Caribou protection: the Innu want to return to court

The innu communities of Essipit, on the North Shore, and Mashteuiatsh, in Lac-Saint-Jean, want to return to the court to enforce the judgment of the Superior Court rendered last June. A distinct process of consultation and accommodation was to be set up in the caribou protection file, which was not done, they say.

The Council of the Innu Nation of the Innu Essipit and Pekuakamiulnuatsh Takuhikan mention in a press release not having the choice to return to court to request that it issues the necessary ordersdue to a Deplorable observation of inertia of the Government of Quebec.

[Nous devons] Given us again in court so that Quebec hears reason and proceeds to a valid consultation. Despite the exemplary collaboration of our teams and our commitmenthas indicated the vice-chief of the First Nation of the Pekuakamiulnuatsh,

We denounce the persistent inaction of the government.

In 2024, the Superior Court demanded the implementation of a specific consultation process with the first peoples, but the Mashteuiatsh vice-chief, Jonathan Gill-Verreault, deplores that the judgment was not executed.

There has still not been the analysis of the impacts on our rights and its detrimental effects at this hour. And more particularly, I would tell you what is absurd and worrying on our side, it is that in the last technical meeting, we announced to our teams that there was practically no more strategy that applied to our respective Nitassinans.

The Quebec government was to set up a consultation process to develop the strategy on forest caribou and mountain ducks, before September 30, 2024. Seven months after this deadline, communities hammered that it is time and possible to protect the caribou while combining economic development on ancestral territory, Nitassinan.

In place of a complete strategy, Quebec had only announced a partial strategy with pilot projects, which were also criticized.

In their request, the Innu does not target Ottawa, who has long threatened to adopt a decree to ensure the protection of the forest caribou. However, just before the elections last March, the former Canada Minister of the Canada, Steven Guilbeault, stressed last March the efforts of the Quebec government, which he called “good faith” in this case. This statement had been made when the nature plan was announced where Ottawa undertook to pay $ 100 million in Quebec.

Under the recommendation of Steven Guilbeault, the Canadian government had initiated steps with a view to an emergency decree to protect the Hardes de Caribou de Charlevoix, Val-d’Or and the Pipmuacan.

Recently, the Innu of Mashteuiatsh, Essipit and Nutashkuan, in the Petapan group, signed a declaration with the Government of Canada to ratify a draft treaty concluded on April 19, 2023. This joint declaration confirms the membership of the Canadian government to the agreement on political and territorial rights, which Quebec has still not done.

The remedy on the caribou was brought in February 2022 by the strip councils of Essipit and Mashteuiatsh. The communities criticized the government for having failed in its constitutional obligation to consult them to develop the strategy.

According to the communities, the need to intervene is all the more pressing now since Bill 97 aimed at modernizing the forest regime has been revealed.