INNU RESISTANCE CONTINUES
By Saul Chernos
The ACTivist
ACT for Disarmament, along with Voice of Women, HANDS (Helping
Activists Network During Strife), the Innu Nation and the International
Peace Bureau, is coordinating a International Day of Action for the Innu
on April 3, 1993. This day of action comes in the wake of sudden media
interest in the Innu community of Davis Inlet (Utshimassit), after the
attempted suicide of six young people in that community.
The Day of Action will focus on low-level flight testing, which does
not affect Utshimassit to the same degree that it does the village of
Sheshatshit, the nearest Innu community to Canadian Forces Base
Goose Bay. But ACT is also aware that the military presence is only
one of the colonization-related problems the Innu face. The much-
publicized suicide attempts in Utshimassit must "be understood in the
context of a number of intrusions that have been going on for the
past number of years," says Innu Nation President Peter Penashue.
The Innu have struggled to maintain their culture despite the impact
of hydro-electric developments, construction of roads, immigration
to Nitassinan by non-Native people, and settlement in government-
built villages. Utshimassit, whose people were placed, by government
decree, on a barren island, has been a troubled community from the
beginning, and both federal and provincial authorities have consistently
ignored Innu demands that they be relocated to Shango Bay. Though
there is now an agreement in principle that the community will be
relocated, many details are still unclear, and other demands -- such
as the establishment of a family treatment centre at nearby Border
Beacon, "appropriate to Innu cultural values and spiritual beliefs" --
have not yet been addressed.
Nevertheless, the Innu language remains strong and many people
continue to live in the country for several months of the year where
they hunt, trap and fish. The Innu flame of resistance to assimilation
and land alienation burns bright.
Resistance continues, as well, to the low-level test flights that continue
over Innu land. This resistance was only sharpened by the news that
an agreement signed by the German and Canadian defence ministers
this December could extend military flight training by Germany over
Nitassinan until December 31, 2003.
The campaign to stop military flying by the British, Dutch and German
air forces has, until now, focused on preventing the renewal of the
Multinational Memorandum of Understanding signed by each country
in 1986 and due to expire in 1996. But an MMOU covers only the
mechanics of flight training at CFB Goose Bay such as the number of
flights permitted each year. The Exchange of Letters is the
international treaty permitting German military training in Canada
and giving the green light to German Air Force activities in Innu
airspace. The Innu and their supporters were angered to learn that
Canadian Defence Minister Marcel Masse and German Defence Minister
Volker Ruehe had signed this Exchange of Letters, allowing "the
German military to train in Canada for another 10 years."
"We are still in the midst of a Federal Environmental Assessment
Review Process, and the Department of National Defence has not
even completed its revised Environmental Impact Statement. And yet,
the federal government has gone ahead and renewed the agreement
with the Germans to allow continued flight training. These actions are
making a total mockery of the environmental review process in Canada,
and violating the rights of the Innu," says Daniel Ashini, Director of
Innu Rights and Environment for the Innu Nation.
Military flight training occurs at altitudes as low as 30 metres above
the ground. Innu people continue to be overflown by the military
aircraft even though DND is aware of the locations of camps.
Unfortunately, many outsiders see the interior of Nitassinan as a vast
tract of unpopulated wilderness, yet to the Innu it is nutshimit, the
land where they can maintain their ties to their culture and escape
the torments of alcohol abuse and other problems brought by
colonization.
The Innu have also pointed to serious problems in DND's avoidance
programme. Under the programme, which is a major plank in DND's
public relations strategy, Allied air force pilots are supposed to avoid
Innu and non-Innu camps and hunting parties as well as noise-
sensitive areas for wildlife. However, DND pledged to avoid these
areas before it conducted survey work to determine their location. When
its consultants undertook this research, and avoidance restrictions
were implemented, the Allies started to complain about the negative
impact of the restrictions on their flying activities. There were too
many noise-sensitive areas, and to avoid them all would mean limiting
flight training.
The result has been that DND is now engaged in a process of political
negotiation of avoidance measures with the provincial governments,
Canadian Wildlife Service and other agencies rather than basing its
measures on scientific criteria. The Department is manipulating
avoidance measures so as to both appease irate Allied air forces and
also try to keep a minimal avoidance programme in place to satisfy
public relations needs and placate the Environmental Assessment
Panel.
April 3 has been chosen as the date for the Day of Action because
it falls close to the start of the 1993 military flying season.
International protests have occurred since the mid 1980s. Most
recently, four Innu and more than 40 Dutch supporters were arrested
last fall following the peaceful occupation of the Volkel Air Force Base
in the Netherlands. Organizations as far away as New Delhi, India
have expressed their intention to support the Innu April 3, and
Canadian organizations and individuals including Rosalie Bertell and
the Student Christian Movement (U of T) have also endorsed the
campaign (see sidebar for details).
A campaign kit with information about the Innu and the threats
posed by military flying is available from ACT for Disarmament,
736 Bathurst St., Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2R4. A donation is requested
to cover the cost of producing and mailing kits and organizing this
global campaign.