Unknown individuals trespassed Northvolt’s construction site at their future battery plant in Quebec, placing Molotov cocktails under some of the construction equipment.
“Fortunately, the devices didn’t go off. There is no damage,” said Northvolt CEO Paolo Cerruti.
The Swedish battery manufacturing giant previously began clearing land and destroying wetlands to build its new EV battery plant, sparking public outcry and raising questions about the environmental cost of green technologies.
“What these people want to achieve is to scare us, is to dissuade us from going forward. Well, they are obtaining exactly the opposite results,” said Cerruti.
He said Northvolt is more determined than ever to move forward and succeed.
“This is a project for Quebec. This is a project to accelerate the transition to a decarbonized world,” he added.
Cerruti said this act is not representative of the majority of Québecois people.
Several posts have been uploaded to a Montreal anarchist website, Montreal Counter-Information, over the past several months calling for separate incidents of sabotage and vandalism at the Northvolt construction site.
One of the first posts calling for sabotage in January called to “sabotage the equipment, block the construction sites and harass the industry’s elected representatives.”
“If this project goes ahead, 1.4 square kilometres of wetlands and woodlands will be razed to the ground, serving the greenwashing strategy of our governments, and doing so with public funds,” read the anonymous submission.
Another post was anonymously uploaded at the end of February. The post celebrated previous attacks on the site, such as steel spikes placed on paths used by the machinery, nails placed in trees to destroy machines, and others.
“There are still two years left to fight, and the enemy is vulnerable. We can still enter the property like a sieve: they cannot protect over a square kilometer with some rusty fences and a stationary security guard playing 2048 and sleeping in his car,” read the post.
The most recent post calling for sabotage of Northvolt on the anarchist website was in March, which called for new sabotage against Northvolt.
Quebec’s Minister of Economy Pierre Fitzgibbon denounced the most recent attacks in a post to X.
“These tactics are totally unacceptable. We are fortunate to live in one of the finest democratic and pacifist societies in the world. We must defend it. Debate always, violence never,” said Fitzgibbon.
Le Centre de valorisation du bois urbain, a non-profit organization partnering with Northvolt to cut and harvest the wood for future use, was vandalized on Friday.
The organization shared pictures of its “completely ransacked” offices on Facebook.
“Since some people obviously seem to confuse the decision to cut down trees with the decision to prevent them from going to waste, we thought it might be appropriate to use this moment to remind people of our mission and our raison d’être,” said the CVBU.
To date, the not-for-profit said it has salvaged enough trees to cover nine soccer pitches with wooden planks.
“Attacking an environmental organization under the guise of protecting the environment is counterproductive. It overshadows the work of many companies like ours, who make a real difference every day. But don’t worry, we’ll renovate, we’ll repair, and we’ll continue to add value with even greater conviction.”
