By the Native Forest Network
"The James Bay Project is the ultimate arrogance of the engineering mentality in its devastation of the North American continent", says Thomas Berry, the author of Dream of the Earth. What is at stake is the entire ecosystem and the inhabitants of the James Bay region of the Canadian province of Quebec. This region is the heart of the largest remaining wilderness area in eastern North America.
James Bay forms the southern tip of Hudson Bay. This shallow salt-water bay is the largest northern river drainage system. The fresh water from virtually every major river from the north-eastern part of the North American continent flows into James Bay, where it mixes with the bay's salt water over marshy tidal flats to create a vast and diverse ecosystem.
Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa announced on April 30, 1971, the James Bay Hydro Project to tap the energy of the rivers flowing into James Bay and Hudson Bay to produce electric power. Bourassa called the endeavour "the project of the century". It is being carried out under the guidance of the utility corporation Hydro-Quebec (H-Q).
The multibillion-dollar project, is an ecological disaster. First started in 1971, Phase 1, called the LaGrande Project, is now in its final stages. It began with the building of many dams and dykes and the flooding of over 10,000 square kilometres of land. This destroyed the habitat for a vast number of migratory birds, fish and mammals. In the '80s, 10,000 caribou were drowned when water was released from one of the reservoirs.
The area affected by the flooding is the home of the indigenous Cree. The project has uprooted several of their communities and affected their health and traditional way of life.
Mercury poisoning is a by-product of the "project of the century." Mercury contamination occurs when vast areas of land are flooded. As the flora decays, it produces methyl mercury, a bioaccumulative poison. There is documented mercury poisoning in many of the Cree.
High tension lines, aluminium smelters and roads have also disrupted the area. With the disruption of the Cree traditional way of life have come higher rates of suicide and alcoholism.
Phases 2 and 3
Phase 2 is the current scheme being fought by indigenous people and environmentalists. It will flood about the same area as the LaGrande Project and bring even more devastating ecological and social traumas. River diversions will lead to a concentration of fresh water flowing into Hudson Bay, which will alter the salinity and water temperatures, impacting on marine life.
Mercury contamination will be repeated. This time, the mercury will make its way into Hudson Bay, affecting the beluga whales and seals that live there. The area is the ancestral land of the Cree and Inuit.
Phase 3 looms ominously in the future. The $100 billion proposal is to build a 160-kilometre dyke across the mouth of James Bay, separating it from Hudson Bay so that the now fresh water from James Bay can be pumped (possibly using nuclear-powered pumps) to the Great Lakes and thence to the midwestern and south-western United States.
These projects will make a serious contribution to global climate change through greenhouse gases released and the disruption of James Bay hydrological processes; and will cause other, as yet unknown, long-term ecological changes.
Additionally, much of the coniferous lichen woodland with black or white spruce and the spruce-balsam fir forest will be lost.
Albert Meascum, a Cree trapper living in the Ouje-Bougoumou village, had this to say about forestry in Quebec: "I asked the forest company not to cut certain parts of my trapping territory, but they paid no attention ... Before the forest companies came, there was lots of game. By cutting down the trees they have chased away the animals. They have taken away their food supplies ... As well as cutting down the trees, the forest companies pollute. They spill oil and gas on the land and poison the young willows that feed the moose. When the snow melts, the gas and oil go into the lakes and pollute the water and the fish."
All power to H-Q
Hydro-Quebec has been given free rein to implement a governmental economic policy based on hydro-electric power. The Quebec government may visualise that this will spur regional economic development and improve its balance of trade as it moves to secede from Canada.
H-Q has the full weight of the government behind it, with easy access to police, judicial, and military force to enforce its decisions. H-Q has gone as far as creating a private police force that crosses national boundaries by operating in the US to gather information on those opposed to the projects.
As a governmental institution, H-Q can use eminent domain laws to seize land and personal property which it needs for its projects without respecting the rights of the traditional dwellers of the region.
H-Q functions as a profit-making business, and has used this as an excuse to throw a shroud of secrecy over its operations. All of its business dealings are secret. Quebec Superior Court Justice Andre Forget recently issued an injunction forbidding journalists from publishing the contents of H-Q's secret contracts with 13 multinational corporations.
The vested interests profiting from H-Q have become one of the dominant forces in Quebec politics. The companies and institutions originally created to serve a governmental goal of energy independence are now controlling the government.
[Further information on the campaign to save James Bay is available from the Native Forest Network, c/- Friends of the Earth, 312 Smith St, Collingwood Vic 3066, phone (03) 419 8700.