There has been a tense exchange of letters between Native Affairs Minister Guy Chevrette and Grand Chief Matthew Coon Come about the Cree forestry lawsuit (see News, page 5). Here we reprint excerpts (Chevrette’s letter is translated from French). For those wishing to see the complete and untranslated versions of these letters we recommend seeing your local chief or band council.

Monsieur le Grand Chef,
The Quebec Government has always been open and active regarding issues with the Crees. We have made significant progress together since we signed, on March 27, 1988, the Agreement on the Implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding of May 23, 1995…. All these negotiations were transparent and held in good faith with your chief negotiator, Billy Diamond.

Considering that our negotiations had produced conclusive results… I was under the impression that measures would be taken to suspend legal proceedings in the case of Mario Lord et al. v. Attorney General of Quebec et al., thus enabling our negotiators to continue with their work unimpeded.

However, it has come to my attention that not only have the proceedings in the Mario Lord case not been suspended but the Crees intend to file for an interim injunction to stop forestry operations. You will understand that it is becoming increasingly difficult, not to say incompatible, to continue negotiating while the Cree side is placing emphasis on legal proceedings undertaken, in particular, against the Quebec government. It is time to choose.

[He proposes to meet all the chiefs to discuss this.] Until this meeting is held, I feel it is best to suspend the implementations of the May 23, 1995, Memorandum of Understanding. … Please be assured that I remain attentive to the needs of the Cree people.

Guy Chevrette

Dear Mr. Premier and Ministers:
On behalf of the Cree Nation, I wish to respond to Minister Chevrette’s letter to me dated February 10, 1999.

This letter could have a very significant impact on Cree-Quebec relations…. At the outset, we must express our disappointment, although not our surprise, in regard to some of the positions in Minister Chevrette’s letter, which are obviously unacceptable to the Cree Nation….

While Minister Chevrette mentions a number of meetings in various sectors relating to the MOU of May 1995… the Government of Quebec indicates that it is prepared to unilaterally breach these agreements. The ostensible reason given is his interpretation of the discussions of June and September 1998, relating to the Mario Lord forestry hearings.

The Quebec Government is well aware that access to the courts is a fundamental right of the Crees (as well as a fundamental human right) which your government cannot prevent. … Negotiations and legal proceedings are not incompatible, not unusual and not an obstacle to sincere negotiations. The Supreme Court of Canada decision in Delgamuukw, at the same time as it endorsed negotiated settlements, recognized the important role of the courts in having Indian rights respected.

Moreover, the 1995 MOU and the 1998 Implementation agreements specifically provide that they have been negotiated and concluded without prejudice to the positions of any of the parties regarding their respective rights and obligations under the JBNQA and elsewhere. …

Minister Chevrette’s letter to us a threat, a provocation and a convenient excuse for the Government of Quebec for seeking to withdraw from its commitments pursuant to the 1995 MOU and the 1998 implementation (raising the obvious question of whether the government of Quebec had the intention to carry them out in the first place)….

Should the Government of Quebec refuses to carry out its obligations and commitments pursuant to the MOU and MOU implementations agreements, it is our present intention to institute specific legal proceedings relating to this particularly insolent breach of Cree rights. …

[He writes that Quebec hasn’t had any “meaningful or substantive negotiations” on forestry with the Crees. Forestry operations are still going on: 1,600 sq. km was clear-cut this year alone, with 15,000 sq. km allotted to forestry companies since the 1995 MOU.] …

The Cree leadership is rather surprised that the Government of Quebec persists in requesting the Crees to suspend the Lord proceedings while making few attempts to meet the deadline of March 31, 1999, for tangible results on the forestry issues, while proceeding with the process to update the Forest Act with little Cree input, while it is on the verge of approving new 25-year management plans without the consent of the Crees, and while the Government of Quebec allows forestry companies to continue with expansion of forestry roads in Eeyou Istchee in striking breech of Section 22 of the JBNQA. …

Since the Government of Quebec has chosen to indicate its demands in writing, we wish to make the following immediate demands respecting forestry:

1. The Government of Quebec should commit itself to a comprehensive agreement with the Cree Nation on forestry…

2. The current process respecting revisions to the Forest Act should be suspended immediately pending the completion of this comprehensive agreement.

3. No additional 25-year forest-management plans relating to Eeyou Istchee should be approved without the consent of the Cree Nation. …

4. All forestry operations affecting Eeyou Istchee should be immediately suspended unless and until there is a comprehensive agreement between the Quebec Government and the Cree Nation on forestry operations and activities in Eeyou Istchee.

5. During the negotiation on a new comprehensive agreement, Quebec must commit itself to respect the present provisions relating to forestry in the JBNQA, including the application of environmental and social-impact assessments and the general provisions of the environmental and social regime in the JBNQA to any forestry operations consented to by the Crees.

6. The mandate of the James Bay Advisory Committee on the Environment regarding forestry exploitation and management must be respected and the Committee provided immediately with additional resources to carry out its important mandate.

Before closing, we note we have been awaiting the Quebec Government’s response on a number of these issues since late 1997.

We intend to follow the direction of the members of the Cree Nation to take the measures required to have Cree rights relating to Eeyou Istchee and forestry operations respected once and for all.

For obvious reasons, this letter is without prejudice to Cree rights and the Cree positions in various court proceedings. …

Yours very truly,
Grand Chief Matthew Coon Come