Above the Piékouagami at its threshold. Photo taken from the mouth of the river Métabetchouane. Russel Bouchard, July 6, 2010. Below, the author of these lines in its upriver Manouane to join his hunting in the fall of 1988.
Rio Tinto Alcan lack of water in its reservoirs in the catchment of Lake Saint-Jean. Who would not be shocked to see and destabilized the Piékuagami and drained of blood? Ours! The multinational feared for its electricity supply and puts our region on the threat of reduced production. Not wanting to lose out, unions have extended the Rosary on the clothesline to heaven by asking what he refuses to give several months. Lac-Saint-Jean, elected officials are held to the lips neutral to avoid offending the sensibilities of the multinational and not undermine their own hydroelectric projects. And Mashteuiatsh the Ilnutsh, which are not totally innocent in this sad result, make the rain dance. In short, by what we watch on TV, in early summer on Lake St. John has never been so dry the memory of man (and woman of course!). After the deca-millennium vintage of July 1996, here we visited decreased the millennium.
return the balance, or rather a just reward.
All this was predictable. It will be recalled that in June 1999, I was the only citizen of the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec or to protest against the proposed river diversion Manouane to the catchment tank Bersimis . I then wrote a strong letter of protest to Quebec Premier and his Minister of Natural Resources (Lucien Bouchard and Jacques Brassard), however, two son of our region. Butting me, again, the indifference of all, I had taken careful to send copies of my objections to policy makers in all directions (see copy of letter attached). In this bell, I asked them to think back ten times more than before we jettison this supply of holy water which flowed from the rest part of our collective future. It was a lost cause! I have had no response, nor the elected provincial and municipal or union leaders nor the leaders of the Hydro-Quebec or Ilnutsh leaders who had given their consent because they were there, too their account. The newspaper, which I addressed my open letter, did obviously not published and the inevitable happened ...
In my wording, I wrote then: "On other continents, it is now that countries are at war and brutally kill each other for thousands of years to ensure their share to a single point water. Here, it makes no sense, no one doubts or worries about the least of the preceding heavy and major stress that will be subjected to an entire environment, ecosystems interlinked other by the thread of water, Lake Saint-Jean and Saguenay Fjord. If we let them do it without a fight, if we allow stupid and cowardly to foreign ownership of our most dear-our-water is that our society is dead and buried. Is that foreigners are lords and masters in all and for all ... "
However, I am not saying that the temperature is not exceptional for something. I'm just saying that water flowing past ten years towards the North Shore is a shortfall Environmental us is sorely lacking today, in these days of drought. I also say and again, well done for Us! All this was predictable! Had to think, and you think about it before giving us the inalienable right to draw in the natural source of the purest water on the planet and leave to Hydro-Quebec, the general contractor for this project moron, absolute power to rob us with no alternative in times of drought.
When I see the Lake Saint-Jean and dried by the combined effects of Mother Nature, the Hydro-Quebec and Alcan, I can not help but think of the Aral Sea that the Soviets have dried up for the greatest misfortune of all. In this kind of negative experience, the trouble is that there will always, as in the current disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, someone fairly well placed in the board makers to dare say that the situation is fully under control and there will always be some temple guards to reassure us more ...
akakia
copy of the letter sent June 22, 1999 the Premier of Quebec Lucien Bouchard and his Minister of Natural Resources, Jacques Brassard.
The weight of a bag of thirty pieces (!)
"means Saguenéens perceive where they live and die as a" country "in the purest sense of the term, a country marked originality and characterized a way of life that stands out positively from that of the province and, even more significantly, that of Canada. In fact, it is more accurately described as a culture imbued with a certain mysticism strangely akin to that of the builders of great cathedrals of Europe, a culture that has formed in the stresses of appalling ' capricious geography, hostile and, in many ways, inhuman, a culture that was defined on the basis of a story at once singular and powerful. "(RB 1992)
Chicoutimi, June 22, 1999
Gentlemen,
I will not mince words! To my amazement, the media come to teach us, heading for the good news (!), The Hydro-Quebec and the Montagnais Band Betsiamites on the North Shore of Quebec, have recently concluded-without that we were there invited-an agreement to divert the heads of the Portneuf, Sault-aux-Pigs and Manouane toward the river Bersimis (formerly Betsiamites) so they can increase production of hydroelectric power. Regarding the first two streams, I obviously did not have much to say about the viability and relevance of the project because they are tributaries of the St. Lawrence and they rightfully belong to the people of the North Shore of St. Lawrence (as well say another country!). But what is the river Manouane is another matter ...
misunderstand me! It is not about a thin project! It is not just a trickle of water is diverted for a few miles-not! - But a big, long river like a river, a river pure and beautiful as the day , a river of a thousand forms of animated life, full of game and fish, a river, which runs its course a vast green valley, wild and full of history, a river diversion is being considered by some to throw a thousand miles away, in another watershed and up the end of time.
On other continents, it is now that countries are at war and brutally kill each other for thousands of years to ensure their part in a single water point. Here, it makes no sense, no one doubts or worries about the least of the preceding heavy and major stress that will be subjected to a whole environment, ecosystems relate to each other by the thread of water, Lake Saint-Jean and Saguenay Fjord. If we let them do it without a fight, if we allow stupid and cowardly to foreign ownership of our most valuable asset-our-water is that our society is dead and buried. Is that foreigners are lords and masters in all and for all. And those who remain are their slaves, their food ...
Explain to me the logic of this deal between two foreign nations (namely the Montagnais of the North Shore and the Government of Quebec) who assume the right totalitarian pilfer environmental heritage and natural resources that are not theirs, and which belong naturally since the last Wisconsin glaciation, 10,000 years now to my real home, the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean. For four centuries now, the colonial government of Quebec and predates plundered freely, shamelessly, the natural resources of my "Country" my love, it kills wildlife for fur and his own gain, destroying forests to enrich the state it embodies and the multinationals that guide, it takes away our rivers that supplies hydroelectric power plants in southern and fattens charges that his government headquarters in Quebec. Now that the soil was contaminated to satisfy the appetite of foreign agents, now that the forest is dying because of depredation led by foreigners, now that poverty housing wildlife and people of my "Country", now you decide, forcibly, without a mandate from the people of Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean and his detriment, to divert a river around part of its exclusive patrimony to satisfy foreign interests, be they Montagnais Coast North. The usufruct of our waterways elude us so for centuries and centuries.
You say how this attack hits, hurt, insult and defile my being, do not! And you are you, our representatives, the primary responsibility!
You've come to the world that here in the "Country" Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean. You who have studied in our colleges and prayed in our churches. You who buried relatives in our cemeteries. You who have eaten at our table as brothers who share the same history inexorably, how can you sponsor such an attack on our identity? How can you encourage and participate in the rape suit against the integrity of our territory? such devastation of Mother Earth? such a diversion of resources that belong to us, the people of the "Country", the first nations to which I belong primarily by blood and history, and I belong to all recent arrivals much? Yes! how (?), in all conscience can you afford that! ...
With the horror that grips my heart since I learned of the agreement, I feel like screaming louder my sorrow and my shame. The severity of it makes me more restraint. I can not afford to turn you back outside our borders, protect the integrity of our territory, to make you change your mind or make you reconsider the issue in the respect, dignity, people that you strip without shame. But I want you to take notes for the history being written now, my deep, Total, Royal and unqualified disagreement with the attack of unprecedented proportions is happening under your watch, against us, against our heritage cons and our land.
gentlemen our elected officials, tell us the reasons to accept such a sacrifice, and I would love requestionner hardness of my decision to you. And one small advantage for the people of the "Country", I tell you, and I promise to burn votives to your health and your worth bragging about with every wind ...
I do not know the weight of a bag of thirty pieces. I do not know what
fountain drink to your conscientious these ... but I can assure you in the meantime, every second, that history, my offspring and yours will remember the suffering that you have made them permanent at a time when your appointment was sought with so much about in one time you could help him overcome the deep rut in which the story of the last four centuries ago precipitated. God forgive you gentlemen our territorial representatives ... That help us! We will have many needs after your visit ...
What a mess!
I find myself dreaming of a stronger "Country" where we again, Chicoutimi and Jeannois, will finally home, and defended by our men. On the "Country" defined by its unique watershed, bathed in its internal sea, led by the majestic fjord that opens the door to the world and its future. A "Country" where all the people who live and sculpt their hard work, respect and be respected for what they are. Yes, I dream of a "Country" to We, a country where it is forbidden to stifle the sound of the earth, thirst and dreams of justice, freedom and fulfillment can satisfy it. And using the evil that he did I dream that the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, one day not too distant, know him find the strength to overcome their fear, the keystone of the system, to live in peace and prosper in harmony with its neighbors. And you
our representatives gentlemen, what do you dream? What do you do with our dreams? ...
Russel Bouchard
son and citizen of the "Land of Saguenay,
member of the Native Alliance of Canada,
historian and writer born free.
CC Denis 1, King of L'Anse;
André Harvey, MP for Chicoutimi County;
Hubert Desbiens, a former deputy county Dubuc;
André Caillé, Hydro-Quebec;
Jacques Bougie, Alcan
Pierre Dubuc, L'Aut 'Journal;
Louis-Gilles Francoeur, Le Devoir;
La Presse;
Carol Nero, The Daily;
Bertrand Tremblay, The Daily; Journal
cultural Mollie;
Betsiamistes Band Council, Band Council
Mashteuiatsh.
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