Terraforming Canada: the engineering of Eeyou Istchee


Rob Shields, University of Alberta

This paper reports 2 axes of research about Eeyou Istchee (Eastern James Bay). First, the scientific profiling of the natural environment which reflects institutional, commercial and instrumental forces that produce a cartogrpahy of resources and natural dispositions that repress lived experience, traditional and local knowledge to allow the region to be unilaterally opened up to global resource and energy economies. Second, the resulting terraforming of this planetary region through flooding, watershed management and river redirection on a complete and total scale without public consultation transgresses democratic norms. Although both the process and impacts are understudied in the above scientific literature, because it has been judged a commercial and political success in Quebec, the case of the James Bay region offers insights into the potential remaking of other environments.

This paper will be presented at the following session: