Innu, Atikamekw tired of waiting for self-government deal

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The new PQ government in Quebec City has made its first offer to self-government to first Nations, but Native leaders are reacting with skepticism.

"It's like a jigsaw puzzle," says Jacques Kurtness, chief self-government negotiator for Quebec's 12,000 Innu. "We want to see the entire picture before we give our agreement or not."

PQ Premier Jacques Parizeau promised the self-government deal at the annual meeting of the Innu and Atikamekw Council on Oct. 28. In an hour-long speech, Parizeau, who also holds the title of Native Affairs Minister, said he's ready to give the Innu and Atikamekw "real and significant" powers over their lands and allow them to control their economic, social and cultural development.

"The offer that will be made to you soon constitutes a unique opportunity because it will be the first time such a global proposition is put on the table," Parizeau said.

While tensions have been escalating between the PQ government and Crees and Mohawks, government insiders have been hoping a deal with the Innu and Atikamekw will be proof of the sovereigntist party's openness to First Nations.

But Parizeau's speech was quickly criticized as a public relations move.

"The fact they they want to speed up the negotiations is directly connected to the sovereignty question," said Ghislain Picard, regional Chief of the Assembly of First Nations for Quebec and Labrador and himself an Innu.

"This has been a good public relations act today," he told the Montreal Gazette the day of Parizeau's proposal. "It's clear if there was a satisfactory agreement with two nations, it would raise the image of the government of Quebec outside Quebec."

Kurtness pointed out the Innu and Atikamekw have been waiting since 1979 for a land claims settlement. The claim a 750,000-square mile area stretching from Lac St-Jean just south of James Bay Cree Territory to the St. Lawrence River and all the way into Labrador.

The land claim remains stalled because the Innu and Atikamekw nations refuse to sign an extinguishment clause giving away territorial and compensatory rights over their ancestral territory. Even the Jean Chretien government has continued to insist on such a clause before Ottawa agrees to make any settlement - despite the fact that the Liberal Party platform opposes the extinguishment policy.

Kurtness said the lack of a self-government agreement means Native hunters are getting arrested for conducting traditional pursuits on their own land. Also, the lack of control over the land means 14 rivers in Innu Territory have been dammed by Hydro-Quebec.

Kurtness himself is from the Innu community of Masthauiats, 100 km south of Chibougamau in northern Quebec. Three-quarters of the trappers in this community hunt in the valley of the Ashuapmushuan River, where Hydro-Quebec plans to build yet another dam. This dam project is more evidence of the need for a new relationship between First Nations and the outside society, said Kurtness.

"It's time we arrive at something - 20 years after the James Bay Agreement," he said.

"The only condition we put on it is will it assure the future generations a place in Canadian and Quebec society."