MONTREAL | TRADITIONAL, UNCEDED TERRITORY OF THE KANIEN’KEHÁ:KA FIRST NATION — The David Suzuki Foundation today released an environmental justice report titled For Environmental Justice in Quebec: Facts, Arguments, Courses of Action. It provides an overview of the environmental justice situation in Quebec, makes the case for taking action and recommends ways for Quebec to catch up and take a leadership role on climate change and environmental governance by addressing equity, public health and human rights issues.
QUOTES:
“This report examines environmental health inequities in Quebec. It proposes concrete courses of action in order to create a climate safe future for all communities in Quebec.”
— Sabaa Khan, Director General, Quebec and Atlantic Canada.
“This report supports the work that various groups and communities have been doing on the ground for years without being heard. Supposedly, each case in the news is different but, in fact, they all share a common thread: environmental injustice. Now is the time to stop looking at such cases in isolation and start taking political action to develop a governance model that promotes environmental justice in Quebec.”
— Léa Ilardo, Climate Policy Analyst at the David Suzuki Foundation
“The era of environmentalism that ignores social justice, equity and human rights is over. It hasn’t worked and it cannot. An intersectional, decolonial, environmental justice approach is the only approach that has the power to address and transform the root causes of the climate crisis we face. The David Suzuki Foundation’s work on this is deeply important and points the way toward a just, equitable and ecologically viable Quebec.”
— Jen Gobby, Affiliate Assistant Professor at Concordia University in the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment
“We must work together to highlight the many health inequalities in our society and address those inequalities to build a healthier, more just and more united society so we can tackle the serious challenges of climate change that we will inevitably be faced with.”
— Isabelle Goupil-Sormany, Clinician-Teacher, Preventive and Social Medicine Department, School of Medicine, Université Laval
“In the future, we will need to think in terms of environmental injustice to ensure the social acceptability of specific greenhouse gas emission reduction measures, such as carbon taxes, and other climate change adaptation measures.”
— Michel Bélanger, Environmental Lawyer, Co-founder of the Centre québécois du droit de l’environnement
“It’s exciting to see the launch of this timely report, which argues that the time has come for Quebec to develop an environmental justice strategy that addresses the disproportionate impacts of pollution, contamination and climate change on our most marginalized and vulnerable communities.”
— Ingrid Waldron, Professor and HOPE Chair in Peace and Health in the Global Peace and Social Justice Program in the Faculty of Humanities at McMaster University
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For more information or a media interview, please contact:
Charles Bonhomme, David Suzuki Foundation, 438-883-8348, cbonhomme@davidusuzki.org
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND KEY CONTRIBUTORS
The report, Pour une justice environnementale québécoise : réalités, arguments, pistes d’actions, was prepared with the Centre québécois du droit de l’environnement (CQDE) and with support from the Association québécoise des médecins pour l’environnement (AQME). The following experts also provided input as part of an advisory committee: Ingrid Waldron, Isabelle Goupil-Sormany, Jen Gobby and Michel Bélanger.
The David Suzuki Foundation would like to sincerely thank the following people who gave their time and expertise and offered feedback on this report: Marie-Jo Ouimet and Claudel Pétrin-Desrosiers of the Association québécoise des médecins pour l’environnement; and Marjolaine Sioui and her team at the First Nations of Quebec and Labrador Health and Social Services Commission. We would also like to thank the following grassroots groups and organizations for sharing their stories and fighting environmental injustice in their communities: Mobilisation 6600, Hoodstock, Vigilance Port de Québec, Comité Arrêt des Rejets et Émissions Toxiques de Rouyn-Noranda and the Chinatown Working Group.