Protesters block site of future Northvolt electric car battery plant on Montreal’s South Shore

Protesters blocked the entrance to the future Northvolt electric car battery plant site on Thursday morning in Saint-Basile-le-Grand, south of Montreal.

Activists from the Rage Climatique group say they want to “delay the filling of wetlands.”

They posted on Facebook about it.

According to their demands, the activists fear that the project will perpetuate the automobile industry “by replacing pollution linked to greenhouse gases with massive pollution linked to batteries.”

After police arrived, the group of around 20 people left.

“I don’t think we can block access, we can protest,” Premier François Legault said in French at a press conference on Thursday morning when asked about it.

Last week, Northvolt indicated that it had started land preparation work after receiving permission from the municipality where the land is located.

The project has moved forward after being temporarily blocked when a request for an injunction was filed to stop the work. The Superior Court of Quebec, however, ruled in favor of the battery company.

Legault compares fruits to Northvolt project

On Thursday, Premier  Legault was asked about controversial comments he made the day before about the Northvolt project.

On Wednesday, the Premier displayed a banana, an orange, and an apple to justify a more lenient scientific analysis of the project.

“What I was trying to say is that you cannot compare real estate development with industrial development,” Legault explained on Thursday. “If you talk about the environment, it’s not the same project so you cannot compare apple and oranges.”

He says that all of the information is open. 

“I think we already have consultation about Northvolt and I think the President of Northvolt even met with Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois. He offered many interviews, so everything is open.”

Legault was reacting to a Radio-Canada report revealing that scientific justifications had disappeared in the Ministry of the Environment’s analysis of this controversial project.

“In the Northvolt dossier, we must not mix a real estate project with an industrial project.”

The Liberal opposition considers that these alterations look like a “political order” and perhaps even a “falsification of documents.”

The Parti Québécois (PQ) is asking the Auditor General to investigate the matter, while Québec solidaire (QS) wants to hear from the head of Northvolt.