“Protection to the Sulphur-Smoke Tort-feasors”: The Tragedy of Pollution in Sudbury, Ontario, the World's Nickel Capital, 1884–1927

Abstract

While there are many tales of mining companies polluting the Canadian communities in which they have operated, Sudbury's early history stands out. It is arguably the most extreme example of an industry dictating to government how the latter dealt with the local pollution problem – in this case, sulphur dioxide emissions. The capstone achievement was the creation of an extrajudicial solution to the problem that permanently suspended the legal rights of residents seeking redress for their grievances. Moreover, the Ontario government was duplicitous in this affair – namely, by zealously luring settlers to the region in an effort to develop farming there even though it was acutely aware of the local pollution problem. Finally, this story is truly tragic because the pollution need never have happened to the extent that it did. The provincial politicians knew full well that the means existed – within a short jaunt of Sudbury no less – to mitigate the problem, but the politicians refused to force the mining firms to adopt them. Retelling Sudbury's story thus highlights how the Ontario government's decision to grant the mining firms practical impunity to pollute the local environment – both human and non-human – was a matter of political choice.