One year after the Quebec government set itself a deadline to conclude a treaty with three Innu communities in the Côte-Nord and Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean regions, the Indigenous groups concerned have come out to denounce what they are calling an “impasse.”
In a press release issued on Monday, the chiefs of the Essipit, Pekuakamiulnuatsh and Nutashkuan Indigenous communities claim that the Petapan Treaty project “is being jeopardized by the Quebec government’s bad faith.”
They argue that the government reneged on its commitment to come to an agreement before the March 31, 2023 deadline, imposed a new deadline and demanded new information.
One year later, the three chiefs say they have not ruled out any scenarios, including legal action, which they are “very seriously” considering.
“We have been good players in listening to Quebec’s new demands. We responded with the utmost celerity and a real desire to give negotiations a chance, but there are limits to abusing our good faith,” the three chiefs said in a joint letter.
“Despite the openness we have shown, the impasse remains and is seriously jeopardizing the treaty project and, more broadly, relations between our communities and Quebec,” they added.
The Petapan Treaty, which has been under negotiation for 40 years, represents an innovative approach to relations between the governments of Quebec and Canada and the Indigenous populations.
It exempts the three communities from the Indian Act, grants them the right to self-determination and recognizes their Indigenous rights, including titles to territory with agreed-upon terms for exercising these rights.
The groups and Ottawa concluded their negotiations ahead of schedule in March 2023, but those with Quebec are still ongoing.
In order to break the deadlock, the three chiefs say they would like to meet directly with Premier François Legault, but according to them, “the premier keeps postponing the meeting.”
“On this sad anniversary of Quebec’s broken commitment, will Quebec be able to change its attitude? Or will we be forced to take more drastic action to realize our communities’ ambition to build a new society based on the recognition of our rights?” said chiefs Gilbert Dominique (Pekuakamiulnuatsh), Martin Dufour (Essipit) and Réal Tettaut (Nutashkuan).
They say they still hope to meet with Legault this year but say they are “not very optimistic.”
— This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on April 1, 2024.