Nemaskau Eenouch: So Much for a New Relationship

Hydro-Quebec and James Bay Municipality sign $310 Million Agreement

Premier Jean Charest, Mr. Thierry Vandal, President of Hydro-Quebec Production and Mr. Sam Hamad, Minister of Natural Resource along with certain “dignitaries” of the Municipalité de la Baie-James, made a surprise but very subtle visit to the Eastmain-1 Camp site at the end of January 2005, which for those who knew thought was just a visit to the Eastmain-1 work camp and the construction site.

Unknown to the Nemaskau Eenouch (Crees of Nemaska), the nearest Cree Community to the work site, (less than an hour’s drive) a multi-million dollar multi-year agreement was being signed behind their backs right in their “next door” neighbours’ (Eastmain Eenouch.) back yard.

The Premier and “his group” had come up to the Eastmain River area for the signing of a 50-year, $310-million agreement between Hydro-Quebec and the Municipalité de la Baie James, as compensation in the form of an economic development fund for the Eastmain-1 A/Rupert River Diversion/Satcelle hydro-electric project, a project presently under environmental review.

The premier made reference to the size of the area (300,000 square kilometres) being inhabited by 16,000 non-natives, but failed to mention that these non-natives, with the exception of those living in Radisson, live in the area to the south of the proposed project. The farthest northern non-native communities being Matagarai and Chibougamau, which are both south of the area to be affected, and both approximately 350 kilometres by road south of the new Cree Village of Nemaska.

Mr. Gerald Lemoyne, Mayor of the Municipality of James Bay, warned his constituents to “beware of outsiders who will predict an ecological disaster” and adding “these people do not live here and never come here,” but failed to mention that non-natives do not live, but only work, in the area to be affected by the project and that the Nemaskau Eenouch have lived in the area for countless centuries if not millennia.

This new agreement based on the assumption that the Eastmain-IA/Rupert River Diversion will become a reality brings to light the prejudicial attitude of the Government of Quebec and Hydro-Quebec towards Native people, especially the Nemaskau Eenouch.

When the NBR Project was contemplated in the 1960s, the Nemaskau Eenouch were told by the Government of Quebec and/or its subsidiaries/affiliates to “get out of their centuries old settlement” on Nemaska Lake, with no offer of any compensation nor any assistance in re-establishing/relocating their community.

The same government turns around 35 years later and witnesses the signing of a multi-year, multi-million dollar agreement with a non-native organization, whose heritage and way of life is not threatened, in contemplation of a proposed project.

The Nemaskau Eenouch presence in the area is validated by the presence of petroglyphs (rock art) dated approximately 2,500 to 3,000 years on the shores of or near Nemaska Lake on the Rupert River, a river to be diverted by the proposed project.

In 1968, a official of the Government of Quebec or Canada warned the Nemaskau Eenouch that a mega-hydro-electric project, the Nottaway/Broadback/Rupert (NBR) Project, was to be developed in their area and that their settlement on Nemaska Lake would be underwater, and in no uncertain terms told the Nemaskau Eenouch to “move out.”

The NBR Project was not and probably never will be built.

The James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement (JBNQA), signed in 1975, vaguely mentioned the Nemaska Relocation and certain conditions laid for the “return of the Nemaskau Eenouch to the vicinity of their ancestral territory” with no mention of any sort if, should and when the conditions were met.

The Nemaskau Eenouch met all the conditions of the JBNQA and have re-established their new community, on the shores of Champion Lake, with so-called regular program funding, loans and Cree Compensation funds, in neighbourhood (if not over) $100,000,000, excluding educational and health facilities..

The Nemaskau Eenouch by virtue of Band Memberships Resolution #1999-19 requested an inquiry into the Nemaska Relocation to all the signatories of the James and Northern Quebec Agreement, which to date has not been addressed and has seemed to have fallen on deaf ears.

It is rather very sad to say, that a certain Cree Leader born at Old Nemaska, also seems to have turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to the Nemaskau Eenouch and their forced relocation.

In the 35 years since the Nemaskau Eenouch were removed from their original settlement, neither the Governments of Quebec or Canada nor any of their subsidiaries/affiliates have ever approached the Nemaskau Eenouch for any form of apology much less an offer of compensation for their forced relocation.

This new agreement, signed next door to the Nemaska Territory, further exemplifies the ignorance of the signatories of the plight of and injustice to the Nemaskau Eenouch’s forced relocation.

This new agreement strengthens the Nemaskau Eenouch’s distrust and lack of good faith by the Government of Quebec and its subsidiaries/affiliates in the so-called New Relationship Agreement (Paix des Braves).

Where is the justice?

The Cree Nation may have signed numerous agreements with the Governments of Quebec and Canada and/or their subsidiaries/affiliates but the Nemaskau Eenouch have never nor will ever lay the injustice of their forced relocation to rest

By Isaac Meskino