I have been thinking about some of the same things and that Quebec could be proud, they can be the first or with the first to set new standards for developing this shale industry. I'm pretty sure, that EU and scandinavia will look to Canada, when they have to develop the shale-industry. So I googled and found out that Shell is drilling in Sweden and face some of the same issues and problems as in Qebec. They talk about that local regions/government should have a saying about drilling:

Last summer was big attention around Shell's plans, drilling had just ended and an election was up next, and opponents gathered in protest party in the middle of Österlen. The competition is organized by the Network Heaven or shell that wanted to get politicians to promise to change the Minerals Act, so that municipalities should be able to veto mining such as metal and gas.

Carl Piper, himself a large landowner in the area, is the network's chairman:
- We were upset in many ways over this. Partly because the Minerals Act is ancient and partly because society is now pointing to new energy future, we could not understand what the idea it would be to drill out the end of fossil remains

http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=3345&artikel=4300434

Shale gas is the only fossil energy source in Sweden. Henry Carlsson Shell believes that the need for that contribution will be large:
- 6000 jobs are dependent on the gas pipeline from Trelleborg to Stenungsund, which currently manage natural gas from Denmark, but it is about to end.

About Shell requested permission to extract gas in southern Sweden, so it will require an extensive environmental testing, probably for many years, before it may start and Carl Piper on Heaven or Shell, hopes politicien will listen to local protests then.

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I think like you, that it could be huge for Quebec and like Rocco writes: And I'm alot more confident in having a company like Questerre prove how safely the shalegasextraction can be done, then someone down at Marcellus, that might be tempted to cut a corner before his huge debt eats up his company.

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About Japan and demand:

Japan is also the world’s biggest buyer of LNG and may need to import an additional 2.1 billion cubic feet a day of gas following the earthquake damage of the nuclear power generators, ICAP Energy said in a note on March 11.
Russia will support, but:

Russia’s only LNG plant, operated by state-run gas exporter Gazprom on Sakhalin Island to the north off Japan’s Hokkaido, is running at full capacity, producing about 9.6 million metric tons of the liquid gas annually. Sakhalin-2, as the project is known, meets about 7 percent of Japan’s fuel imports needs.
Japan imported a total of 85.9 billion cubic meters of the fuel in 2009, or 35 percent of the world’s production. The biggest suppliers were Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia, according to BP’s 2010 Statistical Review of World Energy.

It's just in short, but it looks that it could boost NG demand.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-13/refinery-margins-poised-to-surge-after-japan-quake-cuts-power-capacity-9-.html