Completed in the middle of the winter of 1927, by Siberian cold and when electricity had just arrived in the distant canton of Rouyn, Noranda did not skimp on the means to complete the construction of its industrial park, an immense work Nordic whose completion is miraculous. This will undoubtedly be one of the most striking engineering feats of the interwar period in Canada.
To build such a monument in the middle of the boreal forest, blast furnace and chimney included, more than two days by canoe from the nearest station, obviously seems like a disproportionate project, an implausible and disastrous whim.
But nothing is impossible for those who believe.
And this company, precisely, Noranda Mines, has always maintained an unstoppable faith in its lucky star. One does not so easily send home men to whom one has promised gold. Unheard-of means were deployed by American investors to transport 2,400 tons of steel and 500,000 bricks along barely open forest roads, most often hauled by horses on platforms equipped with snow skates.
The structure will soon culminate at more than 80 meters, throwing perceptible clouds into the sky as far as the Amos region. In the newspapers of the time, the certain destruction of the neighboring forest cover is announced. The curious are invited to admire the wild beauties of the place as soon as possible, before the pollution withers them. All this, of course, is considered philosophically. Noranda obtained an exemption from the Mining Act – courtesy of the Taschereau government – so that it would never be worried by possible lawsuits for damage to the environment.
A war to end
Nothing in its century-old history has been able to slow down the progress of this institution. It is alone that it tears an entire city out of the forest and forces governments to come and provide services there.
Through the game of mining devouring each other, the old gray citadel is now one of the strongholds of the Glencore empire. Pointed out for its harmful effects on the health of citizens – it releases 14,000 kilos of arsenic into the air annually – the Foundry, although it seems to have more than one trick in its pocket, is nevertheless short of imagination and money when it comes to complying with public health standards.
It would be too expensive, we are told, to develop a process to capture the remaining particles. This is a very hard answer to believe.
It’s a refrain that we repeated already in the days of our grandfathers, at the time of the bad communists and the good bosses. And it took patient, relentless citizen action to obtain the construction of an acid plan capable of considerably reducing toxic fumes. This device, paid for by public money in 1989, and which the Foundry refused to adopt for a very long time, it now speaks of it as one of its great successes and a pledge of its good faith!
Let’s remember. This is not our first standoff against this monster of arrogance, brick and steel. Richard Desjardins recalled the memory of it earlier this week in an interview with Montreal Journal.
Already in 1976, René Lévesque made an impression by proposing to civilize Noranda. The word still carries, just and far, despite half a century of distance. We have one war left to finish here against barbarism.
An empire of ferocity
The Anglo-Swiss group Glencore, among the most powerful financial entities in the world, has experienced boom years since the start of the pandemic with nearly five billion net profits last year. Corrupt and crude to the point of caricature, this secret firm never stops accumulating legal setbacks and financial penalties. The most dishonorable methods do not embarrass him. In 2017, the US Department of Justice filed a case in Houston to seize nearly $145 million in assets, including an $80 million yacht — 215 feet long — called the Galactica Starbought by intermediaries from Glencore to offer it to the Minister of Petroleum Resources of Nigeria.
Recognized many times guilty of serious political interference, corruption, manipulation of the markets, Glencore displays an assumed disregard for the laws and the national governments where it operates. In a recent legal settlement, it was estimated that more than $100 million was spent on bribes in Brazil, Nigeria, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, South Sudan and Venezuela between 2007 and 2018. Above all, it attacks human dignity.
Suspected of indirectly participating in the exploitation of children in the Congo, Glencore poisons running water in Peru, ransacks traditional indigenous territories in Australia and dumps 85 million liters of wastewater in agricultural fields in Chad. Its coal mines, which it wants to exploit until exhaustion, keep power plants running in Mpumalanga in South Africa, which is considered to be the most polluted region in the world. More than 2,200 premature deaths and 9,000 cases of childhood bronchitis are said to result from the extreme pollution that is rampant there.
Account time
Besieged by barbarians, the citizens of Rouyn-Noranda are beginning to tire of lies and cover-ups. Social acceptability is wavering. The historical allies of the Foundry are at the time of the accounts and each, now, dares to repudiate it publicly. All have found their language, by miracle or by chance. All except Mayor Diane Dallaire who mysteriously gesticulates live on the show 24-60 of Anne-Marie Dussault, no longer knowing which saint to devote herself to.
The Horne Foundry can do better, it’s obvious and everyone knows it. But first you have to force it. Citizens, one more effort then…