A Troubling Observation in Québec

In viewing the map of land treaties signed during the 19th and early 20th centuries, a troubling observation emerges: no such treaties were concluded for territory in Québec, apart from with the Abitibiwinni First Nation. This is also the case for almost the entire territory of British Columbia and most of the Northwest Territories and the Maritime provinces. As mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, it was not until 1975 that the first modern-day land treaty was entered into in Québec: the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement was signed with the Cree and Inuit peoples to make way for the James Bay hydroelectric development project. In 1978, the Northeastern Quebec Agreement was signed with the Naskapi of Schefferville. Since then, no other treaty has been entered into in Québec.

Nation-to-Nation Agreements

Treaties are not admissions of defeat or submission. Parties to a treaty do not give up nationhood or their own ways of living, working and governing themselves. Rather, they acknoledge their shared wish to live in peace and harmony, agree on rules of coexistence, then work to fulfil their commitments to one another.

Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples 1996

The majority of First Nations in Québec claim that they never ceded their rights to their ancestral lands. They are right, which is why negotiations must be conducted to settle their land claims. What portion of the territory of Québec do current land claims cover? The answer: the portion that is not already covered by a treaty. In fact, superimposing the areas covered by historic land treaties on the areas covered by present-day land claims produces the negative and positive images of the reality.

Many Quebecers feel a certain amount of anguish and even guilt when they discover that Aboriginal land claims in Québec have never been settled. For some, it’s a complete shock. However, if this situation can be seen as a historical aberration, there is surely something to be learned from it. As we have seen, Canada cannot exactly be commended for the way in which it concluded the numbered treaties. What could have been a process espousing fundamental equality, reciprocal recognition and mutual respect between the parties proved to be a process tainted by a highly unbalanced power relationship, discord and contempt, and even lies and fraud. Québec can do better as far as treaties are concerned. And, in several respects, it did do better with the first treaties signed with the Cree, Inuit and Naskapi more than 40 years ago.

The Exception of the Abitibiwinnik and Treaty No. 9

Many of the elders now living in the Algonquin community of Pikogan, near Amos, are from Lake Abitibi, a huge lake that straddles the Québec-Ontario border. Elders from the community recount that every spring the Abitibiwinnik would move from their hunting grounds to Lake Abitibi:

They would gather each summer at Apitipik Point, where families would reinforce their sense of belonging to a group and the Abitibiwinni tradition by celebrating marriages and negotiating political alliances, such as the various treaties that have shaped their history. Come fall, they would return to their respective hunting grounds.

Council of the First Nation of Abitibiwinni 2019

Procession of canoes on Lake Abitibi, 1906. The Abitibiwinnik called this place Ki8ack8e matcite8ia.

The summer gathering place of Apitipik Point, located in Québec, is where the Abitibiwinnik (formerly known as the Abitibi Dominion Band) signed Treaty No. 9 on June 7, 1906. However, the treaty applied only to families whose hunting grounds were in Ontario, hence the creation of the Wahgoshig First Nation Reserve in Ontario. The Québec government refused to recognize the validity of the treaty or take part in the negotiations. Facing the discontent of families in the eastern part of the territory, the treaty commissioners for the Government of Canada were forced to promise to create a reserve on the Québec side, in the proportion of one square mile per family of five, for a total area of 34 square miles. That promise was never honoured.

In the 1950s, families were forced to leave the Lake Abitibi area under pressure from settlement and forest and mining development. The federal government purchased land from a farmer in order to establish the new Pikogan Reserve, just a few hectares in size. In 1955, the opening of the St-Marc-de-Figuery Indian Residential School near Amos sounded the death knell of the formerly nomadic Abitibiwinni band, which quickly and permanently adopted a sedentary lifestyle. It is because of the federal government’s broken promises and the Québec government’s refusal to recognize the rights of the Abitibiwinnik and take part in treaty talks that the Algonquin First Nation of Pikogan, who never joined Treaty No. 9, challenge the validity of the Treaty. The Abitibiwinnik in Ontario received the land that was promised to them, whereas the Abitibiwinnik in Québec, who were promised 34 square miles, ended up receiving just over one square mile.

The Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada designated Apitipik a national historic site in 1996.

Québec Enters Into Treaties

In 1923, the signing of Treaty No. 9 with the Aboriginal peoples of northern Ontario marked the end of an era: no more treaties would be entered into for more than 50 years. Canadian government policy consisted in ignoring ancestral rights, but the Supreme Court of Canada’s Calder ruling in 1973 compelled the government to end that policy and conclude new treaties.

In 1975, after a long political and legal dispute over the James Bay hydroelectric development project, the Grand Council of the Crees (of Québec) and the Northern Quebec Inuit Association signed an agreement with the governments of Québec and Canada and three government corporations: the Société de développement de la Baie-James (James Bay Development Corporation), the Société d’énergie de la Baie-James (James Bay Energy Corporation) and Hydro-Québec. The James Bay and Northern Québec Agreement was not only the first modern treaty, but also the first Aboriginal land title settlement in Québec. In 1978, a similar agreement was entered into with the Naskapi of Schefferville: the Northeastern Quebec Agreement.

James Bay and Northern Québec Agreement signing ceremony, November 11, 1975. Cree Chief Billy iamond and Makivik Corporation President Charlie Watt are flanked by Premier Robert Bourassa, federal Minister of Indian Affairs Judd Buchanan, Québec government ministers and representatives of the signatory government corporations.

In addition to providing substantial financial compensation, these agreements provided for the establishment of a hunting, fishing and trapping regime to better protect the rights of the Inuit, the Cree and the Naskapi. The latter were also guaranteed a right of first refusal and, in some cases, exclusive rights. In addition, the agreements established a novel guaranteed annual income program for hunters and trappers. For the Cree and Inuit parties, it was especially important to ensure that future development in the territory be carried out in consultation with the Aboriginal peoples affected by it. Joint committees were established to ensure protection of the environment, fauna and flora – an issue of special concern. The James Bay and Northern Québec Agreement also provides for the taking of corrective and remedial measures to mitigate the negative impact of hydroelectric development. It provided for the relocation of the community of Fort George due to the threat of shoreline erosion. These first two major treaties of the modern era fostered the establishment of several institutions to allow the Cree, the Inuit and the Naskapi to take greater control of their destiny.

An Old Colonial Practice Persists

There is no comparison between early and modern treaties, except for one fundamental aspect: like the post-Confederation numbered treaties, they both provide for the prior extinguishment of all Aboriginal “rights, titles and interests,” whatever they may be, in and to the lands concerned. The Aboriginal rights of the signatory nations were extinguished in exchange for the set of clearly defined rights and benefits partially outlined in the previous paragraph. No settlement was possible if the Aboriginal party refused to consent to the extinguishment process imposed by the federal government.

The financial compensation provided for in the James Bay and Northern Québec Agreement allowed Cree authorities to start profitable businesses such as Air Creebec.

In 1978, Québec’s Commission des droits de la personne challenged this practice, claiming that it violated the right to equality. The Commission further challenged the fact that the James Bay and Northern Québec Agreement also extinguished the land rights of nations that were not party to the agreement but whose ancestral and traditional lands overlap the agreement territory (in particular, the Algonquins, the Atikamekw, the Innu of Québec and Labrador, and the Inuit of Labrador). The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples expressly recommended that the practice of extinguishing rights be ceased. A few years ago, the United Nations Human Rights Committee deemed this extinguishment incompatible with Article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which enshrines the inalienable right of all peoples to self-determination and to freely dispose of their natural wealth and resources (United Nations 1999).

Modern treaties provide a unique opportunity to restore the dignity of First Nations, correct certain errors of the past and look to a future of living together in peace and harmony. Recent developments indicate that we’re on the right path, although the currently stalled negotiations in Québec are of considerable concern to the First Nation parties.