The aces of info | Apologies from the Pope, urban sprawl and plastic bottles

Every Sunday, The Press broadcasts the content of Les As de l’info, a youth digital platform entirely devoted to daily news.

A Victory for Indigenous Peoples

Indigenous peoples have been waiting for this announcement for a very long time (nearly 500 years!). The Catholic Church eventually abandoned its “doctrine of discovery”. But what is it? I spoke with Isabelle Picard, a First Nations specialist who is Wendat herself, to better explain this important news to you.

What is the “doctrine of discovery”?

It is not so simple ! It is a concept put in place by Pope Alexander VI a very long time ago, in the XV^e century. Back then, when the Europeans came to America, they wanted the resources, like lumber. However, according to the pope, it was not very “Catholic” to arrive in the territory and pillage it. So this pope told the settlers to convert the Aboriginals to the Catholic religion, since this mission was more “noble”. This is what allowed the European people to take the territory of the indigenous peoples. The settlers thought they had the right, because they considered the natives to be uncivilized, since they could neither read nor write.

How did that affect the Native people at the time?

The settlers denied the rights of the natives who were there, they built cities on their territories and took resources. Aboriginal people were therefore considered a “sub-category” of people.

What has the Church just announced?

Pope Francis said he recognized the error of the Catholic Church, that he apologized, and I think it was sincere. This apology was eagerly awaited by Indigenous peoples around the world, because a similar doctrine had also been put in place in Africa. The pope acknowledged that this doctrine should never have existed and that it led to laws like the Indian Act. This law still has an impact on the lives of Aboriginal people. Today, in 2023, many Indigenous people are considered minors by the state, even if they are adults, because of this law. It’s also been a very short time since we’ve been represented, seen on TV and heard on the radio, for example.

What was the reaction of indigenous communities?

It will have taken 500 years, but people are really happy. It was time ! I heard the news that very morning when I was woken up at 6:45 am to do a radio interview! I said to myself, “Finally! »

In comics: what is urban sprawl?

You may have heard of urban sprawl before. But what is it exactly? Our collaborator Laurie Jeanne Beaudoin explains the concept to you in a comic strip!

Plastic water bottles: Quebec turns off the tap!

There are companies that take tap water, pour it into single-use plastic bottles and sell it. The government of Quebec wants to ban this practice. We explain to you!

In early April, Quebec Environment Minister Benoit Charette proposed a new law to regulate companies that use water in Quebec.

The minister wants to put an end to the sale of plastic bottles filled with water from the distribution network, also known as tap water. “For me, it’s nonsense,” Mr. Charette told reporters.

Two billion bottles!

The Minister specified that nearly 2 billion small plastic water bottles are sold in Quebec each year. “It’s huge,” he said.

With the new law, not all of these 2 billion bottles will be banned. Those that are filled with spring water can still be sold.

What is the difference ? Spring water comes from groundwater which is healthy and protected from human pollution. Tap water, for its part, comes from various waterways (for example, the St. Lawrence River) and had to be filtered in order to be potable, that is to say, good to drink.

Minister Benoit Charette says the new law will significantly reduce the number of plastic bottles. According to the Recyc-Québec website, there are at least 700 million bottles thrown away or abandoned in nature each year.

But the ban is not immediate. The minister hopes to pass this law “in the next year”.

Pay to use water

The Government of Quebec also wants to increase water royalties. This is the amount of money paid by companies that use a lot of water in their production. We can think of factories that transform wood into paper, those that manufacture chemicals or those that make juice.

The government hopes that increasing charges will cause industries to waste less water. “The goal is not to make money with royalties, it’s to change behavior,” said Benoit Charette.

The money from the royalties will go into the Blue Fund. It’s a kind of account that will be used to finance a range of actions to protect waterways and better manage water.

Bottle deposit: from November 2023!

Have you ever seen machines at the entrance to grocery stores where you can drop off empty cans? Each reported bobbin allows you to have 10 cents. It’s called the deposit.

Starting next November, plastic water bottles and several other glass, metal and cardboard containers can also be returned to certain stores.

According to an article by Charles Lecavalier, The Press