|
Off
on >> A convicted environmental
protestor by PATRICK LEJTENYI
Lanthier’s fight against the Danville Magnola plant, situated 60 kilometres north-west of Sherbrooke, stems from his belief that the magnesium plant is a toxic menace to the population both locally and across the province. He says the plant is a major source of persistent organic pollutants (POPs)—including PCB dioxins, furans and hexachlorobenzene—producing 1,000 kilograms of them a year and sending some 50 kilograms into the air. POPs have been linked to serious health and environmental hazards, including infertility, immune deficiencies and cancer, and have been subject to restricted production and eventual elimination under the UN Stockholm Convention, which Canada was the first country to ratify in 1998. “It was a very intelligent, very lucid judgement,” says Lanthier, a member of the Collectif de luttes aux organochlorés (CLO). “It explains the issues very clearly, and the judge was more or less giving us encouragement.” Throughout the trial Lanthier was representing himself, with the aid of a court-appointed counsellor, using the little-used necessity of defence. This stipulates that while the defendant acknowledges his actions were, according to the letter of the law, illegal, mitigating circumstances justified them. Judge Danielle Côté didn’t buy it, but was sympathetic enough to acknowledge his environmental concerns and the shady way the Quebec government approved the building of the plant in the months leading up to Canada’s ratifying Stockholm. She points out that Lanthier did not have to resist arrest and obstruct justice to bring media attention to the potential environmental and health problems posed by the Magnola plant. “The accused,” she wrote, “by his actions, overstepped tolerable limits.” But when the prosecutor, whom Lanthier says became more sympathetic to their cause as the trial wore on, recommended an unconditional discharge, the judge agreed. Lanthier walked out of the court a free man. “To a large extent, we achieved what we set out to achieve,” Lanthier says. “Our goal was to publicize the dangers of the Magnola plant. We tried talking to the Ministry of Environment, we tried talking to industry and we tried talking to the media, but you know the media won’t pay attention if nothing exciting happens.” The eight-day trial allowed toxicologists and environmental experts to deliver testimony backing up Lanthier’s convictions. “With this judgement, we think we can go much further,” Lanthier says. “This is by no means the end. This judgement, to us, is a new beginning.” Lanthier says he has compromising documents that will allow him to continue to lobby the government for an injunction that would close the plant down permanently. : |
For
a guilty man, Roch Lanthier is smiling a lot these days. The 57-year-old
Montrealer, engineering consultant and environmental activist was indeed
found to be in the wrong in a Sherbrooke provincial court last Thursday,
but was in the curious position of enjoying the sympathy from both the
presiding judge and Crown prosecutor. Charged in May 2001 with resisting
arrest and obstructing police duties during a demonstration outside
a magnesium plant in the Eastern Townships, Lanthier was given an unconditional
discharge—meaning that while he was found guilty, he’s otherwise
free as a bird. No time, no record, no probation.