In an emotional discussion before a diverse crowd of 60 people at the Hopkins Center last night, a panel of six critics of Hydro-Quebec hydroelectric attacked the company, claiming its proposed James Bay dam project will devastate the local environment and the native Cree Indian people.
An earlier phase of the project in the 1970s caused mercury poisoning in fish and disruption of native hunting and trapping patterns, the panelists said. Their discussion was part of a 25-stop tour intended to generate opposition to Hydro-Quebec's plan.
Organizers also showed the film "Power," which chronicles the Cree Indians's successful opposition to the company's Great Whale river project. Cree representatives now have gone "back on the road" to fight the company's new interest in native lands, according to Diane Reid, president of the James Bay Cree Cultural Education Center.
"The struggle will continue," she said.
The company claims its projects have a positive impact on aboriginal communities, by helping create a modern infrastructure. Hydro-Quebec gave $49.6 million in contracts to Cree companies or salaries to Cree workers, Hydro-Quebec claims.
The Cree have initiated a preliminary environmental study to examine the effects of the project on their environment. They say their resistance campaign will mount again over the next few years.
The Canadian federal government and Hydro-Quebec are looking at a "lesser impact development", which Reid calls a "weak excuse". She explained that the Cree once again have a territorial battle on their hands, and that they must continue to speak out and to fight on behalf of their people.
She explained that it is possible for the old traditions of the Cree to coexist with modern technological innovations. The old traditional lifestyle of hunting and trapping does not conflict with driving cars, shopping in supermarkets or making use of electricity. She pointed out, however, that the Cree Indians use almost no power from the existing Hydro-Quebec dam.
She said that while the community of Cree and Inuit Indians living together in northern Quebec for the most part seem to have given up their old, traditional way of life, this new lifestyle is simply a result of the people's relocation. "But their real way of life is related to the land", she said "not to what is happening in their community."
Reid said the land is essential for the Cree to keep up their traditional way of life. The Cree, she said, must be able to navigate the river which is now to be diverted. She called it their road to the traplines, and explained that if the access to the river were blocked, the tradition of trapping would cease.
"Can they not be permitted to live in the 20th century and to experience the best of both worlds?", one of the panelists asked, and answered his own question, saying "Yes, they can, incorporating new trends doesn't make your life any less traditional."
The panelists also stressed the fact that the Cree's public relations campaign against the company has to deal not only with the legal aspects of opposing the project, but also with the moral issues in terms of the behavior in power consumption.
The aboriginal people of Quebec are being used as pawns in the struggle between Quebec, which is trying to assert its sovereignty, and Canada's federal government, one panelist said. While the federal government has empowered the aboriginal communities in different ways, most of Quebec has bypassed this relationship.
It is still an uphill battle for control over an ancestral territory, said one of the panelists, explaining that the Cree were trying to "force the federal government to live up to their obligations." "The Cree have come this far and they aren't going to stop now," he added.
Toward the end of the discussion, a member of the audience, Stephane Wuttune of Alberta, stood up to explain what the land meant to him, a man of part Cree, part French origin. His voice cracking with emotion, he paused frequently on the verge of tears to recall his childhood hunting geese and fishing. "My cultural identity is in the land", he said. "When I see what happens to the land, I feel it to the very core of my being."
He echoed thoughts earlier voiced by Reid when he wondered whether it was right to consider technological advancement more important than environmental and spiritual concerns. His words visibly moved the audience and provoked a spontaneous burst of applause.
In her concluding words, Diane Reid spoke of her hopes that the next generation would have a greater environmental consciousness and awareness.
