{"id":274495,"date":"2025-11-10T16:07:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T16:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/274495\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T16:07:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T16:07:11","slug":"the-fight-to-be-heard-50-years-of-the-james-bay-and-northern-quebec-agreement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/274495\/","title":{"rendered":"The fight to be heard: 50 years of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is part one of a three-part series from Radio-Canada about the 50th anniversary of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

In April 1971, four years before signing the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement (JBNQA), Quebec\u2019s premier Robert Bourassa unveiled his \u201cproject of the century\u201d \u2014 a plan to harness the huge hydroelectric potential of the province\u2019s northern region as a means to both boost the economy and keep up with growing demand.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The project proposed building 11 hydroelectric dams, including eight on the La Grande river, which stretches from the heart of the province all the way to James Bay, 900 kilometres to the west.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Three other rivers, the Eastmain, Opinaca, and Caniapiscau, would be diverted to fill massive man-made reservoirs, which would submerge 11,500 square-kilometres of forest underwater \u2014 about 30 times the size of the Island of Montreal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The scale of the project is unparalleled in the province\u2019s history, and would take 40 years to complete. Today, it generates 17,000 megawatts of power \u2014 half of Quebec’s current production.<\/p>\n

\"AQuebec premier Robert Bourassa looks over the La Grande River at the site of the James Bay hydroelectric project in this July 15, 1973 file photo. (Doug Ball\/The Canadian Press Images)<\/p>\n

Thousands of workers were needed to make that happen. From engineers to cooks, the equivalent of a small village was sent to a remote worksite more than a thousand kilometres away from Montreal as the crow flies. While crews were preparing to build an access road, a crucial step had been overlooked: the province hadn\u2019t consulted with Cree and Inuit communities, whose territory was about to be forever changed by a development project of unprecedented size.<\/p>\n

\"AnLa Grande River will be harnessed for the James Bay hydroelectric project. The LG 4 site during the summer of 1978. (The Canadian Press Archives )The surprise\u00a0<\/p>\n

Charlie Watt sits with a cup of tea in hand as he stares out the window at the Koksoak River, which flows into Ungava Bay, 50 kilometres to the north. It\u2019s July in Kuujjuaq and the wildflowers have only just begun to bloom \u2014 a sign that salmon have returned, according to the longtime Inuit political leader.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As has been a lifelong tradition, soon he\u2019ll head down to the river and retrieve his nets, and hopefully a few fish.<\/p>\n

\"ACharlie Watt was one of the main Inuit negotiators for the James Bay agreement. (Felix Lebel\/Radio-Canada )<\/p>\n

Today, though, the river is much lower than when Watt was growing up, a vestige of it being diverted to feed the James Bay dams, and ultimately, half of the province’s electrical outlets. Nostalgia takes over as he remembers a time he could easily go caribou hunting upriver. But it\u2019s so low now that very few people venture out that way by boat, due to the risk of hitting a shoal and breaking their motor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Watt also clearly recalls when he\u2019d first noticed the Quebec government\u2019s interest in developing the region and its rivers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cProspectors had been around here for quite a number of years, identifying rivers and so on, what potential they have,\u201d he said. \u201cWe knew sooner or later this was coming.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

With no community consultation, Watt says he only learned about Bourassa\u2019s \u201cproject of the century\u201d by coincidence during a visit to the post office. While waiting around, he scanned the bulletin board and saw a notice about the premier \u201cwanting to develop the economy of the North for the purpose of bringing the electricity down south.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AnAn aerial view of the work camp the La Grande\u20111 hydropower generating station in the 1980s. (Radio-Canada archives)<\/p>\n

He said he and many others were shocked to learn about the project and felt it would threaten their traditional way of life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBlock it, stall it somehow. That\u2019s the response I got,\u201d said Watt.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the early 1970s, there was a deep distrust of authorities among Inuit communities in Northern Quebec. For many Nunavimmiut, the wounds caused by forced settlement \u2014 including the slaughtering of sled dogs a few years prior<\/a> \u2014 were still fresh. And a lack of quality government services and support only compounded the issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To tell you the truth, we had nothing at the time. We had a little bit of schooling, a hospital, but no nursing stations, and administration being run by the outside, run by Ottawa,- Charlie Watt <\/p>\n

The federal government installed rows of small, cramped houses made of plywood in communities, with little regard to the actual residents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Community members \u2014 referred to as \u201cEskimos\u201d at the time \u2014 also had numbered identification tags, or \u201cdog tags\u201d as Watt calls them. \u201c8820 is mine. 8819 was my mother,” he said. <\/p>\n

This was the social context in which the province announced its intention to use the region to develop hydroelectricity. Once he finally learned of the project, Watt gathered other Inuit to found the Northern Quebec Inuit Association to ensure local communities would be able to have their say.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A way of life, threatened<\/p>\n

The project also prompted backlash in Cree communities around James Bay.<\/p>\n

One main point of contention was that the proposed reservoirs would flood traditional trap lines that were still being used by many families.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was out on the land, I never saw anybody from the government out there. So how could they say this is their land?\u201d said Roderick Pachano, former chief of the Cree Nation of Chisasibi, and one of the negotiators of the James Bay agreement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat they wanted to do was basically destroy the Cree way of life and the resources, the natural resources that the people depended on for their livelihood […] their food, their medicine, everything that they needed to be out on the land,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\"ManRoderick Pachano (left) was one of the Cree negotiators that worked on the James Bay agreement. (F\u00e9lix Lebel\/Radio-Canada)<\/p>\n

Similar to Watt, Pachano\u2019s first reaction was also to put a stop to the project. The communities turned to Billy Diamond and Robert Kanatewat, two prominent Cree chiefs, to bring their concerns to the attention of the provincial government.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This marked the beginning of a fierce battle for Inuit and Cree people of northern Quebec to reclaim a territory that, for them, was always theirs. <\/p>\n

A historic injunction<\/p>\n

Charlie Watt says his first meeting with Robert Bourassa left a bad taste in his mouth. It had been some time since the government announced the hydro project when it finally organized a meeting with Inuit and Cree representatives for them to share their concerns.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c[It] didn\u2019t last any more than seven minutes,\u201d said Watt. \u201cWe had brought in an [elder] from Kangirsuk and he was not even allowed to say what he wanted to say. The Premier had already made up his mind […] So he only gave us the seven minutes and that\u2019s it, closed the door.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

To Watt, this interaction was the perfect example of the power imbalance between the government and Indigenous groups.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ManJudge Albert Malouf ruled that the Cree and Inuit had never formally given up their rights to the land. (Radio-Canada archives)<\/p>\n

Facing an impasse, Cree and Inuit leaders, along with the Indians of Quebec Association (AIQ), turned to the courts to continue their fight to be heard. In a landmark decision on Nov. 15, 1973, Judge Albert Malouf called for the immediate stop of all construction work and ordered the province to negotiate with Cree and Inuit communities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even though the ruling was quickly overturned by the provincial Court of Appeal, Bourassa nevertheless decided to go ahead with negotiations in early 1974.<\/p>\n

But the process got off to a rocky start. The AIQ wanted to include demands from all Indigenous groups across the province, which caused tension between the Indigenous parties. Eventually, the organization pulled out of the discussions, and the Cree and Inuit were left to continue on alone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"manHunting and fishing have always been an integral part of Charlie Watt’s life. (Submitted by Charlie Watt)An unprecedented agreement<\/p>\n

Finally, on Nov. 11, 1975, after nearly two years of negotiating, Indigenous leaders signed the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement (JBNQA) with provincial and federal governments. The document contains 30 chapters spread over more than 450 pages, which legally outline all hydroelectric, mining and forestry development in the James Bay region and Nunavik. <\/p>\n

The second chapter caused a fundamental change for those northern communities, stipulating that Cree and Inuit must forever abandon their rights and claims to the vast majority of their traditional territories.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They\u2019re left with pockets of land near their communities, representing only about 1.3 per cent of the one million square-kilometres included in JBNQA, as well as exclusive hunting and fishing rights to preserve this integral part of their traditional way of life. Quebec now had free rein to build its dams. <\/p>\n

In exchange, the federal and provincial governments granted the Cree and Inuit more autonomy over education, health-care, and economic development within their communities \u2014unprecedented concessions in Canadian history.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Indigenous signatories also received financial compensation totaling $225 million, which they chose to administer through the Grand Council of the Crees, and the Makivvik Corporation for the Inuit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"manKuujjuaq had very few services in the 1970s, which contributed to residents feeling neglected by governments. (Daniel Lessard\/Biblioth\u00e8que et Archives nationales du Qu\u00e9bec)<\/p>\n

Roderick Pachano, the former chief and negotiator, says he\u2019s especially proud that the communities have control over the funds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t know what our situation would be if we had accepted that the money would be controlled by the government,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That money has allowed for the creation of several Indigenous businesses, including two airlines, Air Inuit and Air Creebec.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Watt remains ambivalent when looking back on the agreement. To him, it hasn\u2019t resulted in the economic freedom he had hoped for Inuit communities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The agreement also remains divisive within his region. At the time, leaders in Puvirnituq, Salluit and Ivujivik were fiercely opposed to giving up their rights to the land, and those feelings are still present today.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After signing the agreement, the Indigenous communities of northern Quebec were now faced with the monumental task of actually implementing it. They\u2019d also soon see with their own eyes the impacts the dams would have on the land. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is part one of a three-part series from Radio-Canada about the 50th anniversary of the James Bay…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-274495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}