Opponents Of Quebec’s Arnaud Open-Pit Mine Face Threats, Hack Attacks
Tensions are running high in la Belle Province as people wait for the government’s decision on opening a controversial new mine in northeastern Quebec.
Opponents of the Arnaud mining project, a proposed open-pit mine inside Sept-Îles’ town limits, say they have been the targets of a campaign of intimidation.
For more than a year now, supporters and opponents have been publicly going head to head in the media and in the streets.
With the economy slowing down, the region desperately needs to create jobs. But the proposed project was labelled “unacceptable” for environmental reasons by the independent advisory agency, the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE), in February 2014.
Claire Hébert lived in Parc Ferland, a trailer park located about three kilometers from the site of the proposed pit in Sept-Îles when she started doing her own research into what was under the ground at this particular location.
Barium, vanadium, cobalt … all substances that are cause for concern, since they would be brought up in the first round of dynamiting and settle in fine particles on mounds of residue left over by the mine’s construction. As she pursued her research, Hébert shared her findings with her Facebook contacts through screenshots or homemade graphics.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
