Canada and Australia - Comparing Environmental Policies in 16 Countries - page 129

stimulated popular concern. In 1969 at Placentia Bay, Newfoundland,
fluoride effluent from a plant that produced phosphorus for metal finish-
ing killed tens of thousands of fish. Only a few months later the oil tanker
Arrow ran aground on Cerberus Rock in Chedabucto Bay, Nova Scotia.
As the ship broke up over the following days of stormy weather, half its
cargo of 108,000 barrels leaked out. At the same time, scientists discov-
ered high levels of mercury in the fish in the Great Lakes. The 1973 energy
crisis caused severe shortages in the eastern provinces at the same time as
it rewarded oil rich Alberta. Responding to public demands for environ-
mental protection, Parliament passed the Water Act in 1970 and the Clean
Air Act in 1971. In the late 1970s, Canadians became aware that sulfur
dioxide and nitrogen oxides from US factories and electric power plants
were blowing north across the border to cause acid rain and smog. They
put pressure on the Americans to control the problem.
Government: France lost its Canadian colony permanently in the Treaty
of Paris of 1763. The British Quebec Act of 1774 guaranteed the French
inhabitants their civil, legal, linguistic, and religious rights. At the time
very few English speakers lived in the colony. This changed at the end of the
American Revolution when the Loyalists arrived. These were residents of
the Thirteen Colonies who had remained loyal to Britain. Those deported
by land went to western Quebec and those deported by sea went to Nova
Scotia. The new arrivals, English speaking and Protestant, clashed with
the Canadians, French speaking, and Catholic. To resolve the conflict, the
British Parliament passed the Constitution Act in 1791 that divided the
territory into Upper and Lower Canada, present-day Ontario and Quebec.
By 1849 those two colonies, as well as the Maritimes (Nova Scotia, New
Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland), were granted
responsible government on internal matters. Great Britain continued to
control its foreign relations for many years.
By the early 1860s at least three factors showed the need for unity. The
American Civil War was raging, and many feared that once it was over,
the Union army of a million men might invade Canada. The United
States had tried it twice before in 1775 and 1813. Conflict between the
French and English continued. And a railroad was needed to the Pacific.
Representatives from all provinces met in Charlottetown in 1864 to initi-
ate negotiations for unification, and 3 years later the British Parliament
made it official in the North American Act. In 1869 the new federation
acquired the extensive territory of the Hudson Bay Company. The powers
of the national government are less than found in the United States. The