'A year lost': Muskrat Falls opponents reflect on a year of protest

A year afterLabrador residents began ramping uptheir protests against the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project, some fear they have lost ground.

So, there were mixed feelings during a walk Tuesday night in Happy Valley-Goose Bay to mark the anniversary of when protests escalated in October 2016.

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That's when roughlytwo dozen protesters walked onto the North Spur, the area which will support the weight of the Muskrat Falls reservoir, demanding answers about its stability.

Their other big concern how flooding the reservoir would increase methylmercurylevels in fish and game eaten by people living near the Churchill River.

Within three weeks, hundreds were on side. Some broke into the main Muskrat Falls site, stopping construction, moving into workers' quarters.

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There were two court injunctions andninearrests. Three Muskrat Falls opponents went on a hunger strike.

"Last year the settlers and the natives all started to walk together," said Kirk Lethbridge, whohelped lead people onto the North Spur a year ago and organized Tuesday's anniversary walk.

"We had never really done anything like that before," he said.

"As we walked the movement grew and became stronger and it became something that seemed to inspire people around the world and in Labrador."

A year behind

Protests ended when Indigenous leaders made a deal with the premier promising the creation of an independent expert advisory committee and possible methylmercury mitigation measures including emptying the reservoir to facilitate the clearing of some vegetation.

It was announced in mid-September that water levels in the reservoir would not be lowered to promised levelsbecause of the potential for slope erosion.

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"When the leaders went in there to talk about negotiating some kind of agreement and came out and told everybody to go home, thinking that they had our best interests at heart, everybody went home," said Debbie Michelin as she walked alongside two dozen others Tuesday night.

"The fact of the matter is they didn't have our best interests at heart. And now we're a year behind the eight-ball because a year has been lost."

Ayear has been lost.- Debbie Michelin

Michelin is not sure whether the momentum can be built back up again to where it was, but she isn't giving up.

"I want to be one of those people at the end of the day that they can say, 'You know what? She did. She stood up,'" Michelin said.

"And yeah, it mightn't save the river and it might never be stopped but I can tell you I'll never give in."