Superior Court authorizes class action lawsuit against Horne smelter and Quebec
Global News
A Quebec judge has approved a class-action lawsuit against Glencore's Horne smelter over toxic emissions linked to health risks and government inaction.
A Quebec Superior Court judge has authorized a class-action lawsuit on behalf of citizens who claim to have been affected by emissions from Glencore’s Horne smelter in Rouyn-Noranda, Que.
In a 50-page decision released Wednesday, Superior Court Judge Daniel Dumais authorized the lawsuit against the copper smelter and the Quebec government.
The plaintiffs had wanted to claim damages dating back to 1991, but the judge limited that to 2020 due to a statute of limitations.
The Swiss-owned smelter has come under fire in recent years for arsenic emissions that Quebec had allowed to be 33 times the provincewide standard.
In 2022, the province said it would permit the smelter to emit arsenic levels five times the norm, but the company had only succeeded in getting its annual average down to 15 times the standard in 2023.
Justice Daniel Dumais wrote in his decision that the plaintiffs’ claims of damage were based on abundant evidence of contaminants that exceed the norm.
He also noted a 2022 report by Quebec’s public health institute that indicated that past and current exposure to arsenic and cadmium concentrations from the smelter could put residents at a higher risk of cancer.
The allegations contained in the lawsuit have not been tested in court.
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