'I don't regret one moment': Muskrat Falls protesters 2 years after their occupation

Sitting in her home in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Marjorie Flowers is blunt when asked about herten days behind bars for protesting the development of the hydro electricity dam, being built at Muskrat Falls on the Churchill River.

"I was bringing attention to something that I feel iscritical for Labradorians," Flowers says.

It's critical. It's crucial. It's life and death for our people.- Marjorie Flowers

October 2018 marks two years since protesters occupied the Muskrat Falls job site. During that protest, dozens crossed into the restricted area where the dam is being built.

Theirdemonstration was covered by media across the countryand was key tobringing the protesters' fears about the dam into the public eye.

It also landed some of them in jail.

"I wasn't going to agree with that judge who was telling me that I couldn't go over there and be around the project," Flowers said.

"How can I? It was stripping me of my basic rights as an Indigenous woman. That I cannot speak up for my food and that arm of my culture that is threatened."

Dam now more than 90 per cent complete

Protesters say the provincial government and Nalcor, the Crown company overseeing the dam's construction, have not addressed the dam's impacton their culture. They'reworried that the land they live on, and the wild food they rely on, will be damaged by the hydro-electric development's flooding and resultingrise in methyl-mercury levels.

With the Muskrat Fallsdam now more than 90 per cent complete, Flowers, Beatrice HunterandDenise Cole say their concerns have beenlargely ignored.

"I would love to see somebody to do the research. Even the mental health studies around what this has done to people in the downstream area," Cole said while driving around Happy Valley-Goose Bay.

Many of the Labradorianswho occupied the Muskrat Falls site in2016 are now back in court, answering to charges.

"Why does it have to take me to go to prison to be heard? That is a part I don't understand," saidBeatrice Hunter, anInukwoman from Happy Valley-Goose Bay who alsowent to jail for opposing the dam's construction.

Well-paying jobs

Hunter is convinced that the concerns of protesters are being ignored because manyare Indigenous.However, Nalcor maintains they're doing what they can to minimize the negative impacts of the project.

NalcorCEO Stan Marshall says he is working on building the company's relationship with Indigenous Labradorians.

"I met with Aboriginal leaders and I said look, I know there is very little I can do in the short term, so I am taking the long-term view," Marshall said.

The town of Happy Valley-Goose Bay has been buzzing with activity since the mega-project started.The dam's construction has meant high paying construction jobs for up to 8,000workers from all across Atlantic Canada.

Gerald Russell is one of them. "This was the first project here in Labrador for me," Russell said. "For good money.I made good money for my family to support them for the next few years."

Despite his role, Russellsays as a Labradorian he understands where the protesters are coming from.

A provincial inquiry into the Muskrat Falls project is happening now in Newfoundland and Labrador. The inquiry is investigating alleged mismanagement of the project's construction, costoverruns and whether the government was fully informed and made aware ofrisks andproblems with the project.

A final report from the inquiry is to be completed by the end of 2019 the same year the Muskrat Falls generating facility is expected to produce first power.

Click the link to hear The River by Kenny Sharpe on Atlantic Voice.

CBC Radio One's Atlantic Voice is heard Sunday mornings at 9 a.m. in Newfoundland, 8:30 a.m. in the Maritimes and much of Labrador.

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