AMERICAS

MMOU Signing a "Sad Day for the Innu and Canada,"

INNU NATION PRESIDENT
FEBRUARY 1996

SHESHATSHIU, Newfoundland - "It's a sad day for the Innu and Canada," said Innu Nation President Peter Penashue in reference to the signing today of a new Multinational Memorandum of Understanding for low-level flight training over eastern Quebec and Labrador. After a ten year fight against the training, the Canadian government has once again ignored the rights and interests of Aboriginal people by entering into arrangements that alienate our lands and make it hard for us to practice our traditional lifestyle on the land.'

In reference to environmental impacts of the training, Mr. Penashue said "DND would like the world to believe that the environmental review process that gave the green light to expanded training was fair and objective, but we have shown the process to be stacked in favour of DND. The Innu withdrew from the process when it became clear that the Environmental Assessment Panel would not give them a fair hearing."

Mr. Penashue also said "DND thinks the Environmental Research and Monitoring Institute is an appropriate way to deal with the negative impacts of the training. But we disagree. We called on Defence Minister Collenette to create an Institute with regulatory powers to ensure that the training would not have an impact on the wildlife, but the Minister ignored our requests. We met with Collenette several months ago and opened the door to discussions about the Institute and other military related matters, but our offer appears to have fallen on deaf ears."

Mr. Penashue said "The offer is still there from us to try to resolve our differences through dialogue rather than through protests, legal action, and the court of public opinion. We have many concerns to discuss with the Minister and his officials - not just about the Institute - but about a variety of matters that are not clearly the mandate of this body. These include the construction of a second bombing range on Innu territory, avoidance criteria around Innu camps, future training scenarios, possible use of live weapons, electronic warfare and other aspects of the military training. We have extended the olive branch in an effort to find new ways to protect our environment and people from the adverse effects of the training, but to date, DND has not responded."

"David Collenette had an opportunity to negotiate directly with the Innu," said Mr. Penashue when we invited him to discuss our concerns face-to-face. "The Innu still have the ability to bring public pressure to bear on the training, and we will return to our protest methods of previous years unless we can resolve our outstanding differences with DND through dialogue," concluded Mr. Penashue.

"Call back your military jets, they are destroying our people. We are the Innu people of Nitassinan. Others call our land Labrador, Quebec or Canada. We have always lived here on our own territory, which we passed on from generation to generation. Canada has built a military airbase on our land, and invited the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Germany to train their fighter pilots here. Every year 8,000 roaring jets are flying over our heads. The sudden, terrible noise startles the animals. Our people are going to pieces. Imagine that something like that would happen to you. You would resist it."

for more information, contact:

Larry Innes, Environmental Advisor
e-mail: es051322@orion.yorku.ca
fax: (709) 497-8396

Innu Nation
P.O. Box 119, Sheshatshiu, Labrador, Canada A0P 1M0
phone: 709-497-8398
http://www.web.apc.org/~innu

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Fourth World Bulletin • Spring/Summer 1996