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Commentary on the Harris Superquarry Inquiry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2015

Alesia Maltz
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Extract

In June of 1995, the Chief Reporter for the Secretary of State for Scotland, Miss Gillian Pain, completed a Public Inquiry for an application for a coastal superquarry on the Western Isles of Scotland. The company, Redland Aggregates Limited, proposed to extract and transport by sea upward of five million and less than 12 million tons of rock a year. The rock, a feldspar called anorthosite, would be sold as road aggregate throughout Europe. At a national level, the proposal became the Scottish test case for Agenda 21, the blueprint for sustainable development arising from the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio in June of 1992. At a local level, this Public Inquiry highlighted and defined community concerns about the development, of which religion was primary. The significance of the religious dimension of the superquarry debate extended from the local to the national and international spheres.

To place the testimonies presented by Mr. Mcintosh, Professor MacLeod, and Chief Sulian Stone Eagle Herney in perspective, it is necessary to understand the role religion plays in daily life on Harris and in the superquarry proposal process. On first appearance, a proposal for one of the world's largest coastal superquarries seems devoid of any religious implications. However, much of the local debate before and during the Inquiry revolved around religious and theological issues. In the constitutional monarchy of Great Britain, where the separation of church and state is inconceivable, the Western Isles of Scotland stand out as a place where religion is still one of the most fundamental guides to policy decision-making. The people of Harris share with the Mi'kmaq of Canada a set of expectations about the role of religion in politics.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Law and Religion , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , June 1994 , pp. 793 - 833
Copyright
Copyright © Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University 1994

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References

1. For a general description of the players and issues, The Isle of Harris Superquarr: Concepts of the Environment and Sustainability, 5:2Environmental Values 97–122 (1996)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2. Conkle, Daniel O., Different Religions, Different Politics: Evaluating the Role of Competing Religious Traditions in American Politics and Law, 10 J Law & Relig 1 (1993–1994)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3. Historians have widely argued that millennial and evangelical Protestantism was essentially more democratic than Catholicism: there was less sense of hierarchy for white males; worship and other practices conducted in the first language of the people were more accessible; and God allowed each individual to “choose” whether to accept salvation.

4. Martin and Abercrombie, 1995 closing submission to the Public Inquiry on the Proposed Superquarry on Harris, paras 53 and 150.

5. Greenawalt, Kent, Religious Convictions and Lawmaking, 84 Mich L Rev, 352, 391 (1985)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6. Chief Stone Eagle hinted that there were political skeletons in his own closet, but the lawyers for Redland Aggregates had not done enough homework to ask the embarrassing political questions. To underscore connections between old and new Scotia, he also mentioned that he had recently discovered to his chagrin that one of his grandmothers had red hair and he was not pure-blooded Mi'kmaq.

7. The people of Harris were particularly interested in the tribal names, since the term Mac in Gaelic refers to clan derivations (son of). The term Mi'kmaq (pronounced MEE-gha-moo-ACH-r) means “we are of one blood.” It is related to the word no-go-maq, which means relative.

The word El-nu was also used to refer “us aboriginal people.” (We the People) Further south, it was expressed El-nu-bay, and Lenape is an Anglicization of this. When the Europeans came, they couldn't comprehend the interdependence of all the Algonquin along the Eastern Seaboard. They must have asked the first person, “Who are you?” and he answered, “We are all related: no-go-moo-atch” “Oh, you're a Mi'kmaq, eh? Then who are those over there?” “Oh, they are also aboriginal people, Ul nu(bay)” “Oh they're Lenape?” So you see, there was no understanding that these were one people. The names stuck, and it helped split up the Algonquins into tribes, and started a lot of arguments.

Pritchard, Evan Thomas, Introductory Guide to Mi'kmaq Words and Phrases 18 (Resonance Communications, 1991)Google Scholar.

8. The complications of testifying in a foreign language struck a chord with some local Gaelic speakers in the audience. Several of the elders had previously mentioned to me the complications of testifying in a second language, and concluded that their English was not strong enough to testify.

9. This is excerpted from the poem “The Exiles” by Iain Crichton Smith. Translated from the author's Gaelic and reprinted in As an Fhearann (From the Land): Clearance, Conflict and Crofting 4 (an Lanntair, 1986).

10. The 1752 Treaty of Peace and Friendship was made between the English and the Mi'kmaq. It was almost immediately broken by the English, but has recently been upheld to ensure hunting and fishing rights for the Mi'kmaq. For more information about the treaty, see Ruth Holmes Whitehead's book, The Old Man Told Us: Excerpts from MicMac History 1500-1950 126 (Nimbus Publishing, Ltd, 1991)Google Scholar.

It is unclear whether Stone Eagle knew who the parties were making the treaty. In any case, it is ironic that Stone Eagle did not differentiate between a treaty made with the English and one made with the Scots, with whom there are considerable animosities. It is similar to the kind of error many whites made and continue to make on this continent in failing to recognize tribal distinctions.

Chief Stone Eagle was amazed to find that the people of Harris were in some respects worse off than the Mi'kmaq. During his testimony, Chief Stone Eagle expressed dismay that the people of the Western Isles had lost many of the land rights Mi'kmaq have managed to maintain, including hunting and fishing rights. He noted problems not only in the rural areas, but also in the urban areas. He found Glasgow slums he visited more oppressive than the living conditions of many Mi'kmaq reservations. He had not looked at Europeans in this light before. The Mi'kmaq are a sovereign nation recognized by the United Nations. Like many First Nations, they even have their own passport.

11. The Kelly Rock Company proposes to quarry Gluscap (or Kelly) Mountain. That proposal is pending further examination.

12. For more information about Gluscap, see Leland, Charles G., Algonquin Legends (Dover Publications, 1884, 1992)Google Scholar. Gluscap was a sagamore and prophet. In some legends, Gluscap sailed away in a stone canoe to the east. There are legends that he went to Europe, and was the first to make America known to the Europeans. In others legends, he went west. Some Scottish descendants living in Nova Scotia insist that Gluscap was Lord Sinclair. In several versions of the legend, he is preparing for war and will return at the end of the world. The arrangement of stone around the sacred cave on Gluscap mountain is known as Gluscap's Table.

13. The World Bank notes that because of the varied and changing contexts in which indigenous people are found, no single definition can capture their diversity. They are identified in particular geographical areas as having in various degrees the following characteristics:

— a close attachment to ancestral territory and to the natural resources in these areas

— self-identification and identification by others as members of a distinct cultural group

— an indigenous language, often different from the national language

— presence of customary social and political institutions, and

— primarily subsistence-oriented production

Under this definition, the people of Harris might be considered indigenous. This definition is found in the World Bank Operational Manual Operational Directive OD4.20 1 (1991). It also states that “local patterns of social organization, religious beliefs, and resource use should be taken into account in the plan's design, ” id at 6, and that the Bank's objective is to ensure that “the development process fosters full respect for their dignity, human rights and cultural uniqueness.” Id at 2.

14. There was some criticism that a Sioux headdress worn by a Mi'kmaq was media hype. It might be mentioned that this headdress was given to him by the widow of the late Grand Chief, Donald Marshall. She requested that Stone Eagle take the headdress to Scotland, which he did out of respect to his elders. This tendency to require that Indians be “authentic” or dress authentically is often an imposition on Indians to have them fulfill white myths and expectations about who Indians should be.

15. Even some Mi'kmaq words are the same as Gaelic, including the word for hillock, spelled “cwmdn” in Mi'kmaq and “cnochan” in Gaelic. The connections are relatively recent, most likely dating from the arrival of the Scots Gaelic speakers. For more information about language, see Pritchard, , Introductory Guide to Mi'kmaq, at 33 (cited in note 7)Google Scholar.

16. The Isle of Berneray, which was not officially included in the second referendum, held its own informal referendum, with 11 in favor to 70 against.

17. Quarry Benefit Group, Final Submission to the Lingerabay Quarry Public Inquiry 10 (forthcoming)Google Scholar.

18. Quarry Benefit Group, Final Submission to the Lingerabay Quarry Public Inquiry, at 7 (cited in note 17)Google Scholar.

19. Scottish Guide on Preparing Environmental Statements at 6.

20. Mr. John MacAulay of the local development group, the Western Isles Enterprise (WIE) claimed that all aspects were considered, social as well as economic, including work and social opportunities. Yet no social impact was done, and when the Quarry Working Group applied for funding of a Social Impact Assessment, they were told that WIE could not fund it. The reason given was that the Council had information not publicly available, and funding such a study would duplicate efforts.

21. Quarry Benefit Group, Final Submission at 4 (cited in note 17)Google Scholar.

22. Conkle defines fundamentalists as those who regard their religious texts “as a source of truth that is absolute, plain and unchangeable, ” and who do not reason from their texts. Conkle, , 10 J Law & Relig at 14 (cited in note 2)Google Scholar.

23. Gedicks suggests that we may have gone too far in keeping the moral and religious dimension out of the political realm. While the threats of religious incursion into politics are uncritically assumed to present great social and political dangers, “(t)hreats originating from the exclusion of religion from politics are less often recognized.” Gedicks, Frederick Mark, Some Political Implications of Religious Belief, 4 Notre Dame J Law, Ethics & Pub Pol 425 (1990)Google Scholar.

24. Carolene Products, Co. v United States, 323 US 18 (1944).

25. Smith, Steven D., The Rise and Fall of Religious Freedom in Constitutional Discourse, 140 U Pa L Rev 149, 193–196 (1991–1992)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

26. In their seminal work on the anthropology of law, Laura Nader and Harry Todd, Jr. stated: “Engineering a legal system requires first that we listen to the needs of the participants, and second that we increase our tolerance for diversity.”

Laura Nader and Todd, Harry Jr. eds, The Disputing Process-Law in Ten Societies 40 (Columbia U Press, 1978)Google Scholar.

27. May, Henry F., The Enlightenment in America xiv (Oxford U Press, 1976)Google Scholar.

28. Smith, , U Pa L Rev at 208 (cited in note 25)Google Scholar.

29. Id at 212.

30. Howe, Mark, The Garden and the Wilderness: Religion and Government in American Constitutional History, is discussed by Smith, in 140 U Pa L Rev at 159 (cited in note 25)Google Scholar.

31. Smith, , 140 U Pa L Rev at 149 (cited in note 25)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

32. Bellah, Robert N., Civil Religion in America 117 Daedalus 97, 100 (1988)Google Scholar.

33. Carter, Stephen L., The Religiously Devout Judge, 64 The Notre Dame L Rev 932, 938 (1989)Google Scholar.

34. Id at 939.

35. Greenawalt, , 84 Mich L Rev at 404 (cited in note 5)Google Scholar.

36. Greenawalt, Kent, Religious Convictions and Political Choice (Oxford U Press, 1988)Google Scholar.

37. Greenawalt, , 84 Mich L Rev at 391 (cited in note 5)Google Scholar.

38. Id.

39. Id at 392.

40. Id at 398.

41. Luckmann, Thomas, Shrinking Transcendence, Expanding Religion? 51 Soc Analysis 127, 132 (1990)Google Scholar, as quoted in Smith, , 140 U Pa L Rev at 171, n 91 (cited in note 25)Google Scholar.

42. Gedicks, , 4 Notre Dame J Law, Ethics & Pub Pol at 449 (cited in note 23)Google Scholar.

43. Id at 436.

44. Lyng v Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Ass'n, 108 S Ct 1319 (1988).

45. Gedicks, , 4 Notre Dame J Law, Ethics & Pub Pol at 449 (cited in note 23)Google Scholar.

46. MacIntyre, Alasdair C., After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory (U of Notre Dame Press, 1984)Google Scholar.

47. Conkle, , 10 J Law & Relig at 4 (cited in note 2)Google Scholar.

48. Id.

49. Sennett says that these images of the past naturally produce a sense of regret, and he warns regret is a dangerous sentiment. While it produces empathy for the past, and so a certain insight, regret induces resignation about the present, and so a certain acceptance of its evils. Sennett, Richard, The Fall of Public Man 259 (Vintage Books, 1978)Google Scholar.

50. Id at 265.

51. Id at 265-66.

52. Id at 266.

53. Id at 295.

54. Id at 308-09.

55. Testimony of Sulian Stone Eagle Herney on the Public Inquiry on the Proposed Harris Superquarry at 20.

56. Sennett, , The Fall of Public Man at 310 (cited in note 49)Google Scholar.

57. Id at 311.

58. Id.

59. Id at 296.

60. Id at 295.

61. During his testimony, Mr. MacAulay asked Chief Stone Eagle: “If the mountain is taken away, will you get anything in return?” A: “Death.” In this response, he suggested that people of Harris and the First Nation people of Canada share a common concern about the effect of the coastal superquarry proposal on both physical health and the health of their culture.

In the Hydro-Quebec hearings, the naming of land by the company was itself considered an issue of cultural survival, as important as the loss of land use rights through the flooding of trap lines (hunting lines) that have been handed down through the generations. Imbedded in the names were stories, genealogy and land use information, without which it would be impossible to maintain relationship with the land.

62. Quarry Benefit Group, Final Submission at 2 (cited in note 17)Google Scholar.

63. Testimony of McIntosh, Alastair on the Public Inquiry on the Proposed Harris Superquarry at 8Google Scholar.

64. Id at 7-8.

65. Pluralism is a highly controversial issue in many religious communities in the Western Isles. One of the most recent break-away sects of break-away sects of Scottish Presby-terianism (“the Wee-Wee-Frees”) was formed as a consequence of a controversy over the excommunication of a church official who attended a Roman Catholic Mass. This Mass was being offered as part of the funeral service of his dear friend. This event, which precipitated the creation of a new denomination, graphically illustrates the divisiveness and level of intolerance for ecumenical sentiment in Scotland.