Relations between the Quebec and Cree governments have broken down as a result of the Mario Lord forestry case.
The Quebec government recently took a hard line cutting off negotiations on the Memorandum of Understanding and a potential $ 117 million in funding, saying the Crees were negotiating in bad faith.
Native Affairs Minister Guy Chevrette wrote a letter to Grand Chief Matthew Coon Come on Feb. 10, saying Quebec would suspend the implementation of the 1995 MOU until all the chiefs meet with Quebec to discuss Cree intentions.
This means halting funding for basic services like sewage systems, as well as community projects like daycare centres.
Chevrette’s letter left Cree leaders fuming. After meeting with chiefs, Grand Chief Matthew Coon Come responded with a letter to Premier Lucien Bouchard calling Chevrette’s letter “a threat, a provocation and a convenient excuse for the Government of Quebec for seeking to withdraw from its commitments” (see page 19 for excerpts from the two letters).
Chevrette wrote in his letter that he thought the Mario Lord forestry case had been suspended. The $600-million-plus Cree court case was filed last July. Last fall, chiefs did vote to suspend the case, but Grand Chief Matthew Coon Come refused to do so without consulting the people.
The court case stood. But at the time, Crees did agree to suspend a planned injunction on forestry activities, preferring to give Quebec six months to make meaningful progress in talks with Crees.
But those talks never even got off the ground, leading
Crees to decide recently to finally file an injunction to stop forestry in Cree land. Chevrette wasn’t too happy with this. He responded by suspending the MOU, including the coming fiscal year’s projects.
But Cree chiefs are still wondering what happened to the funding for this fiscal year. Ouje-Bougoumou Chief Louise Wapachee said the last time she looked at the books, the band had only received about 30 per cent of this year’s funding and the fiscal year was almost over. Some chiefs are wondering if Chevrette’s letter is just a way for Quebec to get out of its MOU obligations. Others are saying this may be a test case to see how serious the Crees are about forestry and if they’re united.
But whatever the reasons, Cree leadership is up in arms. The Grand Chief wrote that he was disappointed at Quebec’s actions, but not surprised. He called the suspension of the MOU a “particularly insolent breach of Cree rights,” and said Crees may launch a court case to get Quebec to live up to its promises in the MOU.
The hard-line stance is a collective effort, said Whapmagoostui Chief Matthew Mukash. “They have two options. They can ignore it or they can meet with us to clear up the process,” he said in an interview.
Nemaska Chief George Wapachee said, “This could be seen as monetary blackmail on the part of the Quebec Government or a test to see if we’re ready to trade land and Cree culture for money. We’ve never given in to that.”
Phone calls to the premier’s office and other ministers were referred to Chevrette’s office, where no one returned repeated calls.
