MMOU Signing a "Sad Day for the Innu and Canada," says Innu Nation President
Sheshatshiu - "It's a sad day for the Innu and Canada," said Innu Nation
president Peter Penashue in reference to the signing today of a new
Multinational Memorandum of Understanding for low-level flight training
over eastern Quebec and Labrador. After a ten year fight against the
training, the Canadian government has once again ignored the rights and
interests of Aboriginal people by entering into arrangements that alienate
our lands and make it hard for us to practice our traditional lifestyle on
the land."
In reference to environmental impacts of the training, Mr. Penashue said
"DND would like the world to believe that the environmental review process
that gave the green light to expanded training was fair and objective, but
we have shown the process to be stacked in favour of DND. The Innu withdrew
from the process when it became clear that the Environmental Assessment
Panel would not give them a fair hearing."
Mr. Penashue also said "DND thinks the Environmental Research and
Monitoring Institute is an appropriate way to deal with the negative
impacts of the training. But we disagree. We called on Defence Minister
Collenette to create an Institute with regulatory powers to ensure that the
training would not have an impact on the wildlife, but the Minister ignored
our requests. We met with Collenette several months ago and opened the door
to discussions about the Institute and other military related matters, but
our offer appears to have fallen on deaf ears."
Mr. Penashue said "The offer is still there from us to try to resolve our
differences through dialogue rather than through protests, legal action,
and the court of public opinion. We have many concerns to discuss with the
Minister and his officials - not just about the Institute - but about a
variety of matters that are not clearly the mandate of this body. These
include the construction of a second bombing range on Innu territory,
avoidance criteria around Innu camps, future training scenarios, possible
use of live weapons, electronic warfare and other aspects of the military
training. We have extended the olive branch in an effort to find new ways
to protect our environment and people from the adverse effects of the
training, but to date, DND has not responded."
"David Collenette had an opportunity to negotiate directly with the Innu,"
said Mr. Penashue when we invited him to discuss our concerns face-to-face.
"The Innu still have the ability to bring public pressure to bear on the
training, and we will return to our protest methods of previous years
unless we can resolve our outstanding differences with DND through
dialogue," concluded Mr. Penashue.
Larry Innes Visit the Innu Nation WWW site:
Environmental Advisor http://www.web.apc.org/~innu
Innu Nation
P.O. Box 119, Sheshatshiu, Labrador, Canada A0P 1M0
phone: (709) 497-8398 es051322@orion.yorku.ca fax: (709) 497-8396
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