Montreal - June 18, 2004 – The Montreal chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS-Montreal) today advised the Quebec government of a legal opinion it has obtained which concludes that the planned new pipeline through Oka Provincial Park would be in violation of the Parks Act.

Pierre-Louis Trudeau, a lawyer experienced in environmental cases, prepared the opinion for CPAWS following the June 1st announcement by the Bureau for Public Hearings on the Environment (BAPE) that it would conduct mediation procedures in an attempt to defuse public opposition to the project. Since the government first presented it for public comment in March, CPAWS Montreal has maintained that this project contravenes the Parks Act, which states that “all forms of prospecting, and any utilization, harvesting or harnessing of resources related to logging, mining or the production of energy, and the laying of oil or gas pipelines or power lines, are prohibited within the confines of a park”.

CPAWS-Montreal joined with the Citizen’s Committees of Oka (CCO) and of Deux-Montagnes (CC2M) in April in calling on M. Pierre Corbeil, minister responsible for Parks, and Mr. Thomas Mulcair, Minister of the Environment, to apply the Parks Act and to relieve the BAPE of this mandate. The government has refused, however, claiming that easements obtained by Trans-Northern Pipeline Inc. for a pipeline in the 1950’s now give the company the right to ignore the Parks Act.

Mr. Trudeau, the lawyer CPAWS consulted, finds the government’s interpretation of the easements “surprising” and even “fanciful”. According to him, “the passing of oil and gas pipelines through Oka Park is prohibited, and the holder of the
current easement benefits from no exception that would permit him to use it in a manner incompatible with the easements or with the law”.

In advising Ministers Corbeil and Mulcair today of Mr. Trudeau’s opinion, “CPAWS urges them again to apply the Parks Act and to put an end to the prospect of pipeline construction in Oka Park - an activity that should have no place in any Quebec park”, says John O’Driscoll, President of CPAWS Montreal.
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Source:
John O’Driscoll, President
CPAWS-Montreal
(514) 278-7627