Greenpeace woodland caribou Broadback
Photo: Greenpeace

The ‘new’ face of environmental racism in Quebec

The provincial government’s lack of action on caribou recovery jeopardizes Indigenous Rights and lives

Adrienne Jérôme is Chief of the Lac Simon First Nation and spokesperson for the Council of Elected Women of the Assembly of First Nations of Quebec-Labrador. Christy Ferguson is the executive director of Greenpeace Canada.

The Earth is sick and so are its peoples, with Indigenous Peoples being affected more than most. Despite the warnings and the solutions Indigenous Peoples have provided, they continue to be ignored. This is environmental racism.

Take, for example, the Quebec government’s recent decision to again postpone its strategy to recover caribou across the province. For an animal of profound cultural and spiritual significance, that is also central to Indigenous food systems, the decision is a death sentence. This is a direct affront to the Indigenous communities for whom the caribou play a fundamental role. Not only the lack of action for caribou recovery, but the lack of real dialogue or meaningful efforts to listen to Indigenous perspectives is in itself a form of environmental racism. Through the inaction and inertia of the Government of Quebec, the ancestral rights of Indigenous Peoples have been and are still widely violated.

Forests are home to over 80 per cent of all terrestrial species of animals, plants and insects,  and are a source of livelihood for 1.6 billion people, including many Indigenous communities in Quebec. Forests managed by Indigenous communities exhibit a high degree of ecological integrity and are able to act as a life-support system for entire human populations. With a presence on the land since time immemorial and a multi-millennial empirical knowledge of their territories, Indigenous traditional knowledge offers a real complement to modern science. Given the depth of their knowledge, not to mention their rights to govern the land, our responses to current ecological crises must be grounded in Indigenous knowledge and leadership.

“Consulting” with Indigenous Peoples downstream of projects and doing so in a one-way, paternalistic, briefing format is not good enough. Ignoring experts and insulting scientists, when it serves political interests, is no more of a winning strategy. 

The persistence of colonialism

To this day, Indigenous communities bear the brunt of systemic discrimination. This discrimination perpetuates a colonial model in which resource grabbing and extractivism dominate. When the Quebec government makes statements like ‘a forest logged is worth more than a forest standing’ — to paraphrase — or “[we will not] sacrifice forestry jobs for one caribou,” we see clearly the narrow and exploitative mindset. 

Greenpeace, log piles, Quebec
Log piles at the Eacom Timber Corporation lumber mill near Matagami, in northeastern Quebec. Photo: Greenpeace

When it comes to the forest, we are told the goal over all others is profit, but the ongoing destruction of Indigenous lands robs Indigenous communities of their grocery stores and pharmacies.

The consequence of this is the oppression and impoverishment of Indigenous Peoples, forcing them to change their diet and lifestyle, resulting in communities that suffer physically, mentally and spiritually. It’s not just the caribou that are endangered in the boreal forest, it’s the delicate balance that is essential to life.

Systemic and environmental racism

The Anishnabe First Nation of Lac Simon has experienced a history of governmental discrimination by successive governments, exploitation of minors, kidnapping and murder of women and children, in addition to  systematic impoverishment through the loss of its territory and resources.

In Quebec, and elsewhere in Canada, the lack of consent and the violation of rights along with the refusal to sincerely consult with Indigenous communities regarding their forests constitutes a form of systemic and environmental racism. This aggravates and accelerates a pervasive cultural genocide that began with colonialism.

Let us remember the obligation of governments to recognize and redress past and present injustices suffered by Indigenous Peoples, to respect treaty rights and international law and to ensure the well-being of Indigenous communities and cultures. It is impossible to deliver on these responsibilities without the input of impacted communities. In Quebec this starts with the protection of caribou, a living barometer of the health of our forest ecosystems.

Like a kid in a candy store
When those boxes of heavily redacted documents start to pile in, reporters at The Narwhal waste no time in looking for kernels of news that matter the most. Just ask our Prairies reporter Drew Anderson, who gleefully scanned through freedom of information files like a kid in a candy store, leading to pretty damning revelations in Alberta. Long story short: the government wasn’t being forthright when it claimed its pause on new renewable energy projects wasn’t political. Just like that, our small team was again leading the charge on a pretty big story

In an oil-rich province like Alberta, that kind of reporting is crucial. But look at our investigative work on TC Energy’s Coastal GasLink pipeline to the west, or our Greenbelt reporting out in Ontario. They all highlight one thing: those with power over our shared natural world don’t want you to know how — or why — they call the shots. And we try to disrupt that.

Our journalism is powered by people just like you. We never take corporate ad dollars, or put this public-interest information behind a paywall. Will you join the pod of Narwhals that make a difference by helping us uncover some of the most important stories of our time?
Like a kid in a candy store
When those boxes of heavily redacted documents start to pile in, reporters at The Narwhal waste no time in looking for kernels of news that matter the most. Just ask our Prairies reporter Drew Anderson, who gleefully scanned through freedom of information files like a kid in a candy store, leading to pretty damning revelations in Alberta. Long story short: the government wasn’t being forthright when it claimed its pause on new renewable energy projects wasn’t political. Just like that, our small team was again leading the charge on a pretty big story

In an oil-rich province like Alberta, that kind of reporting is crucial. But look at our investigative work on TC Energy’s Coastal GasLink pipeline to the west, or our Greenbelt reporting out in Ontario. They all highlight one thing: those with power over our shared natural world don’t want you to know how — or why — they call the shots. And we try to disrupt that.

Our journalism is powered by people just like you. We never take corporate ad dollars, or put this public-interest information behind a paywall. Will you join the pod of Narwhals that make a difference by helping us uncover some of the most important stories of our time?

Some landowners in rural Alberta don’t trust wind companies, alleging aggressive tactics

This is the second article in a two-part series about the opposition to wind energy in Kneehill County, Alta. Get the inside scoop on The...

Continue reading

Recent Posts

Our newsletter subscribers are the first to find out when we break a big story. Sign up for free →
An illustration, in yellow, of a computer, with an open envelope inside it with letter reading 'Breaking news.'
Your access to our journalism is free — always. Sign up for our weekly newsletter for investigative reporting on the natural world in Canada you won’t find anywhere else.
'This is not a paywall' text illustration, in the black-and-white style of an album warning label
Your access to our journalism is free — always. Sign up for our weekly newsletter for investigative reporting on the natural world in Canada you won’t find anywhere else.
'This is not a paywall' text illustration, in the black-and-white style of an album warning label