Sorry Plight of Canadian Innu
11/11/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: RIGHTS-INDIGENOUS: Sorry Plight of Canadian Innu
Source: InterPress Service
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: November 11, 1999
Byline: Mark Bourrie
OTTAWA, Nov 11 (IPS) - Napas Ashani, a leader of the Innu people
of Canada, left his home in the remote province of Labrador last
month and flew to London to attend a conference of human rights
activists and to publicise the high rate of suicide among his
people.
When he returned to village of Sheshatsiu on Nov. 6, he learned
that his 16-year-old son Andrew had shot and killed himself the
night before.
Like many of the young people of the 5,000-member Innu nation,
Andrew was addicted to alcohol and sniffing solvents.
Activist groups such as Survival International of Britain, that
have taken up the cause of indigenous people, argue that the Innu
are victims of a government policy designed to shatter the Inuu
and exploit the resources in their bleak homeland.
"In the tundra of the Labrador peninsula, a tragedy is being
played out," says Survival International's report on the
disturbingly high rate of suicide among the Innu, released in
London last week.
"These indigenous people suffer the highest suicide rate on Earth
as one of the world's most powerful nations occupies their land,
takes their resources and seems hell-bent on transforming them
into Euro-Canadians." it adds.
The Innu homeland is a huge region between Hudson Bay and the
Atlantic Ocean. It holds one of the world's largest unexploited
deposits of nickel, as well as iron, gold and, possibly, diamonds.
The Innu have fought hard to keep their land, winning a 10-year
struggle in the struggle in the 1980s to stop Air Force training
flights at low level over the territory.
But their problems go way beyond that. Ashini, and other Innu,
say their young people have lost their past and, as they are not
being offered anything for the future, despair has set in.
The plight of the Innu caught national attention in 1992 when six
children were killed in a house fire while their parents were out
drinking. The following year, Canadian television showed videotape
of children sniffing gasoline and shouting they wanted to die.
Survival International's new report, "Canada's Tibet - The
Killing of the Innu", found that the indigenous community had 178
suicides per 100,000 people between 1990 and 1998 - nearly 13
times the Canadian rate.
The way the federal government treats the Innu is one of the
worst cases of human rights abuse in North America, the report
alleges.
Survival compares Canada's treatment of the Innu with China's
treatment of the Tibetans and accuses the government of destroying
the Innu way of life by encouraging them to stop their hunting
traditions and settle in villages, while doing nothing to make
their lives better.
Colin Sampson, who wrote the report, says Ottawa has neglected
the Innu while trying to take away their land and, as a result,
their heritage. "It is very important to recognize that the land
claims procedures is not fair and honest as the Canadian
government represents it," he says.
Survival is calling on Ottawa to stop all development projects on
Innu land until all land claims have been settled.
The government is negotiating for land along the Labrador coast
and maintains the Innu do not have aboriginal rights over much of
their territory, which is in Quebec. Officials also point out
that, at the request of the Innu`, they have begun begun
relocating their main community of Davis Inlet, at a cost of
600,000 dollars per household.
The Innu have experienced difficulties in adapting to modern
life. Formerly they spent the brief summer on the barren Labrador
coast fishing and, in winter, traveled hundreds of kilometers
inland to hunt caribou - in the months when there are only a few
hours of sunlight each day.
The Innu developed their religion around the caribou. Now, with
no market for animal pelts and no jobs to earn money for guns,
ammunition, boats, and snowmobiles that make the hunting life less
precarious, many Innu have stopped hunting and rely on government
assistance.
Survival International campaigns have led to improved living
conditions for indigenous peoples in Peru, Colombia and
Bangladesh. The group hopes that by naming and shaming Canada, its
report will do the same for the Innu people.
The report blames "racist government policies" for the suicide
deaths among the Innu.
Canadian officials say it is far-fetched to compare Canada with
the Chinese crack down on Tibetans but the Survival report claims
Ottawa is trying to wipe out the "troublesome minority" of Innu to
gain access to Labrador's land and resources.
"They do not need to be shot - they are killing themselves, at a
rate unsurpassed anywhere in the world," says the report. "The
Canadian government bears responsibility for this outrage but does
nothing to avoid it. Indeed, its actions are calculated to bring
about exactly these conditions."
The new report is being distributed in North America by the
Canadian Environmental Defence Fund, which includes among its
honorary board several of Canada's leading media stars and
authors.
The report declares the only way for Canada to "salvage" its
international reputation is to stop all development on land
claimed by the Innu, change land-claims policy to let natives keep
their traditional lands and let the Innu run their own lives.
(END/IPS/mb/mk/99)