The Algonquin's Step up the Blockade
3/1/97
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
From Taiga-News 20 (March 1997)
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Quebec:
THE ALGONQUIN'S STEP UP THE BLOCKADE
There is no solution in sight in the conflict between the Algonquins of
Barriere lake, Quebec, the Federal Government of Canada and the logging
company Domtar. The Algonquins has been on a logging road blockade since
October, and they now threaten to step up the blockade. Quebec Supreme
Court judge Rejean Paul, who was appointed as a mediator in the conflict by
the federal government, resigned this January.
The community is having a very hard time. There is a scarcity of food, most
band members have lost their jobs and the children have missed almost a
year of school since nearly all band services were shut down.
A little more than a year ago, many years of patient work and campaigning
by the Algonquins finally seemed to pay off. Based on an agreement between
the band and the governments of Quebec and Canada (the Trilateral
Agreement), the Algonquins were in the final stage of preparing a land use
plan that would serve as the basis for combining forestry and traditional
land use on Algonquin territory.
At that time, the federal government decided to no longer recognise the
leadership of the band, despite the fact that the government had made an
agreement with the same leadership just a few years earlier. The government
decision was taken after an intervention by a group of Algonquin
"dissidents", of which the majority was not living in the village. The
dissident group was supported by the same law firm that represents Domtar,
a logging company having logging concessions for most of the Algonquin
land.
The Algonquins tried to resolve the leadership problem by appointing a new
chief in a customary election. However, the federal government has refused
to recognise even this new leadership.
According to the Algonquins, forestry companies have taken advantage of the
leadership void and violated the Trilateral Agreement's restrictions. Since
October, the band has blockaded a logging road as a protest against
Domtar's logging and against the federal government's interference in the
band affairs. This January, the Algonquins announced that they would step
up the blockade to cover all 13 logging companies operating in the area.
- Any time the Algonquins have got any justice is when they have blockaded
a road, said former Quebec cabinet minister Michel Gratton to a Montreal
newspaper, commenting on the escalation of the conflict.
ROGER OLSSON,
TAIGA NEWS EDITOR
(Partly based on an article in The Montreal Gazette, January 16, 1997.)
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