{"id":524,"date":"2022-06-03T21:14:10","date_gmt":"2022-06-03T21:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/observatoirenature.org\/observatorio\/?page_id=524"},"modified":"2022-07-27T18:47:06","modified_gmt":"2022-07-27T18:47:06","slug":"st-lawrence-river-quebec-canada","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/observatoirenature.org\/observatorio\/en\/st-lawrence-river-quebec-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Lawrence River (Quebec, Canada)"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Fleuve Saint-Laurent (Quebec, Canada)<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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In the December 2017 edition of the world renowned magazine BioScience, several Quebec thinkers united with the \u201cWorld Scientists\u201d to \u201csound the alarm again on the disastrous results of human governance in environmental matters \u201d[1], with particular emphasis on the availability of freshwater per capita across the globe. Indeed, according to their study, available freshwater resources have been reduced by 50% since the 1960s, due primarily to the disastrous effects of climate change.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Crucially, in the context of Quebec, our surface area is 22% fresh water and consists of 3% of the planet’s total water resources [2], yet, in 2017 Quebecers represented a mere 0.11% of the world’s population [3]. In order to take charge of the protection of Quebec’s water resources, in 2009 the National Assembly adopted a law affirming the collective nature of water resources and promoting better governance of water and associated environments [4]. This law affirmed that water is “essential to life,\u201d \u201ca vulnerable and exhaustible resource,\u201d part of \u201cthe common heritage of the Quebec nation,\u201d and that it is \u201cimportant to preserve it and to improve management to meet the needs of present and future generations \u201d[5].<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Inspired by the letter and spirit of this law, OIDN is currently collaborating with many organisations to <\/span>implement international legal theory in Quebec’s legal system, which calls for granting the various elements of Nature their respective rights.<\/strong><\/p>

This new movement began in 1972 with Professor Christopher D. Stone, in his article<\/span> Should Trees Have Standing?<\/span><\/i> [6]. Today, legal theory promotes this paradigm shift through its application in a growing number of communities internationally. Whether we think of Ecuador, Bolivia, the Whanganui River in New Zealand, the Atrato River, or even more recently the Amazon rainforest in Colombia [7], they all practice the theory of rights of Nature and recognize their ecosystem as an integral part of their legal system.<\/span><\/p>

Considering the critical environmental responsibility Quebec has for the world’s freshwater resources, the OIDN believes that it\u2019s time for Quebecers to give their rivers the status they deserve in the legal ecosystem.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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At the moment, we have under the microscope two Quebec rivers closely tied to the fate of the Copper Redhorse, a species endangered according to the Species at Risk Act [8] since 2007. On the one hand, the species that lives exclusively in Quebec’s water bodies sees a significant part of its essential habitat threatened by the potential implementation of the Montreal Port Authority’s expansion project at Contrecoeur on the St. Lawrence River [9] while, on the other hand, the Richelieu River in which the fish reproduces sees the quality of its water supplying also thousands of homes being alarmingly neglected [10].<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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This approach taken by the OIDN and their collaborators is far from being naive. Rather, it is part of an international movement implementing innovative legal solutions in order to enable legal systems to remain at the service of its people and the environment in which they live, which entails addressing the challenges of its time.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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[1] Id., Supplemental File S1.<\/p>

[2]\u00a0Minist\u00e8re du d\u00e9veloppement durable, de l\u2019Environnement et de la Lutte contre les changements climatiques, L\u2019eau au Qu\u00e9bec : une ressource \u00e0 prot\u00e9ger, [en ligne], <http:\/\/www.mddelcc.gouv.qc.ca\/eau\/inter.htm<\/a>>.<\/p>

[3]\u00a0En 2017, la population du Qu\u00e9bec a \u00e9t\u00e9 estim\u00e9e \u00e0 8 394 034 personnes selon l\u2019Institut de la statistique du Qu\u00e9bec : [en ligne], <http:\/\/stat.gouv.qc.ca\/statistiques\/population-demographie\/structure\/qc_1971-20xx.htm<\/a>>.Toujours en 2017, la population mondiale a \u00e9t\u00e9 estim\u00e9e \u00e0 7 550 262 101 selon le 2017 Revision of World Population Prospects du D\u00e9partement des affaires \u00e9conomiques et sociales de l\u2019Organisation des Nations Unies, division Population : [en ligne], <https:\/\/esa.un.org\/unpd\/wpp\/DataQuery\/>.<\/a><\/p>

[4]\u00a0RLRQ, c. 6.2. \u00a0<\/p>

[5]\u00a0Id., Pr\u00e9ambule.<\/p>

[6]\u00a0Christopher D. STONE, \u00ab Should trees have standing? \u2013 Toward Legal Rights for Natural Objects \u00bb, (1972) 45 S. Cal. L. Rev. 450.\u00a0<\/p>

[7]\u00a0International Center for the Rights of Nature, \u00ab Advancing Legal Rights of Nature: Timeline \u00bb, 2018, [en ligne], <https:\/\/celdf.org\/rights\/rights-of-nature\/rights-nature-timeline\/>.<\/a><\/p>

[8]\u00a0L.C. 2002, c. 29.\u00a0<\/p>

[9]\u00a0Bruno BISSON, \u00ab Port de Montr\u00e9al \u00e0 Contrecoeur : des organismes questionnent la l\u00e9galit\u00e9 du projet \u00bb, LaPresse, publi\u00e9 le 15 f\u00e9vrier 2018, [en ligne], <http:\/\/www.lapresse.ca\/actualites\/grand-montreal\/201802\/15\/01-5153958-port-de-montreal-a-contrecoeur-des-organismes-questionnent-la-legalite-du-projet.php?utm_categorieinterne=trafficdrivers&utm_contenuinterne=envoyer_cbp>.<\/a><\/p>

[10]\u00a0Frederic KHALKHAL, \u00ab Un rapport alarmant sur la rivi\u00e8re Richelieu \u00bb, Le Journal de Chambly, publi\u00e9 le 18 avril 2018, [en ligne], <https:\/\/www.journaldechambly.com\/un-rapport-alarmant-sur-la-riviere-richelieu\/>.<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fleuve Saint-Laurent (Quebec, Canada) In the December 2017 edition of the world renowned magazine BioScience, several Quebec thinkers united with the \u201cWorld Scientists\u201d to \u201csound the alarm again on the disastrous results of human governance in environmental matters \u201d[1], with particular emphasis on the availability of freshwater per capita across the globe. Indeed, according to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-524","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/observatoirenature.org\/observatorio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/observatoirenature.org\/observatorio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/observatoirenature.org\/observatorio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/observatoirenature.org\/observatorio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/observatoirenature.org\/observatorio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/observatoirenature.org\/observatorio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5067,"href":"https:\/\/observatoirenature.org\/observatorio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/524\/revisions\/5067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/observatoirenature.org\/observatorio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}