Invisible damage, imaginary injuries, and the political ecology of redress in a Quebec mining and smelter town
Date
2023
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Written during the latest of a long series of environmental health and policy crises from the Horne smelter in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, this thesis seeks their historical roots and the forces that have made this problem cyclical instead of resolved. The questions and their answers came from ethnographic fieldwork in Rouyn-Noranda in fall 2022, archival research, and connecting existing historical research on Rouyn-Noranda and Canada. Starting with unique 1926 Quebec legislation that codified the future smelter's right to pollute while stripping current and future residents of legal redress, I examine provincial legislators' rhetoric justifying the legislation and then look for precedent conflicts the legislation was designed to preempt. Two examples of these are Trail, British Columbia, and Sudbury, Ontario, which have similar but not identical interlocking histories of colonization, damage, scientific investigations, and suppression of pollution conflict through legal mechanisms and denial. In assessing the impact of the 1926 laws on Rouyn-Noranda through the 1960s, I focus on mine and smelter labor struggles because of their signaling ability as the first- and most-exposed, centrality to the city, and ability to break through a right- and corporate-leaning press. I find evidence of smelter fumes damage and organized complaints beginning in the 1930s, the public records of which are both compelling and minimal enough to warrant further investigation. The smelter's corporate strategy throughout labor and regulatory conflicts fits a game theory analysis of its repeated games with the government and the public. The historical records of Sudbury, Trail, and Rouyn-Noranda dispel myths of unawareness as the primary reason for inaction and a lack of public mobilization about environmental problems before the 1970s. All three smelter cities continue to be shaped by overlapping forces of colonialist land relations, capitalism, and manipulations of science and perception. This thesis adds and connects Rouyn-Noranda to environmental history research on Canadian smelters, corrects unknown or assumed historical timelines, and offers a strategic context for Rouyn-Noranda residents facing the latest slow crisis.
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Keywords
Critical minerals, Labor, Pollution, Smelter, Waste