First River to Have Recognized Rights in Canada
The Magpie River, Muteshekau-shipu in the Innu language, is now more protected than ever before. In a first for Canada, the Magpie has been granted legal personhood and endowed with basic rights and protections. On February 16, 2021, the regional municipality of Minganie and the Innu Council of Ekuanitshit passed similar resolutions to protect the river from future threats.
Why the Magpie River?
The Magpie River represents many things. To the Innu of Ekuanitshit, it is ancestral territory that connects their past, present, and future. To white water enthusiasts, it is 200 kilometers of world-renowned rapids. To Hydro-Quebec, the Quebec government's energy corporation, it represents potential future hydroelectric projects.
Despite regional consensus to protect the Magpie River, Hydro-Quebec has resisted attempts to formalize a plan to protect it because of its potential for future projects. With one hydroelectric dam already built and no official protections to prevent future development, the river needed assistance to protect the biodiversity, tourism potential, and cultural significance of the river to the Innu.
Recognizing this need, the Muteshekau-shipu Alliance—the Innu Council of Ekuanitshit, the regional municipality of Minganie, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society Quebec and the Association Eaux-Vives Minganie—stepped in to help. Civil society group observatoire international des droits de la nature (OIDN), a close partner of ELC, also provided legal support in the campaign.
Protecting the Magpie for the Future
To overcome the Quebec government’s reluctance to grant the Magpie River official protected status, the Muteshekau-shipu Alliance developed a guardianship model of protection modeled on an initiative in New Zealand. Similar projects in Mexico, Ecuador, and other countries have successfully secured protections for waterways.
The Magpie guardianship, a unique co-governance approach, took the form of separate resolutions adopted by the regional municipality of Minganie and the Innu Council of Ekuanitshit. Each resolution granted similar legal rights to the river and established guardians to act on its behalf to ensure its nine fundamental rights were protected. Likely, the most important of these rights is the right to sue because the river’s guardians would have standing to represent the Magpie River in court cases to protect its rights.
What’s Next?
The Magpie River blends the traditional culture of the Innu with the modern-day tourism potential of a world-renowned white water river. Similarly, a progressive guardianship model of river rights allows the Magpie to have a voice in how it navigates its future challenges. Now, advocates are working towards rights of the St. Lawrence River and other waterways.
The Earth Law Center expresses our enthusiastic support for our partners in Canada! We also promote river rights through its support of the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Rivers. The declaration’s language served as a model for laws, declarations, and other legal instruments to establish the rights of rivers across the world.
There are many ways that you can help us to further the spread the guardianship model of nature:
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