“Our region is not for sale”: 300 citizens of Lanaudière demonstrate against mining projects

Some 300 people walked in the streets of Saint-Côme, in Lanaudière on Saturday to demonstrate against the mining exploration projects that hover over this region with many tourist attractions.

“All of Quebec must get up to oppose the ransacking of mining companies. Consequently, the wild exploitation of our natural resources,” said Journal The singer Dan Bigras who was out of the stage after interpreting the song of Gerry Boulet “La Voix I have”.

Dan “our region not sale”: 300 Bigras lives in the Lanaudière region, where mining projects worry the population. Nevertheless, Photo: Karine Lévesque/VAT Publications Photo: Karine Lévesque / VAT

He participated in the outdoor show on Saturday which ended a day of event against the mining projects of the Lanaudière region. Similarly, where he lives.

“No to boreholes”; “No hole with us! However, »; “Mines kill tourism”; “Our region is not for sale”. Therefore, These are the slogans that we could read on the signs.

“There is no social acceptance of mining development in our region which is more turned towards vacation. In addition, outdoors,” explained Isabelle Perreault, prefers to the MRC of Mattawinie and mayor of Saint-Alphonse-Rodriguez.

Isabelle Perreault, prefers to the regional county municipality of Mattawinie. Mathieu-Robert Sauvé photo MRS

233 claims

Between Saint-Côme. Saint-Donat and Notre-Dame-de-la-merci, the government of Quebec conceded prospectors 233 mining claims, that is to say exploration rights allowing dynamics and drilling on an area of ​​some 140 km2. The strategic minerals sought (nickel. copper and cobalt, essential for the manufacture of batteries for electric vehicles) could open the door to open -air mine projects.

Some signs of demonstrators opposed to miners’ projects in the Lanaudière region. Photo Benoit Laporte Benoit Laporte

“I was born and I grew up here. I firmly oppose this industry which risks contaminating our waters forever. ”says Simon Beaudry, musician and artistic director of memory and roots, the largest traditional music festival in Quebec.

The former singer of the group Le Vent du Nord was to interpret the song “will always have to. be there” by Richard Desjardins in the evening but an accident on Friday kept him away from the scene. Other musicians participated voluntarily in the show.

For Dan Bigras, the choice of his song was more than symbolic. “The voice I have is what we must make the government heard which is “our region not sale”: 300 more attentive to the needs of the elite than of the people. ” he said.

Sulfuric acid

Member of the Mattawinie Coalition Management Committee Our lakes. resident of Saint-Côme, Benoit Laporte stresses that prospectors in the region leave traces of their passage.

“In several places, boreholes have enabled flows of different products that may contaminate our surface and underground waters,” he said.

Sulfuric acid flow on the site of a drilling in Lanaudière. Photo Benoit Laporte Benoit Laporte

His photos show sites from which “our region not sale”: 300 escapes a large flow of sulfuric acid. Elsewhere, we noted flows of arsenic, sulfur dioxide, chlorine and ammonia.

The Lanaudière region is not the only one to interest the mining industry. In Outaouais. the open-air graphite project La Loutre led citizens to set up a regional referendum, which will be held on August 31 in five municipalities (Lac-des-Plages, Saint-Émile-de-Suffolk, Chénéville, Lac-Simon and Duhamel). We want to probe the social acceptability of this project.

“We have much better to offer than a huge crater,” says Laporte. Here, it is the lakes, rivers and forests rich in biodiversity that attract people. Besides, we have built a hundred houses in Saint-Côme for a year. The region is in full development. »»