The Chiefs of all the nine eastern James Bay Cree communities met in Montreal as part of the Grand Council board on December 7 and 8.
They sat down and discussed the recent victory on Great Whale, Quebec sovereignty, federal and provincial relations, forestry, the Coon Come court case, the policing agreement, Opimiscow Community Fund, Troilus Agreement resolution, housing and the Lubicon Lake Loan.
The first item on the agenda was of a more celebratory nature, with reservations. Grand Chief Matthew Coon Come has written to Premier Parizeau seeking a clarification about the apparent contradiction of shelving the project while allowing Hydro-Quebec to continue with the environmental review process.
In the letter, Coon Come says if the project isn’t withdrawn from the review process, it must be assumed that the PQ government wishes to retain Great Whale as part of its energy program. On the pi us side is the fact that the project is delayed for many years and that the delay is as significant as winning a very major lawsuit.
On the federal relations front, there has been a possible break-through in the implementation of the James Bay Agreement. The Grand Council has sent Indian Affairs a so-called “protocol” on how it would like the Agreement to be finally implemented. It seems the ministry is likely to give this protocol the green light.
Quebec relations have seen the signing of a policing agreement by mail. A meeting between the Deputy Grand Chief and David Cliche, parliamentary assistant to the Premier for Native Affairs, may apparently be in the works. The main topic of the meeting is to finally arrange a meeting between Parizeau and Grand Chief Coon Come.
Forestry and the damage it has done to the Cree way of life are being looked at. Plans are being made to document the damages and look for solutions.
As a result of Great Whale being shelved Cree Chiefs are reviewing the necessity of the costly Coon Come case.
Other topics of interest included the loan guarantee given by the Grand Council to the Lubicon Crees, which hasn’t been repaid as the Lubicons haven’t negotiated a settlement with the feds yet.
At the time of printing, The Nation hadn’t received the information packages concerning the Troilus Agreement, forestry, housing and Opiniscow Community Funds. We will deliver a report on them in the future as the information becomes available.
