Group opposed to Horne Foundry protests outside Premier Legault's office in Montreal

The Mères au front group protests in Montreal on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023. (Coralie Laplante/The Canadian Press)

The rain didn't stop some 30 people from the Mères au Front collective from demonstrating in Montreal on Saturday afternoon to call on François Legault's government to withdraw the permit granted to the multinational Glencore to operate the Horne smelter in Rouyn-Noranda, Abitibi-Témiscamingue.

The plant, which processes copper concentrates, has been a source of concern for several years due to its arsenic emissions into the air, which represent a health risk. The collective estimates that the smelter currently emits 22 times more arsenic into the air than the Quebec standard allows.

Equipped with raincoats and umbrellas, protesters gathered around 1 p.m. in front of Premier Legault's office on Sherbrooke Street West in downtown Montreal.

"Our lives are worth more than their profits," and "Here, now, for our children's future," chanted the demonstrators, most of whom wore green heart-shaped pins on their coats, the symbol of Mères au front.

Members of the environmental group travelled from Rouyn-Noranda to the metropolis to take part in the demonstration. Jennifer Richard-Turcotte was one of them.

"There's no social acceptability," said Richard-Turcotte, referring to the demonstration that brought together hundreds of people in Rouyn-Noranda last August.

"We find the time it takes to reach Quebec standards really too long," she said. "We'd like the government to modify the ministerial authorization it grants Glencore, so that standards are respected here in Quebec, everywhere like Rouyn-Noranda. We think we deserve to have our health protected, the health of our children, more quickly than what is being proposed."

In March, Environment Minister Benoit Charette granted Glencore a five-year ministerial authorization for the smelter.

The document states that Glencore must draw up an action plan to achieve the provincial standard of 3 nanograms per cubic metre (ng/m3) and submit it by Dec. 31, 2027.

Lucie Huard, an Abitibi resident, believes the Horne Foundry case is "symbolic of everything that's happening on the environmental front."

"I spent my childhood and adolescence in Noranda. I know the environmental impact it has had. Back then, it was the mine and the smelter; now it's the smelter," she said, holding up a banner.

"I remember as a teenager going for a walk on the shores of Osisko Lake, then crying just to see the red soil there," she continued, with tears in her eyes.

Members of Mères au Front in Montreal also took part in the demonstration to show their solidarity.

"Glencore's blackmail of the government is unacceptable, and the government's acceptance of that blackmail is unacceptable too," said Valéria Moreau.

"This is a company with money, which could, according to what the population is telling us, update its infrastructures," she added.

Horne Foundry claimed last March that the concentration of arsenic it emitted into the air in 2022 was 73 ng/m3, less than in 2021 but more than in 2020.

In a document published on its website, Glencore Canada states that for the past year, "the annual average arsenic level at the legal station" at the Horne Smelter "is 73.1 ng/m3, which confirms that our reduction projects are working".

- With files from The Canadian Press' Stéphane Blais

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Oct. 21, 2023.