Cree declares accord dead

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The grand chief of Quebec's Cree charges that the federal government intends to break the James Bay agreement because of plans to build two new hydroelectric projects.

Chief Matthew Coon-come was responding to an announcement by Ottawa to unilaterally impose a settlement on the Cree after talks on implementation of the agreement broke down.

The government has decided that the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement is to be broken as of March 31, 1989," he declared at a special assembly of Quebec's Cree.

The November 1975 agreement compensated the Cree for the first phase of the James Bay hydro-electrical project which flooded traditional Cree territory covering 11,000 square kilometers.