Four years ago, Émilise Lessard-Therrien was elected Member of Parliament for the riding of Rouyn-Noranda–Témiscamingue. A few days after her election, she chose her hobbyhorse: to reduce arsenic emissions from the Horne smelter. Arsenic is the king of poisons. Any prolonged exposure to arsenic carries a risk, in particular that of developing lung cancer. The younger the victims, the more vulnerable they are.
Like The leaky woman, Émilise is present on all fronts to help her community. With one exception, Émilise does not flee. She stands up to the Goliath that is the foundry, while raising her child who, let’s remember, was less than a year old when she was sworn in.
In 2019, she published in The duty “Arsenic: the crisis no one wants to talk about”. We can read there: “The copper foundry gave birth to Rouyn-Noranda. Today, with the complicity of the government, she poisons her children. 900 kilometers from Parliament Hill, the crisis that no one wants to talk about is taking its course, in deafening silence. »
For four years, the united deputy militates in the most absolute indifference. Until early July, when everything changes. From this moment until the beginning of the campaign, not a day will have passed without the foundry being spoken about publicly, on all the platforms.
I have never met Émilise Lessard-Therrien, but her determination inspires me. To tell the truth, all these Mothers at the front who stand up to this same colossus inspire me.
They inspire me to do more for my community. For my planet. For my grandchildren.
Émilise Lessard-Therrien was not re-elected, but the movement she provoked persists.
The Horne foundry is no longer confined to Rouyn-Noranda, it is a bit like our mockingjay of the ecological transition. This fight, like all the others, begins in the determination of certain leaders – Émilise and Mères at the front in the case of the foundry.
The cancellation of GNL Québec — which led Quebec to ban the exploitation of fossil fuels on Quebec soil — is also a victory attributable to social movements, in particular the Student Climate Action Front (FEDAC), which united the student movement . The BAPE received a record number of briefs about GNL Québec: more than 3,000. It concluded that the project had no social acceptability. The government followed their recommendation.
Together we are stronger. Together, we can make a difference!
You see, this makes perfect sense, since until October 20, there are online public hearings for the foundry. The Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charrette, said, and I quote: “If we had the feeling that the population is not in support of all these conditions, it is our strategy that will have to be reviewed and probably would force us to impose even stricter conditions. »
In other words, the ball is in the court of the citizens of Rouyn-Noranda. It is essential to argue that health cannot come before the economy. The smelter is far too strategic to Glencore to close. In the event that technologies cannot achieve the reduction of 3 ng/m3there is still the option of asking the company to compensate the residents to find a new home — just as mining company Osisko did in 2009.
More generally, our society can change. For example, the 200,000 calls and emails made by the Climate Citizen Lobby influenced public debate, and now the Americans have put together the most ambitious climate bill in their history.
Our efforts are not in vain. All this pressure that we exert is a bit like dark matter: it seems invisible to us, but shapes our universe. However, remember that daily, millions of people accompany us in this fight; each gesture made is multiplied by millions.
One day, an inflection point will be reached and climate action will be more robust than ever. Although our daily life does not seem rosy, I believe that we are at the dawn of a new era. The era of climate action.