Newfoundland orders Innu families to leave
With a report from The Canadian Press
QUEBEC -- More than 100 Innu families from Quebec occupying land in Labrador are being evicted by the Newfoundland and Labrador government as part of an escalating confrontation over land rights involving resource development and hydroelectric projects.
A lawyer for the Innu said yesterday the people of the Uashat-Maliotenam reserve in northeastern Quebec will take matters into their own hands if they are forced off the land.
"I've heard people saying that if they tear down our cabins, there won't be a single cabin standing, whether it's Innu or a non-Innu cabin, in Labrador," Armand MacKenzie said.
"We're going to call it 'Labrador Burning.'
"If [Newfoundland Premier] Danny Williams wants to pick a fight with the Quebec Innu, he'll get it. He'll get it and we'll have a social crisis in Labrador."
The government posted the eviction notices late last month, and have given the families 60 days to demolish and remove "cabins located at or near Nairn Bay" in western Labrador.
The Innu face fines of $1,000 and up to three months in jail if they refuse to comply. They've been ordered to restore the site to its original condition or face an additional $25 fine for each day the cabins and other structures remain on Crown land. If they don't remove the structures, the province will do it at the occupants' expense, the eviction notice stated.
Mr. Williams told reporters in St. John's yesterday that the Quebec Innu recently erected the cabins in the region, and government lawyers are questioning whether the action is legal. Mr. Williams said he isn't sure why the cabins were built, but added that they appeared after discussions intensified on the development of the Lower Churchill hydroelectric project. He believes the Innu moved in to assert their land claim over the territory, which would be affected if the hydro project goes ahead.
Mr. MacKenzie pledged to challenge the eviction notice in court. He said that some of the structures were built many years ago on the land, and that the Innu occupied it long before Newfoundland and Labrador was formed.
"This is our homeland. We have sacred sites here. They are recognized by all the residents of Labrador. This is where we hunt. Hold ceremonies and bury our relatives. Even the game wardens and other provincial authorities saw us build structures here 20-25 years ago and recognized that the Innu had the right to do so," Mr. MacKenzie said in a telephone interview yesterday.
The Innu accused the Williams government of harassing their community because a claim to the land was before the Federal Court yesterday in Montreal. More than 20 Innu have filed a claim to establish native ownership over the site.
The Innu argue that their traditional homeland, which also cuts across part of Quebec, belongs to them under aboriginal title, and that resource development, especially hydroelectric projects, cannot proceed without their consent. In 1998, the Innu blocked the announcement of the Lower Churchill project by then-Quebec-premier Lucien Bouchard and his Newfoundland and Labrador counterpart at the time, Brian Tobin.
"No one has the right to evict us," Mr. MacKenzie said yesterday. "It is a total disgrace in the international community for the provincial government to attempt to bully us into giving up our land so that it can construct hydroelectric dams and make money off our resources."
