Inuk land protector opposed to Canadian government approval of Bay du Nord deepwater oil drilling megaproject

Amy Norman: “We’re the people of ice and snow. That’s who we are and that’s who we’ve been since time immemorial. Destroying the ice is destroying us.”

On April 6, The Narwhal reported: “Canada’s Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault has approved a major deepwater production project.”

“The Bay du Nord project proposes to extract up to one billion barrels of crude oil from the seabed about 500 kilometres northeast of St. John’s. There, in depths ranging from 300 metres to 1,200 metres, owners Equinor, of Norway, and Husky Energy (now owned by Cenovus), of Canada, hope to operate for up to 30 years.”

The article published in The Narwhal also notes: “Several environmental and Indigenous groups wanted the project rejected. In mid-March, Amy Norman of Labrador Land Protectors told a media briefing hosted by Sierra Club, that approving Bay du Nord would put the country on the wrong trajectory.”

Norman is an Inuk and an active member of the Labrador Land Protectors and Grand RiverKeeper. (The Sierra Club has noted: “She’s faced charges and even been arrested on Parliament Hill for trying to protect the Grand River from the destruction caused by large-scale hydro dams.”)

She says: “The world is changing and climate change is already here … Already we’re seeing impacts here in Labrador and in Newfoundland: unreliable sea ice, warming temperatures, more frequent storms, unpredictable weather. It’s already impacting our ways of life and it’s already changing how we live on these lands.”

“We’re the people of ice and snow. That’s who we are and that’s who we’ve been since time immemorial. Destroying the ice is destroying us.”

She has further emphasized: “Investing in oil and gas is violence against these lands and waters and it perpetuates the cycles of destruction and colonialism. Climate destruction is already disproportionately impacting the north.”

And she has told APTN: “I want to be able to teach my grandchildren how to ice fish. If we continue to pursue oil and gas, if we continue to greenlight and greenwash these horrible polluters, my grandchildren will have nothing to inherit. There won’t be any ice to fish on. And as an Inuk, I cannot sit by while that happens.”

Bay du Nord is expected to begin extracting oil in 2028.