The police have given up hope of arresting the perpetrators of certain acts of eco-sabotage committed on the grounds of the future Northvolt battery factory, in Montérégie.
Two of the three investigations opened following acts of vandalism have been closed, the Richelieu–Saint-Laurent Intermunicipal Police Board confirmed to us.
Indeed, due to a lack of “cameras” or “witnesses”, the police had to put an end to their search. “We were not able to identify anyone,” said Régie spokesperson Éric Boulianne.
Only the investigation into recent events that occurred in May, when the Swedish multinational revealed having found “incendiary devices” under machinery, is still ongoing.
The investigation was taken over by the Sûreté du Québec, due to its complexity. The police force has not yet arrested any suspects in this case, more than five months after the events.
Cause uncertainty
Vandals opposed to the battery factory project entered the grounds of the future factory last January and inserted nails into around a hundred trees intended to be cut down, in order to sabotage the equipment and thus complicate deforestation of the site.
The acts of vandalism were claimed by anonymous opponents of the project
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They then took responsibility for their actions on an anarchist site called “Montreal Counter-Information”. “To stop Northvolt, we must multiply tactics and strike where it hurts: that is to say by causing economic risk and uncertainty,” the saboteurs wrote in particular.
A month later, the site was the subject of a new intrusion and studded mats were placed on the paths taken by the machinery. Other nails had also been put in trees, without them being identified this time, in order to “maximize the potential for destruction on the ecocidal machinery”, the perpetrators of these acts had affirmed on the platform. form “Montreal Counter-Information”.
Screenshot TVA News
No other acts of vandalism have been recorded since the installation of five incendiary devices on the site of the future factory last May.
Although the project on Quebec soil, estimated at $7 billion, is not threatened at this stage, the bad news is piling up for the Swedish giant, which has been mired in a financial crisis for several months. Around 1,600 jobs have been lost so far.
