ARTICLES BY Jesse B. Staniforth

Strateco tries to sideline Cree opposition

Strateco Resources is asking Quebec Superior Court to declare that Cree opposition to uranium development in Eeyou Istchee cannot be an impediment to provincial approval of their Matoush project in the Otish Mountains. The company filed a motion for mandamus and declaratory judgment in Quebec Superior Court January 17. In a ... read more ››

Booming trade

An independent study by AECOM, commissioned by the Secretariat to the Cree Nation Abitibi-Témiscamingue Economic Alliance (SAENCAT), shows that the Secretariat’s signature event, the Business Exchange Day held annually in Val-d’Or, has led to a significant number of contracts. An organization founded to encourage “harmonious development of the Cree Nation and ... read more ››

Increasing business

The first week of December saw the 10th edition of Business Exchange Day return to Val-d’Or. The event, organized by the Cree Nation Abitibi-Témiscamingue Economic Alliance in collaboration with ComaxAT/ComaxNord, brought together over 165 companies and organizations, including representatives from every one of the nations of Eeyou Istchee as well ... read more ››

From me, to we, to Cree

The week of We Day, Montreal, brought a whirlwind tour for a delegation of students from communities across the Eeyou Istchee. On Sunday, November 18, the group of 90 students arrived for a busy 48 hours in the big city, kicking their stay off with the CFL Eastern final game between ... read more ››

West coast déjà-vu

Last December, Canadian news watchers were appalled by the crisis at Attawapiskat, a Cree community on the west coast of James Bay. Living in squalid conditions and lacking appropriate housing, running water, and electricity, the community and its concerns seemed to be dismissed by Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan – ... read more ››

Fighting words

In what some in Eeyou Istchee said was not a surprising decision, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Council (CNSC) announced on October 17 that it would be granting a license for advanced uranium exploration in the Mistissini area to Strateco Resources Inc. This came despite the profound opposition to the project voiced ... read more ››

The struggle continues, for the kids

On October 1, reports surfaced that the government of Canada has spent $3.1 million attempting to prevent the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society (FNCFCS) and the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) from bringing the issue of Aboriginal child welfare underfunding before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal. Child welfare services ... read more ››

Charged up

  A few years back, Charles Bobbish Jr. wanted to get out of Chisasibi. He didn’t have much work, and the jobs he did get were only as a replacement. To fill the time, he did a lot of drinking and partying. “I was at home,” he says, “Nothing to do. I ... read more ››

The “secular” mask of racism

On Tuesday, August 14, Parti Québécois leader Pauline Marois offered a new plank for her electoral platform: a “Charter of Secularism”, supposedly to guarantee the rights of Quebec residents to live in a society free from religious pressure from the state. The idea was to make it law that no member ... read more ››

Uranium fallout

On June 6, in the middle of the public hearings held by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission to examine the request by Strateco Resources to begin “advanced” uranium exploration on Cree ancestral lands near Mistissini, Chisasibi Chief Davey Bobbish and the Chisasibi Band Council passed a resolution stating their opposition ... read more ››

Gearing up for a battle

“We’re going into a strong battle,” said Ugo Lapointe of le Coalition Pour que le Québec ait meilleure mine! (a.k.a. Québec meillure mine), about the recent decision by Mistissini’s Chief and Council to oppose the request by Strateco Resources’ request for advanced uranium exploration on the traditional lands of Mistissini ... read more ››

No way

  With the theme “Together Against Uranium”, a combination protest-rally walk and benefit concert brought out some 350 people in Mistissini to express their opposition to the Strateco mining company’s application for a license to carry out advanced uranium exploration. Occurring on June 4, the day before the three-day set of public ... read more ››

Standing firm

  Ashley Iserhoff, Deputy Grand Chief of the Grand Council of the Crees, was direct in his statement supporting the Chief and Council of Mistissini in their opposition to the proposed Matoush uranium exploration project and mine. At the end of a long day of public hearings held on June 5 by ... read more ››

Sold out

  One way to determine the success of an event is whether or not it sells out every available hotel in the surrounding area. Much to the great pleasure of Chantal Hamelin, Liason Officier with the Secretariat to the Cree Nation – Abitibi-Témiscamingue Economic Alliance, the “Building the North” mining conference, ... read more ››

Disconnected

  Sometime toward the end of the first week of April, the people who ran sites of the Community Access Program (CAP), bringing free or low-cost internet access to libraries and community centres across Canada, received a startling email: effective the week before, their funding was cut off. According to Industry Canada, ... read more ››

Power to the people

Nothing else sounds quite like a riot squad’s concussion grenade. It’s more than a gunshot, more than a firework. The explosion it makes sounds more like the word “boom” than anything else you’ve ever heard explode. And when it happens right above your head, no matter what you’re doing, it’s ... read more ››

Being responsible

  If there’s one thing that Dr. Gordon Edwards of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility wants you to know about uranium mining, it’s that a single mistake can last 100,000 years. Invited to Mistissini on Tuesday, May 15, by the Association of Employees of Northern Quebec, Edwards gave a speech at ... read more ››

Polar exchange

For the fourth time in history, scientists from around the world gathered together to discuss the research achievements of the International Polar Year (IPY) – this time with a conference in Montreal April 23-27. The most recent International Polar Year, running from March 2007 to March 2009 (to accommodate the 18 ... read more ››

Old-style justice

  Justice used to be done very differently in the Cree Nation. As Public Health Officer Charles Esau explained over the traditional lunch honouring the opening of the Waskaganish Justice Centre, the sixth such facility to open in a Cree Nation community, “The way they used to do things was when somebody ... read more ››

Resources and economic autonomy

  At the How to Get Out of Colonialism conference, held in Montreal on April 19, McGill Professor Roderick Macdonald opened his presentation with a troubling anecdote. The conference was organized by the Indigenous People and Governance (IPG) working group, an academic group that has worked on numerous different projects and conferences ... read more ››

No access

  My assignment was to cover the Salon Plan Nord, held April 20-21 at Montreal’s Palais de Congrès. A publicity and business event with free entry for the public, the Salon was billed as an opportunity for the curious to “get all of the relevant information about this project that will ... read more ››

A political tug-of-war

The one fact that everyone can agree on about Attawapiskat is that the 22 modular homes sent by the federal government have all arrived in the community, and that no one is living in them. Following the band council’s declaration last October of a state of emergency due to the housing ... read more ››

Goldcorp Inc.

February was a strange month for Vancouver’s Goldcorp Inc., Canada’s largest producer of gold and the company in charge of opening the Éléonore mining project in the Wemindji area. In early February, Goldcorp chairman Ian Telfer was named as a person being investigated by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) with relation ... read more ››

C-Bay Minerals Inc.

In November, the newly minted company C-Bay Minerals took over the Lac Doré Complex of eight mines in the Chibougamau/ Oujé-Bougoumou area. C-Bay Minerals Inc., jointly owned by Nuinsco Resources Limited, based in Toronto, and Ocean Partners Holdings Limited, headquartered in London, England, intends to revitalize the region’s copper-mining industry. Mining ... read more ››

Bringing justice home

For the crowd that gathered for the official opening of the Wemindji Justice Centre on Friday, February 17, there were moments of laughter to balance against the new building’s serious purpose. Following a speech by Geoffrey Kelley, Quebec Minister responsible for Aboriginal Affairs, Wemindji Chief Rodney Mark gave a speech while ... read more ››

Amending the rules

Nearly everyone agrees that the Quebec government’s Bill 14, An Act respecting the development of mineral resources in keeping with the principles of sustainable development, is an imperfect document. Tabled in May 2011 by Serge Simard, Minister for Natural Resources and Wildlife and Minister responsible for the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region and ... read more ››