A Long Time Coming

However, as mentioned in Assimilation: Not a Hidden Objective, it was not that long ago that claiming existence and rights as a nation was unacceptable. After all, the ultimate goal of federal policy was the assimilation of Indigenous peoples. First Nations and the Inuit broke away from this not-so-glorious past in the early 1970s. That was when the National Indian Brotherhood and its provincial organizations, including the Indians of Quebec Association, engaged in a movement to Indigenize education, a key sector for First Nation survival. The goal was to put an end to the Indian residential school system, the preferred means of assimilation. The rallying cry was unequivocal: “Indian control of Indian education.” The movement rapidly spread to other sectors, including health, social services, economic development and policing.

Denise Wylde, from the Pikogan Algonquin community near Amos, was the first Indigenous police officer in Québec. This photo shows her at her 1986 graduation ceremony at the Amerindian Police Training Centre in Pointe-Bleue (Mashteuiatsh), in the Lac-Saint-Jean region, with Benoit Bouchard, then MP for Roberval and federal minister.

The Algonquin community of Pikogan, near Amos, can fight organized crime more effectively today, following the return of police officer Annick Wylde (left), who trained and worked with the RCMP’s Aboriginal Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit (A-CFSEU) for two years. The A-CFSEU specializes in combatting organized crime in First Nations communities and reserves. Managed by the RCMP, the unit also includes members from the Sûreté du Québec and various Aboriginal police forces. This 2013 photo shows Annick Wylde (left) with fellow officer Lydiane Caron.

As regards the Inuit, the movement to take control of their own affairs truly began in the early 1960s, with the development of the cooperative movement, which enabled the Inuit to be directly involved in the advancement of their communities. The first Inuit cooperative opened in Québec in 1959, in Kangiqsualujjuaq. Two years later, cooperatives were operating in Kuujjuaq, Kangirsuk, Puvirnituq and Kuujjuarapik, in Québec, and in Port Burwell, in the Northwest Territories. (Fédération des coopératives 2014, 4) In 1967, local cooperatives joined forces and established the Fédération des coopératives du Nouveau-Québec (FCNQ).

The Cooperative Movement: A Jewel Of Nunavik’s Economy

The Fédération des coopératives du Nouveau-Québec is owned by its fourteen member co-ops in the Inuit communities of the Hudson and Ungava coasts of Northern-Québec, or Nunavik, as this region is now called.

Fédération, 2014

According to the FCNQ, “The main objective of each co-op is to unite the community and to act as a spokesperson for their interests.” The co-ops are a powerful lever of economic and social development, as evidenced by their success in activities as diverse as retail sales, banking, post offices and telecommunications, marketing of Inuit art, hotel and tourism services, distribution of fuel supplies, and housing and school construction projects.

The co-op movement is now the largest non-government employer in the region with over 400 full-time and 140 seasonal employees in Nunavik and 160 full-time employees in Montréal. . . . The co-ops are managed exclusively by Inuit and Cree staff, thereby ensuring that the knowledge and experience gained . . . remains an asset of the community. . . . Business done by the cooperative movement in Nunavik each year has grown from $1.1 million in 1967 to $231 million in 2013. . . . These results clearly show that the co-op philosophy and practice of working together to develop as a people, leaving none behind, is an economically viable and socially equitable answer to the future development of Nunavik

Fédération des coopératives du Nouveau-Québec, 2014

The Cooperative Movement: A Jewel Of Nunavik’s Economy

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