“We will not be
ignored”: Algonquins of Barriere Lake endure 8 years of inaction on
Quebec-Algonquin co-management plan, ready to act
Kitiganik (Rapid Lake Reserve), Quebec
– Eight years ago, in 2006, two former Quebec Liberal Cabinet
Ministers put forth joint recommendations to the Quebec Government
that laid out a vision we endorsed of resource revenue sharing and
co-management on our unceded Algonquin lands.
The “Ciaccia-Lincoln Recommendations”
were designed to resolve the conflict generated between our
community, the province, and industry concerning the unsustainable
resource exploitation of our traditional territory and to deal with
outstanding concerns regarding basic infrastructure on our reserve.
These Recommendations are the
culmination of a research and negotiation process established by a
Trilateral Agreement, signed in 1991, between our band, Quebec, and
Canada. The Trilateral Agreement was meant to give us a decisive say
over land and resource use on 10,000 square kilometers of our
ancestral lands. Canada pulled funding from the groundbreaking
resource co-management project and it stalled before the measures we
developed to harmonize land use with industry and governments could
be successfully implemented. A Bilateral Agreement was signed in 1998
between Barriere Lake and Quebec to move forward with the resource
co-management plan and address other urgent infrastructure needs. It
also failed to deliver promised results.
The “Ciaccia-Lincoln Recommendations”
were developed by two former Quebec Cabinet Ministers and they can
restore relations and lead to the implementation of our cutting-edge
co-management plans, which are based on hundreds of hours of
Algonquin cultural and socio-economic research.
Four weeks ago Barriere Lake Chief
Casey Ratt sent a letter to Quebec Premier Phillipe Couillard and
Quebec Minister of Aboriginal Affairs Geoffrey Kelly regarding the
failures of Quebec to implement the Ciaccia-Lincoln Recommendations,
jeopardizing the status of forestry operations within the Trilateral
Agreement Territory. We have been met with a stony silence.
“We see these Agreements as the
framework for negotiating improvements to the current poor
socio-economic conditions within our community, as well as, the
future of our Algonquin Peoples. We will not be satisfied until an
Agreement to implement the Ciaccia-Lincoln Recommendations is
achieved in the interim and our Aboriginal Rights and Title is
explicitly recognized by the governments of Canada and Quebec as
quickly as possible,” said Chief Casey Ratt.
Band Councillor Norman Matchewan
states, “We will not be ignored. The Tsilhqot’in decision
affirmed our underlying jurisdiction to these lands. We have never
backed down from a fight to protect our rights and we are not about
to start doing so now.”
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Contact spokespeople:
Chief Casey Ratt: 819-441-8002
Michel Thusky, Community Elder (French
and English Speaking): 819-334-4099 or 819-435-2171
Tony Wawatie, Interim Director-General:
819-355-3662
Norman Matchewan: 819-441-8006
*** For further background on Barriere
Lake’s Aboriginal Rights and Title and the Agreements signed with
the federal and provincial governments, see attached brief presented
to Douglas Eyford, Special Federal Representative appointed to
conduct consultation on the interim Comprehensive Land Claims policy,
which Barriere Lake has firmly rejected for reasons stated in the
brief.
