doing projects like this to tackle inequalities. It was the logical continuation of what I have been doing for almost 20 years. »
If the appeal is granted, the upcoming civil dispute could become a lesson learned. It will take a long time, Marie-Ève knows it. She has time to take her bar exam, be sworn in, and begin practicing law.
“We know that it will be difficult, that we have two parties in front of us that will not do us any favors. We are determined. We will fight this battle day by day and do so rigorously.”
And by continuing to listen to the people of Rouyn-Noranda. To show them that their lives and health are important.
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