Ballot Question No. 1 has provoked much commentary and a bombardment of TV ads, but few have talked about Hydro-Quebec’s dirty secret. They flooded thousands of square miles of First Nation lands to create the electricity they are selling.

Rene Simon, of New Hampshire’s Concord Monitor, wrote in 2019 of Hydro-Quebec’s Canadian land grab: “Between 1956 and 1978, 13 hydroelectric power stations and 11 reservoirs have been installed on Pessamit traditional territory forcing the Pessamit Innu First Nation from its vast traditional territory to live on a small reservation on the north shores of the St. Lawrence River. Twenty-nine percent of Hydro-Quebec’s installed capacity in the Quebec Province has been acquired illegitimately to the detriment of Pessamit.”

That 29 percent would cross Maine to power Massachusetts. But First Nation people have had no justice because their lawsuits are still unresolved.

Don’t trust CMP either – remember their meter fiasco, lies, poor service and rate hikes? The Maine Public Utility Commission engaged independent Liberty Consulting Group to analyze CMP’s parent company, Avangrid. They concluded: “Management’s overemphasizing of cuts in and limits on resources as a means of closing gaps in meeting the earning expectations of the equity investment community has sacrificed effectiveness in providing service.” Translation: They skimped on our service to pad their bottom line.

Do you seriously want to support the colonial suppression of Indigenous people and the destruction of a Maine natural resource so foreign companies can what make more money? Sorry, but this is corporate blood money.

Richard McWilliams
Yarmouth