Scott W. See. The History of Canada. Second Edition

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An Environmentalist’s

Perspective

A host of environmental themes reached the public’s consciousness in

the late twentieth century. These included concerns about the quality

of air and water, the finite nature of the earth’s resources, and the

long-term consequences of greenhouse gases and global warming.

Canada, as a modern industrial power and major producer of

resources, had become one of the world’s leading polluters. Scientists

and environmental activists called for Canada to be aggressive in

protecting its environment, as well as to consider the context of a

global ecosystem. Activist organizations such as Greenpeace, which

had roots in Vancouver in the early 1970s, dramatized the

environmental threats to animals and the earth. Without a doubt,

the most public and prolific Canadian environmentalist in the

modern era is David Suzuki. Now a retired professor, Suzuki

sponsored the long-running CBC program, The Nature of Things.

The following text comes from one of his collections of essays on

environmental themes; it concentrates on the impact of Quebec’s

massive hydroelectric project on the James Bay region.

In our concern with serving the immediate needs of our own species,

politicians make decisions based on economic, social, or political

imperatives that have vast repercussions for other species, whole

ecosystems and, eventually, other human beings.

Some of the planet’s priceless and irreplaceable ecosystems in exotic

places like Sarawak, the Amazon, and Zaire are now being invaded

David Suzuki, Time to Change: Essays (Toronto: Stoddart, 1994), 95–96, 97.

An Environmentalist’ s Perspective 387

by human activity. But if poverty and ignorance in poor countries

blind people to the consequences of their actions, what is our excuse?

At this moment, Hydro-Québec is pressing on to fulfill Premier

Robert Bourassa’s grand vision of harnessing for hydroelectric power

all of the major rivers draining into James and southern Hudson bays

from Québec. The James Bay Project (JBP) is the largest development

ever undertaken in the history of North America and is a

technological experiment with ecological repercussions that extend

far beyond the confines of Québec. The land area affected is a large as

France, while the enormous inland sea formed by James and Hudson

bays will be seriously affected.

Every spring in these waters, ice formed with salt water melts in the

bays and the freshwater runoff into estuaries stimulates a bloom of ice

algae, the basis of a food chain extending to cod, seals, and whales.

Each year, hundreds of beluga whales of the eastern herd return to the

estuaries. In the fall, millions of migratory birds —ducks, geese,

shorebirds—stop at biological oases on the bay edges to fatten up for

flights as far as the tip of South America! ....

In the Arctic, timing is everything. Plants and animals in the north

have evolved an impeccable synchrony with seasonal productivity in

specific regions. Through narrow temporal and geographic windows,

life has flourished, but unlike human beings, wild organisms can’t

change their growth cycle, feeding, nesting areas, or time of arrival.

They are locked into a genetic destiny that has been honed over aeons

of time. . . .

The fate of many ecosystems in Canada now seems to hinge on the

application of an environmental assessment (EA) of proposed

developments like dams. It’s ironic that so much rests on an EA.

Scientists are still trying to describe the elementary units of matter and

how they interact, while our knowledge about how gene activity is

controlled or cells function is primitive. When it comes to

communities of organisms in complex ecosystems, most of the

component species are not yet identified, so we have very little insight

into their interaction and interdependence.

Given the state of our ignorance, the notion that in only a few

months enough information can be collected to assess the con-

sequences of massive projects like dams, aluminum plants, or pulp

mills is absurd. The so-called “data” assembled in an EA are so

limited in scale, scope, and duration as to be virtually worthless

388 An Environmentalist’s Perspective

scientifically. At the very least, an EA should be initiated from a

profound sense of humility at the inadequacy of our knowledge.

At best, the EA can highlight questions, reveal areas of ignorance, and

warn of potentially sensitive effects. Anyone who claims to know

enough to predict with confidence the consequences of new

developments simply doesn’t understand the limited nature of

scientific knowledge.

In our form of government, only people vote; owls, trees, or rivers

don’t. A minister designated to protect the environment must

therefore act according to the demands of a human electorate. So a

watershed, old-growth forest, ocean bottom, or newly discovered oil

deposit can be assessed only in terms of potential human utility. If

trees could vote, we would have radically different priorities. Since

they can’t, society must incorporate an ecological perspective in our

value system. . . .

An Environmentalist’ s Perspective 389

A Celebration of Canada’s

Role in Afghanistan

Canada’s recent military commitment in Afghanistan has invoked

many of the questions that have been asked since Confederation

about the advisability of the country ’ s participation in global

conflicts. In addition, it has sparked an interesting conversation

from the perspective of the forces that have been serving and fighting

in the NATO-sponsored conflict since 2002. Some of these

individuals, although they receive official backing from the govern-

ment and some popular support as well, have made a concerted effort

to publicize their reasons for serving in the all-volunteer Canadian

Forces and to defend their efforts in the Afghanistan war. The passage

below comes from a book written by one such member of the

Canadian Forces, Lieutenant-Colonel John Conrad, who is a native

Newfoundlander and now retired career officer .

The Canadian Forces achieved a great deal in 2006—not the least of

which was denying control of Kandahar City to the Taliban. Our

country and our tiny army are growing up around us in Kandahar.

However, the considerable logistics derives from the leaders of the

army remains shockingly and inappropriately slim. . . .We succeeded

in 2006 because the young men and women who fill the logistic ranks

in the Canadian Forces are among the best in the world at what they

do. They are mentally tough and technically superb. More important,

I found them to be both discerning and compassionate while treading

Lieutenant-Colonel John Conrad, What the Thunder Said: Reflections of a

Canadian Officer in Kandahar (Toronto: The Dundurn Group, 2009), 218–220.

A Celebration of Canada’s Role in Afghanistan 391

on Afghan soil. The men and women with whom I served refused to

lose. Kandahar represents Canada’s most dangerous military mission

since Korea. Even though our soldiers had not been involved in a

sustained fight for generations, they met the challenge of Afghanistan,

making sure that convoys would run, mail and supplies would flow,

vehicles would get fixed in the centre of an infantry battle, and

hamburgers would get flipped underneath barrages of mortar fire and

rocket-propelled grenades, not because of any genius on my part or

the part of the army staff or the headquarters in Ottawa but only

because they willed it to be so. The projection of national power, the

currency used to purchase the government’s aims, has to be delivered

by combat soldiers and underwritten by robust logistics troops. As

proud as I am of the accomplishments of 1 PPCLI and the fine

Canadian infantry battle groups that have followed, my heroes in

Kandahar will always be those noble troops that lumbered north in

16-ton logistic trucks, Bison repair vehicles, aftermarket wreckers,

and the like—no regimental bluster, no glitter, just sheer guts.

Your Canadian forces are made up of soldiers, sailors, and airmen

and women from across this great country. They are your own sons,

daughters, friends, and neighbours. They have different roles and

functions inside the force from infantry through to personnel

selection. The ones that deliver logistics have a specific, time-revered

role. The value of their contribution has diminished in the eyes of

some across the breadth of Canadian military history, but I tell you

now the esteem they have earned and deserved could not be higher.

The combat logistics troops I knew are among the finest Canadians I

have had the privilege of meeting. As an officer, a father, and as a

taxpayer I am so very proud of them. These soldiers have been

measured by Canada’s enemies on the contemporary battlefield

around Kandahar and have been found not wanting. They know all

about the hell where youth and laughter go. In point of fact they have

been there many times.

392 A Celebration of Canada’s Role in Afghanistan

Canada’s Position on Arctic

Sovereignty

In the recent past both of the country’s main political parties have

adopted an aggressive stance in laying claim to Arctic space and

asserting Canada’s control over the movement of international

vessels through northern waters. In a point that serves as a wonderful

illustration of symmetry in history, the Northwest passage that

attracted the attention of numerous European explorers and thereby

helped to shape such a great deal of history in the colonial era, has

reasserted itself as a major focus for the now mature nation-state of

Canada. Prime Minister Stephen Harper, like his predecessors, has

repeatedly taken on the responsibility of defining the country’s

position on sovereignty in the Arctic. The following document comes

from a speech delivered by Harper in Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest

Territories, on 27 August 2008.

Thank you very much, Minister Baird. Greetings ladies and gentle-

men. Greetings also to Mayor Gruben, to our Aboriginal elders and

of course to all residents of Tuktoyaktuk who are hosting us here

today. Special greetings, of course, to members of the Canadian Coast

Guard who play a vital role in keeping the True North strong and free

by patrolling and protecting Canada’s Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic

coasts, which are in total the longest shoreline in the world. . . .

Prime Minister of Canada, “Prime Minister Harper Announces Measures to

Strengthen Canada’s Arctic Sovereignty and Protection of the Northern

Environment,” http://pm.gc.ca/eng/media.asp?id=2259 (accessed 19 September

2008).

Canada’s Position on Arctic Sovereignty 393

Exactly 100 years ago this summer the federal government

dispatched Captain [Joseph-Elzéar] Bernier on a mission to claim

the Arctic Archipelago for Canada. . . ..Bernier’s mission was a crucial

event in Canadian history, as important as our national destiny in the

North as the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway was in the

West. But not even Captain Bernier could have imagined how

important the Arctic would become to Canada and the world.

Its economic and strategic value has risen exponentially over the

years. The rising global demand for energy and mineral resources has

sparked a so-called “cold rush” of countries to the Arctic region, and

with the retreat of the ice pack, record numbers of ships are plying our

Northern waters. Canada must therefore move quickly to affirm and

protect its sovereignty over the archipelago, including the navigable

waterways within it, and the undersea extensions of our continental

shelf.

Now sovereignty, as you know, is not an abstract notion. It conveys

a source of authority and protection. The people of Tuktoyaktuk

know from history how important it is for Canada to exercise control

and provide order in the Arctic. Between 1890 and 1910, unregulated

foreign whalers brought influenza to the Mackenzie Delta that

decimated the community.

Today the threats are different, but no less dangerous. The

proliferation of international shipping in the North raises the

potential for shipwrecks, smuggling, illegal immigration, and even

threats to national security. But more specifically it raises the

potential of environmental threats like oil spills, poaching and

contamination. These are particularly acute in the sensitive Arctic

ecosystem. Protecting and understanding the Arctic environment is

one of the four pillars of our Government’s Northern Agenda, and it

is one that we have been acting on. . . .

Today our government is further strengthening Canada’s control

over our Arctic environment with two important announcements.

First, our government will introduce legislation to expand the reach

of our Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act. The act currently

limits Canada’s ability to regulate Arctic shipping to within just 100

nautical miles from our coastline. We intend to double our

jurisdiction to 200 nautical miles. . . .Second, the Government will

amend the Canada Shipping Act to require vessels entering Canadian

394 Canada’s Position on Arctic Sovereignty

Arctic waters to report to the Coast Guard’s NORDREG reporting

system. . . .

These measures will send a clear message to the world: Canada

takes responsibility for environmental protection and enforcement in

our Arctic waters. This magnificent and unspoiled ecological region is

one for which we will demonstrate stewardship on behalf of our

country, and indeed, all of humanity.

Canada’s Position on Arctic Sovereignty 395