The Crees have spoken

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We won't go.

That's what thousands of Quebec Crees said on Oct. 24 in a vote on whether they agreed to letting the Quebec government appropriate the James Bay Crees and their traditional lands into a sovereign Quebec.

"We are no longer prepared to be treated like cattle in the field," said Matthew Coon Come, Grand Chief of the Quebec Crees, at a Montreal press conference Oct. 25. "We and our territory will not be forcibly included in an independent Quebec."

About 5,000 James Bay Cree citizens returned to communities from hunting camps across James Bay territory to vote. And those too far away were polled via helicopters.

Seventy-seven per cent of eligible voters cast ballots in the Cree referendum and more than 96 per cent said No.

"We won't go. To forcibly separate us from the rest of Canada would be unconstitutional, illegal and undemocratic," Coon Come said. It would effectively be the kidnapping of a people.

His people are opposed to violence and that they would make every effort to resolve the Quebec sovereignty question democratically. "But we will not be passive in any strategies of inequality and unilateral actions. We know our rights."