The month-long Mi’gmaq blockade of local logging operations, a sawmill and sporadic blockages of Highway 132 near their Listuguj reserve ended August 17. According to Gary Metallic, a hereditary Chief of the Mi’gmaq (Micmac to non-Natives), protesters started the blockade to protest inequities in local forestry practices, but it ended up representing much more.
At bottom, Mi’gmaq traditionalists say the Crown land they want logging rights to still belongs to the Mi’gmaq people as their ancestral territory. Metallic said that this was based on the Delgamuukw Decision.
“As a traditional Chief, when I put that claim forward, Quebec automatically started attacking me,” said Metallic. Likewise, he said that the Quebec government tried to portray the people on the blockade as a “mere group of dissidents.” A tactic that didn’t work, Metallic added, acknowledging the cross-Canada support the Mi’gmaq protesters received.
Metallic responded to the rift between the Mi’gmaq traditional government and elected Band Council at Listuguj by noting that the same divisions are seen among First Nations across Canada.
That division was highlighted by the Band Council when it started negotiating away ancestral lands and rights. “These are collective rights,” Metallic emphasized. Quebec’s thinking that it had the right to arbitrarily assign cutting rights and territory to forestry companies without Mi’gmaq collective consent was also wrong, he added.
Metallic didn’t endorse the agreement between government negotiator Guy Chevrette and Indian Act Band Council chief Ronald Jacques for 10,000 cubic metres of wood annually (a mere five per cent of the protesters’ demands. But he looks at it as a short-term bandage solution.
“Our people want to go back to work and they want to see what it can lead to,” said Metallic. But he cautioned that if the deal didn’t lead to progress then the protesters would be back.
Metallic says that his people
on their hands and it would involve more than just the rights to trees. “Quebec is the only province that is trying to separate and maintains that all the territory belongs to Quebec, which is totally false,” he said. Metallic felt that the concept of territorial integrity and its relationship to separation would be hard for the Parti Québécois to put aside when dealing with the Mi’gmaq.
“I knew when they started attacking me and criticizing me personally using the Band Council Chief [Jacques] here that this was not about fair allocations [of trees],” said Metallic. “It was about their survival also.
By this I mean territorial integrity.”
Metallic sees that not only did the Mi’gmaq get an increase in cutting rights but that “the message was clear, Quebec or any other province can longer claim ignorance that traditional tribal governments exist.” Metallic said he is currently considering going to the courts to establish ownership. He says he sees two routes, one is to be charged with illegally harvesting trees or to seek a declaratory judgment.
Metallic believes traditional ways and governments are coming back and this is a wave that the provincial and federal governments cannot stop. But he expects a fight from the Indian Act Band Councils.
“This is expected — I used to be a band councillor myself,” Metallic noted, blaming community divisions on the Indian Act governments. “I always said openly and publicly that this system has to go. We’ve been suppressed by this system for far too long.
Metallic has a final message for First Nations across Canada. “I know there are problemswith Indian Act versus traditional governments,” he says. “Don’t be scared to stand up asa traditional representative to the provinces or even the Band Council. We were herefirst, our systems were alive before the white people came here and it’s only right thatthey are recognized again. They never died out. The Indian Act was shoved down ourthroats. The old Chiefs were told that you’re no
knew they would have a fight longer in power. That wasn’t right.”
Mi’gmaq Facts
(taken from a pamphlet put out by Mi’gmaq Tribal Government, some portions have been condensed)
The Mi’gmaq have their own tribal (traditional) government.
The Mi’gmaq have never signed a treaty surrendering their land or resources.
The Mi’gmaq would rather work than exist on welfare or unemployment insurance.
The Mi’gmaq do not want to take back all that was taken from them, they simply want to be able to survive and support themselves in a dignified manner.
What do the Mi’gmaq want now?
The Mi’gmaq want to co-exist with their neighbours and be treated with respect.
The Mi’gmaq want to be able to support their families.
The Mi’gmaq want to stop existing on welfare and unemployment insurance.
The Mi’gmaq want to become self-sufficient.
The Mi’gmaq want to manage their own resources.
The Mi’gmaq want to ensure the continued survival of the forests.
The Mi’gmaq want to have their inherent rights recognized by the provincial and federal governments.
The Mi’gmaq say there are enough resources for all to share. In 1994, the total allowable cut was 2.3 million cubic metres, yet only 2 million cubic metres were harvested. The region’s forest industry produces over 80,000 person weeks of employment but the Mi’gmaq are limited to less than 200 person weeks or 0.25 per cent of the available work. (A local sawmill owner has gone on record saying that due to friction between Natives and Whites, a mill had to be either 100 per cent or 10 per cent Native workers. He opted for White.)
The pamphlet says that managing and cutting a fraction of the forestry resources would help to start eliminating Mi’gmaq problems, such as chronic unemployment, child poverty, suicides or attempted suicides, alcohol and substance abuse, dependency on government handouts and low self esteem.
The Mi’gmaq believe political contributions and lobbyists for the forestry industry havelet large forestry companies maintain their monopoly. They say the federal government isafraid to lose control of Native communities if they become self-sufficient.
