Social and Environmental Impacts of the James Bay Hydroelectric Project

Social and Environmental Impacts of the James Bay Hydroelectric Project
Author: James F. Hornig
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 191
Release: 1999
Genre: Cree Indians
ISBN: 0773518363

Planning and construction of the James Bay Hydroelectric project began in the early 1970s, when the effect of such projects on the physical and social environment was seldom considered. As the project matured, however, its unique and diverse environmental impacts came under intense scrutiny on both sides of the border.

Power from the North

Power from the North
Author: Caroline Desbiens
Publisher: UBC Press
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2013-05-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 0774824190

In the 1970s, Hydro-Québec declared in a publicity campaign “We Are Hydro-Québécois.” The slogan symbolized the extent to which hydroelectric development in the North had come to both reflect and fuel French Canada’s aspirations. The slogan helped Quebecers relate to the province’s northern territory and to accept the exploitation of its resources. In Power from the North, Caroline Desbiens explores how this culture of hydroelectricity helped shape the landscape during the first phase of the James Bay hydroelectric project. Policy makers and citizens did not, she argues, view those who built the dams as mere workers – they saw them as pioneers in a previously uninhabited land now inscribed with the codes of culture and spectacle. This insightful work shows that if Quebec hopes to engage in truly sustainable resource development, all actors must bring an awareness of their cultural histories and visions of nature, North, and nation to the negotiating table.

James Bay

James Bay
Author: Robert Bourassa
Publisher: Harvest House Publishers
Total Pages: 140
Release: 1973
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

Social and Environmental Impacts of the James Bay Hydroelectric Project

Social and Environmental Impacts of the James Bay Hydroelectric Project
Author: James F. Hornig
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 198
Release: 1999
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780773518377

Planning and construction of the James Bay Hydroelectric project began in the early 1970s, when the effect of such projects on the physical and social environment was seldom considered. As the project matured, however, its unique and diverse environmental impacts came under intense scrutiny on both sides of the border. The first mega-scale hydro project to be built in the sub-Arctic, capable of generating as much electricity as fifteen nuclear power plants, its impact includes disruption of vast areas in an extremely fragile ecosystem as well as displacement of native peoples and the introduction of dangerous levels of mercury into their food supply. The debate over these complex environmental issues has been further complicated by political issues stemming from the importance of the project to the economic development of Quebec and the sale of at least ten percent of the electricity generated the United States. The contributors examine core issues of the controversy both in relation to James Bay and to other large hydroelectric projects, such as the Aswan dam in Egypt and the Three Gorges dam in China. Providing insights from an unusual variety of disciplines, the authors offer important considerations that must be taken into account as Quebec assesses additional phases of hydroelectric development of the watershed east of Hudson Bay. Contributors include Raymond B. Coppinger (Hampshire College), Bill Dale Roebuck (Dartmouth Medical School), Will Ryan (Hampshire College), Adrian Tanner (Memorial University), Stanley L. Warner (Hampshire College), Kessler E. Woodward (University of Alaska), and Oran R.Young (Dartmouth College). James F. Hornig is professor emeritus of chemistry and environmental studies, Dartmouth College.

Strangers Devour the Land

Strangers Devour the Land
Author: Boyce Richardson
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing Company
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2008-04-15
Genre: Cree Indians
ISBN: 9781603580045

First published in 1974, Strangers Devour the Land is recognized as the magnum opus among the numerous books, articles, and films produced by Boyce Richardson over two decades on the subject of indigenous people. Its subject, the long struggle of the Crees of James Bay in northern Quebec--a hunting and trapping people--to defend the territories they have occupied since time immemorial, came to international attention in 1972 when they tried by legal action to stop the immense hydro-electric project the provincial government was proposing to build around them. The Crees argued that the integrity of their vast wilderness was essential to their way of life, but the authorities dismissed such claims out of hand. Richardson, who sat through many months of the trial, mingles the scientific and Cree testimony given in court with his own interviews of Cree hunters, and experiences in gathering information and shooting films, to produce a classic tale of cultures in collision. In a new preface, he reveals that the Crees--now receiving immense sums of money as compensation for the loss of their lands--appear to be doing well, and to be in the process of joining modern, technological culture, while retaining the spiritual base of their traditional lives. Meanwhile, Hydro-Quebec continues to eye additional rivers on the Cree's lands for new dams.

Electric Rivers

Electric Rivers
Author: Sean McCutcheon
Publisher: Montréal : Black Rose Books
Total Pages: 194
Release: 1991
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9781895431186

Book about the why and how the James Bay project is being built, how it works, the consequences of building it on people and on nature and the struggle to stop it.

Wrestling with Colonialism on Steroids

Wrestling with Colonialism on Steroids
Author: Zebedee Nungak
Publisher: Dossier Quebec
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2017
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781550654684

For decades, the Inuit of northern Qu bec were among the most neglected people in Canada. It took The Battle of James Bay, 1971-1975, for the governments in Qu bec City and Ottawa to wake up to the disgrace. In this concise, lively account, Zebedee Nungak relates the inside story of how the young Inuit and Cree "Davids" took action when Qu bec began construction on the giant James Bay hydro project. They fought in court and at the negotiation table for an accord that effectively became Canada's first land-claims agreement. Nungak's account is accompanied by his essays on Nunavik history. Together they provide a fascinating insight into a virtually unknown chapter of Canadian history.

In Our Backyard

In Our Backyard
Author: Aimée Craft
Publisher: Univ. of Manitoba Press
Total Pages: 440
Release: 2022-04-29
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0887552900

Beginning with the Grand Rapids Dam in the 1960s, hydroelectric development has dramatically altered the social, political, and physical landscape of northern Manitoba. The Nelson River has been cut up into segments and fractured by a string of dams, for which the Churchill River had to be diverted and new inflow points from Lake Winnipeg created to manage their capacity. Historic mighty rapids have shrivelled into dry river beds. Manitoba Hydro's Keeyask dam and generating station will expand the existing network of 15 dams and 13,800 km of transmission lines. In Our Backyard tells the story of the Keeyask dam and accompanying development on the Nelson River from the perspective of Indigenous peoples, academics, scientists, and regulators. It builds on the rich environmental and economic evaluations documented in the Clean Environment Commission’s public hearings on Keeyask in 2012. It amplifies Indigenous voices that environmental assessment and regulatory processes have often failed to incorporate and provides a basis for ongoing decision-making and scholarship relating to Keeyask and resource development more generally. It considers cumulative, regional, and strategic impact assessments; Indigenous worldviews and laws within the regulatory and decision-making process; the economics of development; models for monitoring and management; consideration of affected species; and cultural and social impacts. With a provincial and federal regulatory regime that is struggling with important questions around the balance between development and sustainability, and in light of the inherent rights of Indigenous people to land, livelihoods, and self-determination, In Our Backyard offers critical reflections that highlight the need for purposeful dialogue, principled decision making, and a better legacy of northern development in the future.

The Shoe Boy

The Shoe Boy
Author: Duncan McCue
Publisher: Purich Books
Total Pages: 89
Release: 2020-04-02
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0774880597

At the age of seventeen, an Anishinabe boy who was raised in the south joined a James Bay Cree family in a one-room hunting cabin in the isolated wilderness of northern Quebec. He learned a way of life on the land that few are familiar with. Reflecting on those five months and his search for his own personal identity, that boy – Duncan McCue – takes us on an evocative exploration of the teenage years, growing up in a mixed-race family, and the culture shock of moving to the unfamiliar North. In the process, he illustrates the relationship Indigenous peoples have with their lands, and the challenges urban Indigenous people face when they seek to reconnect to traditional lifestyles. The Shoe Boy is a contemplative, honest, and unexpected coming-of-age memoir set in the context of the Cree struggle to protect their way of life, after massive hydro-electric projects forever altered the landscape they know as Eeyou Istchee.