Quebec ignores First Nations concerns

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Both sides in the debate on Quebec separation are leaving out the First Nations and that's unacceptable, says a Cree leader.

"I'm quite alarmed about the fact that there is no Aboriginal presence in the debate," said Bill Namagoose, executive director of the Grand Council of the Crees.

"That's the challenge ? to get back in a player."

One of the main strategies Crees and their Inuit neighbors in Northern Quebec intend to deploy is holding their own referendums on their political status. The Inuit have already announced a date ? Oct. 26 ? just days before Quebec's referendum on Oct. 30.

"We are not going to be bandied about once again," Makivik President Zebedee Nungak told The Montreal Gazette. "In 1975, we willingly integrated ourselves in a Quebec that was firmly part of Canada. We want a hand in determining which jurisdiction we'll be in."

Inuit leaders say their people will also take part in the Quebec-wide vote. "We are citizens of Quebec and we have a right to vote," Nungak said.

At the time of the 1980 Quebec referendum, 87 percent of Inuit voted against sovereignty-association.

A date has yet to be set for the Cree vote, but already the Cree Eeyou-Astchee Commission has toured Cree communities and heard the views of many ordinary Crees about Quebec separation. And they all pretty much share the same view of it, said Namagoose.

"The Crees who came forward are against Quebec separation. Basically what they said was this is their land. That's it, that's all."

The commission will present its final report to a special general assembly of the Cree Legislature, a newly constituted body that Namagoose said will give voice "to the people's will." The assembly will take place Oct. 17-19 in Chisasibi, during the heated last few days before the Quebec-wide vote. Soon after the assembly, Crees will hold their own referendum.

The situation is extremely volatile and Namagoose cautioned that it's uncertain if the separatists will win.

Even if they lose, Quebec nationalist parties "will still want to provoke a constitutional crisis," he added, since it is clear that a slim majority of French-speaking Quebecers support sovereignty, "and those people can't be ignored."