A Social Biosphere: Environmental Impact Assessment, The Innu, and Their Environment

PATRICIA FRY

ABSTRACT

The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the proposed Voisey's Bay nickel, cobalt, and copper mine has unearthed many of the difficult issues that arise at the intersection of human rights and large-scale industrial projects. Western legal traditions have tended to depict the interests of those affected by such projects as competing. This fragmented vision of the rights and interests at play presumes too simplistic an environmental dynamic. As Canadian and international conservation instruments recognize, human economies and cultures are not distinct from the environments in which they emerge. They are mere components of an interconnected and interdependent web of life. This complexity is reflected in the biosphere conservation paradigm that frames Canadian EIA. In this article, the author examines the legal principles upon which this paradigm is founded. These principles are used to develop the concept of a social biosphere. It is argued that a social biosphere model can, and should, be used to ensure the effective consideration of human rights as they are affected by projects subject to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. In particular, the concerns that have been raised through Innu participation in the EIA of the proposed Voisey's Bay mine provide a compelling example of how human rights considerations are integral to EIA. Canada's obligations toward Aboriginal peoples living in Canada are discussed in relation to the Voisey's Bay EIA. Finally, the right of Indigenous peoples to cultural integrity, as a customary norm of international law, is shown to accommodate a socially biospheric understanding of the issues that have been raised through the Voisey's Bay EIA process It is argued that EIA panel members are not only qualified to assess the proposed Voisey's Bay mine in light of the norm of cultural integrity, but, as part of a federally appointed an facilitated tribunal, they are obligated to do so.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Citation: (1998) 56(2) U.T. Fac. L. Rev. 177.
Copyright © 1998. University of Toronto Faculty of Law Review.
All rights reserved.