Voisey Bay Blockade Information
8/30/97
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Headline: Voisey Bay Blockade Information
Source: Friends of Nitassinan POB 804 Burlington VT 05402
802-425-3820.
Date: 8/30/97
Author: Alexis Lathem
300 Innu and Inuit Blockade Road Construction
at Voisey's Bay (Labrador)
Environmental Assessment of Proposed Massive Nickel Mine Undermined
The Environmental Assessment of a proposal to develop one of the
world's largest industrial complexes in the heart of Eastern North
America's greatest wilderness is currently underway. The Voisey Bay Nickel
Company (owned by Inco) has proposed to extract an estimated 150 million
tonnes of nickel, cobalt and copper ore from a massive sulfur body located
in the fertile, forested valley between Voisey's and Antakalek Bays, in
remote northern Labrador. Approximately 35 million tonnes of waste rock
will be dumped over forests, marshes and bogs, intersected by numerous wild
and unspoiled rivers. Approximately 16 million tonnes of acid-generating
waste rock will be stored in ponds, and discharged into presently unspoiled
marine environments, in addition to millions of tonnes of acid-generating
tailings. Roads, airstrips, shipping docks, quarries, mills, powerlines,
generators, tailings impoundments, water diversions, sewage, and workers
facilities will be constructed. In the end the company presumes it will
rehabilitate the site "to approach pre-development conditions."
Innu and Inuit Blockade -- and Win
Despite the fact that the Environmental Review process is only
beginning, the Voisey Bay Nickel company (Inco) began construction of a
road and an airstrip this summer. The Company attempted to treat this
"advanced exploration infrastructure" as a separate project, and not a part
of the project that was under review. Aboriginal groups tried to stop the
construction in the courts, arguing that the environmental assessment
process was being undermined; but the Newfoundland Supreme Court ruled
against them. The Innu and Inuit appealed, but while the case dragged on,
construction was underway. On August 20, the first Inuit protestors arrived
at the construction site; over the next two days, Innu from communities in
Labrador and Quebec joined them, and by the 23rd of August, 300 protestors
were at the site and all work had stopped. They had stockpiled food and
supplies and were prepared to remain for as long as necessary. By August
28, a temporary injunction was won, preventing any further construction
until the Appeal has been decided.
Lessons in Respect
While the company was pushing ahead with its plans to go ahead with
the road this summer, the Environmental Assessment Charade was taking
place. All along the Atlantic seaboard, from the lower north shore of
Quebec to the northernmost community in Labrador, residents of coastal
communities turned out to testify at the scoping sessions to express their
anxieties, anger, bitterness, opposition-- but never their approval or
consent. Although Labradorians are depicted by the government and the
press as eager for the jobs the mines will provide, their comments
expressed both a cynicism about the promise of jobs as well as a profound
attachment to the land:
"And after its over, we won't get nothing out of it after
its over. Somewhere down the road 15, 20 years after the mine is over, I
wonder then what's going to happen to it. The land will be polluted. Our
caribou will be gone, the wildlife and a land that's so good..."
But it was the aboriginal people, particularly the Innu, who turned
out in force. Their testimony was angry, defiant, at times even menacing:
"I would be very cautious and take us very seriously...because a lot of
young people are very frustrated."
Katie Rich, the newly-elected Innu Nation President, in a response
to a question about the status of land claims negotiations, wryly commented
on the built-in bias of a process set-up to defeat them: "The land claims
process has been ongoing for the last 20 years. I think it would be really
good if this process is as slow as the land claims process."
Innu Elders spoke of their early years in and around Voisey's Bay,
of a life that seems so remote it is almost incredible that there are
living witnesses. They spoke of reverence, reciprocity, respect, of
cosmologies, dreams and animal masters. The younger Innu that followed
knew that these concepts would need interpretation, that the dignity
expressed by their Elders would be misunderstood: "The Elders are saying to
you guys, "respect"... They respect the animals. They respect the land.
They respect the company."
Although the Innu, in a sense, bared their souls, at the same time
they did not hesitate to express their belief in the uselessness of the
current process: "Is the Voisey Bay Nickel Co. really interested in our
concerns, or are we wasting our time again? How many times have we heard
the statement, "we are here to listen"?"
The Innu's past experiences with governments has given them little
reason to have faith. It is not likely that the EIS will reflect the
subtleties of the complex world view of the aboriginal people. Once the
formality of "listening" has concluded, it will be business as usual. Or as
one Innu Elder put it, "The government thinks the job is complete after
they have deceived the people."
Lessons on respect would have to be long and hard. Already wildlife
is being harassed, lakes strewn with leaking fuel drums, caribou driven off
cliffs by low-flying choppers. Bears have been removed to barren islands,
chased off with rubber bullets, or simply shot. Innu and Inuit, for their
socio-economic advancement, are given jobs cleaning latrines.
Although opposition to the massive mining operation is nearly
unanimous in these communities, there has been a lack of confidence in the
power of their opposition. Little support has been coming from the
international environmental community, although the ecological consequences
of the project are likely to be international in scope. This week's victory
thus provides as a real shot of encouragement to these communities facing
the overwhelming nature of the project -- reputed to be one of the most
significant mineral finds in Canada's history, with $4 billion already
invested.
Smelter
Inco has proposed to locate its smelter for the ore extracted from
Voisey' s Bay in Argentia, Newfoundland, directly over the Grand Banks,
once one of the world's richest fisheries. It will be Inco's -- and the
world's -- largest nickel smelter, larger than Sudbury's, which is the
greatest single source of acid rain in the western world. So far, neither
the European countries, nor the United States, who will be affected by an
exponential increase in acid rain levels, have responded to this serious
menace. Any conservationists working for the protection of marine life
down-current of the smelter need to be concerned about this new source of
acid and heavy-metals pollution.
There has been a sense of inevitability about the Voisey's Bay
project since the "Klondike" discovery was announced in 1994. Yet Inco
still has to overcome enormous obstacles -- technological, political,
economic--before it can begin operating in a place locked in ice six months
of the year and entirely without infrastructure. If Inco succeeds in
developing this intractable wilderness --"the land God gave to Cain"-- it
will be the first success out of many attempts to do so. In June, it was
announced that the project will be delayed a year because land claims
negotiations were not settled (an important political risk insurance for
the company). Meanwhile, workers at Inco's Sudbury operations are on
strike.
One of Earth's Roadless Places
The Voisey's Bay Nickel company almost got away with building a
road in one of the world's largest roadless areas (amounting to hundreds of
miles) without so much as an environmental review. If it had not been for
the Innu and Inuit protest, they would have succeeded. This area is among
the very few places on the continent that remains relatively unchanged
since the first European colonizers arrived over 500 years ago. In fact, it
is one of the few places in the world--particluarly among lowland, coastal
areas-- that remains ecologically undisturbed. This region ought to be
prized--and protected-- for what it is -- for its unspoiled free-flowing
rivers, its populations of caribou, wolves, bears, raptors, whales,
dolphins and seals, and other species that have been driven to near
extinction elsewhere.
Letters are Needed
The injunction against road-building is only temporary. Write to
the Canadian and Newfoundland governments demanding that their own
Environmental Assessment process be respected, and to deny the Company any
permits to start work.
Write to: Kevin Alyward, Minister of Environment, POB 8700 St Johns, NF,
A1B 4J6. And to: Christine Stewart, Minister of Environment, Canada,
Terrace de la Chaudiere, 10 Wellington St, Hull Quebec, K1A 0H3 Canada.
The Innu need to know you support them, so please send copies of your
letters to: Katie Rich, General Delivery, David Inlet, Labrador A0P 1A0
Canada.
Information on the Voisey's Bay Environmental Assessment, including the
transcripts from the hearings, is posted on the Internet
(http://www.ceaa.gc.ca/english/panel/voisey/voisey/etransc.html).
For more info contact Friends of Nitassinan POB 804 Burlington VT 05402
802-425-3820.