Imagine… It’s the early 2000s. You live peacefully in the countryside and care about your environment. Among other things, you lead the Quebec Association for the Fight against Atmospheric Pollution (AQLPA). One day you discover that a company has just set up shop in your backyard and is dumping hundreds of rusty wrecked cars there. These allow suspicious fluids to escape and form a channel that flows into the river, which has just been cleaned up after years of effort.
Your first reaction is to wonder if this is all legal, if the people in the neighborhood were consulted, and if the city gave permission. Then you find out that this vintage car cemetery is supposed to be used as a shredding center, but so far no permit has been granted and no environmental impact study has been carried out.
This industrial activity is therefore illegal and you intend to challenge it. You then go to court and request a temporary restraining order, which is quickly granted.
Now the owner of this salvage company is ready to play hardball. So he contacted a private company to try to stop this obstacle from going around in circles while simultaneously filing a SLAPP lawsuit against the AQLPA. “An abusive prosecution… […] Either you pay a fortune to defend yourself or you keep your mouth shut. » Result: After 80 years of activity, the AQLPA, one of the oldest environmental groups in Quebec, was forced to close its doors, heavily indebted.
This sad story is true, and that’s exactly what André Bélisle tells in this captivating work that traces his 40-year fight for the environment.
The Eagle
It all started during a vacation in British Columbia when André Bélisle fell in love with an Aboriginal woman. Her mother, a shaman, gave her this surprising revelation: “You are an eagle, it is your totem.” I know your fate. Their mission is to protect nature and the planet. If you don’t, you’ll regret it. If you submit to your fate, your life will be full of pitfalls, but you will achieve great things. »
Bélisle remembered these prophetic words when he decided to dedicate himself to environmental protection in the early 1980s.
What distinguished the AQLPA from other environmental organizations was its desire to provide education to the public. She did not hesitate to travel to shopping centers across Quebec and set up information kiosks. Even then, Noranda Mines was denounced as the largest polluter in Quebec and second largest in Canada after INCO.
Dams
Today, the debate over Hydro-Québec’s energy strategy continues, pitting environmentalists who protect nature against the engineering lobby that proposes building dams on all of Quebec’s major rivers.
For the AQLPA, “this idea of building dams in Quebec and exporting our electricity to the United States and thus avoiding producing dirtier energy there was ridiculous.” What should we choose between building dams to produce cleaner energy and not doing so? choose untouched rivers?
Much progress has been made since the first deadly smogs caused by burning coal and diesel in the 1930s. Quebec has long boasted of being the leader among countries that emit the fewest greenhouse gases. Is it still there today? More in the next volume.