NIP DISPUTE IN THE BUD
A worrisome situation involving native peoples' rights is brewing
in the La Verendyre wildlife preserve 400 kilometres northwest of
Montreal.
The Quebec government has allowed a dispute with the small
Algonquin community at Barriere Lake to fester. It should
intensify efforts to settle this needless fuss before things get
worse.
Most of the 450 Algonquins in the isolated community enjoy
hunting, trapping and fishing. In 1991, they signed what the
provincial government then described as a model for future
agreements with other native peoples. The land-management accord
gave representatives of both the Algonquins and the government a
say in determining how to "harmonize the conduct of forestry
activities (namely commercial logging) with the traditional
activities of the Algonquins."
But now that a logging company is on the scene, the Algonquins
contend that Quebec is not living up to its side of the bargain by
allowing the company greater latitude to cut timber than the
Algonquins would like.
Are the Indians right? Two important voices say yes.
One belongs to Superior Court Judge Rejean Paul, whom the
government appointed last August as a mediator in the dispute. In
a hard-hitting report, Judge Paul says Quebec should treat its pact
with the Algonquins as a treaty and thus give it precedence over
logging contracts with companies.
"These Algonquins," he declared, "want to protect their lifestyle
and ... their survival by guaranteeing that this government-
authorized logging does not limit them to poverty and begging. It
is hard not to share their fears when one does see the logging that
has already been done."
The second voice belongs to Clifford Lincoln, the former Quebec
environment minister, now a representative of the Algonquins. Mr.
Lincoln may be a hired gun, but he is nonetheless hard to dismiss
out of hand when he says that the government in which he was once
a respected member "wants the band to stand on the sidelines while
forestry goes on in the traditional way."
Quebec's forestry minister, Albert Cote, and its native affairs
minister, Christos Sirros, should see that their civil servants
interpret the agreement in the same spirit of generosity with which
the accord was supposedly signed.
They should not do so because some native leaders raised the ugly
prospect of Oka-style confrontations following the failure of the
Charlottetown accord, which guaranteed natives the inherent right
to self-government, but out of a sense of fairness and equity.
The Charlottetown accord may be history, but the accord the
Bourassa government signed with the Algonquins of Barriere Lake
lives on. The government should act accordingly.
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The Trilateral Secretariat for this agreement can be contacted at:
5 Laval Street, Suite One
Hull, Quebec, Canada
(819)770-2068 Telephone
770-8080 Fax