Chatelaine_April_May_2019

Last november, the Montreal-

based environmental non-profi t

Environnement Jeunesse (ENJEU)

sued the federal government for

failing to do enough for climate

change. Their legal argument

was devastatingly simple: By not

reducing carbon emissions enough

to avoid dangerous climate change,

the government was violating the

charter rights of Quebeckers, who

are guaranteed the right to live in

a “healthful environment.” Catherine

Gauthier, ENJEU’s executive director,

initiated the class action lawsuit

on behalf of nearly 3.5 million

Quebeckers who are age 35 or

younger—each one seeking $100

in damages. It was the fi rst such

litigation in Canada, but it was

certainly not the fi rst time Gauthier

has taken on such a formidable

challenge. At an age when other kids

are learning to drive, Gauthier was

mastering the eco-activist ropes:

In short order, at 16, she went from

launching a composting program at

her high school in Mont-Saint-Hilaire

to addressing 10,000 delegates at

the UN Climate Change Conference

in Montreal as a youth representative

of the Canadian delegation. ENJEU

selected her for the role, and she

has been with the organization

ever since. The non-profi t is all

about educating and empowering

youth around environmental issues,

but Gauthier’s work doesn’t stop

there—since 2014, she has also

been a lecturer at the Université de

Sherbrooke, teaching courses on

climate change negotiations and

eco-politics. While the lawsuit likely

won’t be resolved for a few years,

she is optimistic: A comparable suit

in the Netherlands forced the Dutch

government to cut its emissions

levels by at least 25 percent by

2020. ENJEU hopes for a similar
      outcome, holding the government
      fi nancially accountable for the past
      25 years of inaction and making it
      legally responsible for future climate
      measures. Gauthier describes her
      own attitude toward climate change
      as a bit of a “roller coaster”—
      inspired one day, pessimistic the
      next—but she is confi dent that
      the lawsuit provides young people
      with a certain hope. “It’s given us
      more ammunition,” she says, “and
      it shows that young people really
      want to tackle climate change.”

Thawing

permafrost will

destabilize

infrastructure

Areas of permafrost,

which have been frozen

for 10,000 years, are

now thawing, causing

havoc for infrastruc-

ture, as buildings slip

off their foundations

and ice roads

disappear. Waterways

are fi lling with sediment

and record levels of

toxic mercury. And

as the ground thaws,

everything buried

under the ice

decomposes, releasing

methane. Communities

like Tuktoyaktuk

are looking for

federal funds as the

situation worsens.

An ice-free

Arctic will invite

oil drilling—and

security concerns

The Northwest

Passage used to

be famously full of

treacherous ice. By

2040, Arctic summers

are expected to be

completely ice-free,

allowing for smooth

sailing. A longer

shipping season could

spell relief for the

North’s food security

woes and expand

cruise ship tourism.

However, more ships

navigating Arctic

waters could also

bring disruption of

ecosystems, threats

to Inuit culture and

security challenges to

this oil-rich but largely

unprotected region.

78 CHATELAINE • APRIL/MAY 2019

The millennial suing the

federal government for

environmental negligence

Catherine

Gauthier,

29

life REAL LIFE

THE FRENCH RIVER and its surrounding water-

shed cover 6,600 square kilometres of pristine

wilderness between Nipissing and Georgian Bay,

Ont. It’s home to migratory birds and boreal car-

ibou. And for the Moose Cree First Nation, it’s

the last source of clean drinking water, teeming

with whitefi sh, pickerel and pike. Moose Cree

Chief Patricia Faries grew up on the land, walk-

ing to school through fi ve feet of snow in moose

hides and moccasins. In 1998, when she returned

after completing a law degree in Toronto, she

noticed the snowfall had diminished. The water

levels had sunken, and new sandbars were start-

ing to appear. The animals were moving off the

watershed in search of more food, and many

Moose Cree people were following them. Since

Faries was elected chief in 2016, she has been on

a dogged mission to protect the French River

from companies like NioBay Metals, which wants

drilling permits to extract minerals from the

land, as the area is an especially rich source of

niobium, a mineral used for making steel and

superalloys. The provincial government pro-

tected some 1,600 square kilometres of the

French River watershed and its lands as part

of the Ontario Living Legacy Initiative, a conser-

vation strategy implemented in 1999. Faries

is pressuring them to add the rest. She has

requested more support and cooperation from

the Ontario government, insisting that pro-

tecting these lands could help Canada catch up

to its climate and biodiversity targets.

Her eff orts have been lauded by such environ-

mental A-listers as the Wildlands League and

the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario.

“We don’t have enough housing,” says Faries.

“Our kids can’t go to school. We have boil-water

warnings. Yet, everyone else is benefi ting from

the resources of our land. We’ve been patient.”

Faries practises the Seventh Generation

Principle: the idea that you should work to cre-

ate a better world not just for your children but

for your descendants seven generations down

the road. She has a three-year-old granddaugh-

ter named Anastasia, and she wants Anastasia’s

great-grandchildren to know what Faries did for

them. “This is the only place on earth we have to

live,” she says, “and they have to protect it

because we did for them.”

The First Nations

Chief protecting our

watersheds

Patricia Faries,

53

GAUTHIER PHOTO, JULIE DUROCHER.