“Dig, baby, dig…”

The European Parliament recognized ecocide¹https://www.cairn.info/revue-projet-2016-4-70.htm in European law on March 29, 2023, with the following definition :

Any behavior causing serious and
widespread, long-term or irreversible damage.

Canada, for its part, has unfortunately not taken a position on this issue. In a country²9.985 millions km² with colossal natural resources, including fresh water³563 lakes, primary forests⁴16% worldwide and the biodiversity they shelter, one might expect these to be protected from the greed of industrial lobbies, for the good of all mankind.

Not so.

Mines, tailings dumps and waste rock piles are multiplying, and deforestation is growing at an unbridled pace against a backdrop of climate instability. Indigenous communities fall prey to these companies, the very ones cited in the media as actors in the “green transition” and “sustainable development”.

As we head North, we are shocked to discover that the rows of conifers we come across are no more than a pale wall protecting the edges of lakes and roads. Behind these trompe-l’œil, there is no longer a forest, but a land ravaged by clear-cutting, flanked by humps and holes from which rotten roots emerge…

Deforestation Facilitators” are sent out to deal with slow-moving negotiations⁵among the Atikamekw in particular , and ‘Territory Guardians’, mandated by the mining companies and band councils, criss-cross the territory.

In 2022, the majority of Quebecers believed that the mining industry had a significant negative impact on the environment. In 2023, the major fires that devastated the boreal forest and other primary forests vital to the climate because of their ability to store carbon only served to reinforce this view.

These events reveal the great vulnerability of ecosystems in these times of climate change, and the extreme urgency of curbing the massive exploitation of these territories.

At present, 21 mines are operational in Quebec, and 5 are undergoing maintenance⁶https://www.magazinermi.ca/mines-et-projets-miniers-au-quebec-3/#.

The majority of these mines (20 of the 22 listed in 2022) are owned by foreign groups.

In February 2023, 281,243 active mining claims were listed in the GESTIM register. To this figure must be added some 2,000 ha of abandoned mine sites, more than half of which have not been decontaminated, as well as acid-generating tailings ponds⁷under the effect of a bacterium: thiobacillus ferro-oxidans.

The long-term effectiveness of the techniques used to restore these sites is not yet certain.
These operations are also being criticized for the negative impact they have on indigenous populations: an alarming number of women from northern reserves have been reported missing, turned into prostitutes or murdered in towns near the workings.

Read Emmanuelle Walter, author of “Sœurs volées. Enquête sur un féminicide au Canada” and the article by Pascale Millot⁸https://gazettedesfemmes.ca/12498/traite-des-femmes-autochtones-au-canada-un-phenomene-occulte/.

History repeats itself… Colonization continues like a well-oiled infernal machine.
We no longer offer crystal beads to indigenous populations, but treaties that will burn the land and poison the water. And the traditional drum is beaten to sign agreements with industrial giants; a sacrilege, because for those who know aboriginal traditions, the drum resonates the heartbeat of Mother Earth…

Indigenous peoples are the owners of the mineral and forest resources of the territories they have occupied for millennia. If their sovereignty and prosperity are to be encouraged, we have a right to question their real decision-making autonomy in the face of the economic stakes of a country and think tanks sponsored by the actors of climate denial. All the more so since aboriginal governance (band councils) was established by colonization…

Faced with the challenges of the Plan Nord, actions follow one another in rapid succession and “all strings are pulled” to enable development.

Like an ant farm, clear-cutting methodically destroys forests, while hydroelectric and mining projects continue their titanic expansion into virgin territory. The race to extract rare metals for “green energy” – an erroneous fashionable slogan – is endangering the planet, and in particular the last virgin territories⁹https://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2024/05/09/extraire-des-metaux-sans-detruire-la-planete-l-autre-immense-defi-de-la-lutte-contre-le-rechauffement-climatique_6232303_3244.html.

Claim prospectors and anthropologists are deployed in the field to facilitate contact with indigenous communities. Patronage of social actions and cultural events is organized under the auspices of the companies…

Recently, Petapan¹⁰https://petapan.ca/page/presentation-de-entente-de-principe-ordre-general-epog, a G15-supported grouping of Innu communities¹¹band councils from Mashteuiatsh, Essipit and Nutashkuan, sparked strong reactions. While this treaty with the Quebec government¹²with spin-offs of over a billion dollars aims to establish Innu self-government including respect for ancestral rights and titles, it also implies the loss of several ancestral rights, which for these originally nomadic peoples represents a nonsense.

After his official visit in March 2023, Mr. José Francisco Calí-Tzay14 , US Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Rights, UNO15 , stated in his mission report :

A large number of megaprojects in indigenous territories are proceeding without good-faith consultation and in the absence of the free, prior and informed consent of the Indigenous Peoples concerned, as in the case of the Trans Mountain pipeline.16

As far as the Plan Nord is concerned, 50 percent of the territory north of the 49th parallel will be used for industrial purposes, which, according to specialists, will have no impact on the remaining 20 percent, reclassified as “protected areas”…

Of course, these percentages do not take into account the interconnected chain of living organisms, fragile ecosystems and the carbon sink that the boreal forest represents for the planet…

And what about wildlife? The caribou? What caribou¹³https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caribous-de-Val-d’%27Or_Biodiversity_Reserve ? Can we still speak of a herd when we mention the reprieve of seven animals from a Val d’Or enclosure after years of fruitless deliberation?

The question that needs to be asked today is not one of economic development, but of the protection of these territories, which were under the guardianship of aboriginal families and must remain so.

“You’ve made the journey from worm
to man, and you still have much of the worm in you”.
Nietzsche¹⁴ in “Thus Spoke Zarathoustra”.

At a time when denial of the climate crisis is gaining ground under the leadership of politicians out of touch with reality, perhaps we need to free ourselves from this biased vision of anthropomorphism¹⁵behaviour aimed at attributing human characteristics and values to the animals and objects around us which over the last few centuries has placed humanity at the summit of the living world, and cultivate this natural interdependence with all species. To finally understand that this notion is essential to our survival.

But to do so, humanity must learn to fight its own demons, and its fear of “difference”. To survive in this century, we can no longer be these power-hungry creatures, asserting their power through destruction and the arrogance of technological progress…

Indeed, humanity’s increasing loss of empathy has made us “the most dangerous species on earth”¹⁶https://www.lesechos.fr/weekend/perso/sebastien-bohler-lhistoire-de-lhomme-est-celle-dune-perte-dempathie-pour-les-autres-formes-de-vie-1848813, as neuroscientist Sébastien Bohler suggests.