[IPSM] Damned Dam

[Macdonald Stainsby]

So much for La Paix de Braves...

Damned dam
Alex Roslin

The future of Hydro-Québec's $2-billion Rupert River hydroelectric 
project may be in doubt after the election of a key opponent to the 
project last Thursday as Cree grand chief.
Matthew Mukash, who rose to prominence in the successful Cree campaign  to
stop Hydro-Québec's $13-billion Great Whale project in the early  1990s,
has opposed the Rupert project and called on Hydro-Québec to  study
alternatives like wind energy.

The election stunner saw the Crees turf Grand Chief Ted Moses, whose 
$3.6-billion Paix des Braves agreement with Quebec in 2002 was the 
world's largest land settlement with a First Nation.

Moses's landmark deal with then-premier Bernard Landry gave Cree consent 
to two new hydro projects that would flood 1,000 square kilometres of 
Cree territory in exchange for 50 years of annual payments of $70-million.

The deal settled $8-billion in Cree lawsuits arising out of Quebec's 
unfulfilled promises in the 1975 James Bay Agreement, including a 
$500-million lawsuit against the province's logging practices that 
threatened to derail Quebec's biggest industry.

But many Crees grew anxious about the destruction of the Rupert, one of 
Canada's last great virgin rivers, and the flood of drugs and alcohol 
that would be brought by a new 2,000-employee Hydro-Québec work camp in 
the heart of Cree land.

Crees complained about a lack of information and debate surrounding 
Moses's deal. Some also bristled at Moses's slick election campaign, 
which included phone calls to Cree homes, buttons and a campaign tour in 
a van with Moses's name written on the side.

"It was too Americanized," said one Cree politician. "Some people  thought
that was a little bit desperate."

While the first of the hydro projects is already 70 per cent completed, 
Mukash's comfortable 3,236-to-2,509-vote win last week leaves the fate  of
the Rupert project up in the air. In August, federal and provincial 
environmental review panels said Hydro-Québec's impact study was deeply 
flawed and sent the provincial utility back to the drawing board.
--
Macdonald Stainsby
http://independentmedia.ca/survivingcanada/
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green
In the contradiction lies the hope.
--Brecht.