Quebec hydroelectric project threatens Cree way of life

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The right of the Cree people in northern Quebec to live as their ancestors once did has been dismissed in favor of that province's economic development, a Canadian Native leader said.

Ted Moses, head of the Grand Council of the Crees of Quebec, told the Indigenous peoples' tribunal, Resources Exploitation and Violation of Indigenous Rights, that the livelihood of Quebec Cree has been effectively destroyed by the building of mega hydroelectric projects in the north.

"We've been there for 5,000 years," he said. "My ancestors didn't have to ask permission to cut down a tree, or catch a fish or hunt. There was the structure, there for the management of resources, and the people respected that. A way of life was being practised, hunting, fishing and trapping."

Most had been fighting the provincial and federal governments for almost 20 years over the development of the La Grande I power project, a series of super-dams designed to harness hydroelectricity from Quebec's northern water shed.

The Crees' fight against the first of three northern mega-projects began in 1972 when people were still out "enjoying the fruits of the land," Moses said. The first word they had of the development was through a newscast on short wave radio.

"But our people could not believe that a threat of this magnitude could be brought up to our territory," he said.

In 1973, after months of deliberation, a Quebec court ruled that the Cree, as an Indigenous peoples, had right to the land and that a project the size of La Grande I would have serious environmental repercussions.

"Quebec court ruled the interests of 5,000 Crees were greater than the interests of six million Quebecers."

But the province of Quebec appealed the decision, later winning the case with the argument that the Cree enjoyed cheese and fried chicken, foods not gamered from the local environment, and were therefore not reliant on the land for their livelihood.

Terra nullius, the belief no laws, no peoples and no customs exist in land previously uninhabited by Europeans, has been forced on the Cree, said grand council adviser Bob Epstein. The new rule of Quebec law came into the region and was considered superior and enforced by the government and the developers, regardless of what the Crees believed.

"Until about 20 years ago, the Crees were relatively undisturbed," Epstein said. "They had snowmobiles and hunting rifles but were basically undisturbed."

The La Grande dams flooded thousands of square miles and displaced thousands of Native hunters and trappers, Epstein said.

"This development was imposed on the Crees. Their consent was never registered, was never obtained. They weren't even informed that this was going to be done. It was done suddenly. The hydroelectric company police controlled who came in and out. When the government went to negotiate with the Crees, they said they had no right."

Negotiating the treaty with the governments of Canada and Quebec has not, however, guaranteed Native rights, Epstein said. Construction of the project continued even as the province negotiated.

Cree leader Bill Diamond was negotiating with a gun to his head because delays in the accord did not mean delays in construction, Moses said. And now the government refuses to live up to its obligations in the treaty.

"It's been an ordeal since the day that agreement was signed to get the things in there of benefit for the Crees."

Diseases like measles and gastronenteritis have gone untreated because the government won't honor its promise for adequate health care, Epstein said. Suicides has also become a chronic problem, especially among the young.

"This is not a project that benefits the Crees," said Moses. "It has taken away our land, threatened our lives. We must fight to ensure that our rights are protected."

The Crees are now making attempts to force the government to respect their obligations under that treaty but further development is being forced on them, Moses said. Two ore projects, the Great Whale in the north and the Notaway-Broadback-Rupert project to the south, are guaranteed to further destroy Native means of existence. And the possibility that Quebec might still secede from the Canadian federation adds to the Crees' problems.

"When states speak up and say all the wonderful things that they do to protect the rights of the peoples, you have to ask yourself why all the diversity of problems between the state and the peoples," Moses said.

The tribunal later ruled the Crees' right to self-determination and property had been broken and that the development had caused damage to their culture and way of life.

The Canadian government did not take part in the proceedings, an External Affairs senior said.