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Indians Seek to Block Quebec’s Patriotic Project

Clyde Sanger writes from Ottawa
**The James Bay hydro-electric project in northern Canada is said to be a critical investment for the province of Quebec, where talk of separation is still on the boil. It is a matter of economic independence and pride for Quebeckers, but for Cree Indians who hunt and fish in the area, it has meant disaster. They are fighting the construction of the project's second phase and, reports Gemini News Service, they have gained the support of many Americans who were supposed to buy the electricity.
*A river which few people have ever seen may become a strong influence on whether the French-speaking province of Quebec and Its seven million people split from the rest of Canada.
The Great Whale River runs into Hudson Bay about 1,200 kilometres north of Montreal, the provincial capital. It is part of several river systems that have tong been the hunting and fishing grounds of Cree Indians who number some 10.000 In this area.
It is also the site of a hydroelectric project that the Quebec Premier, Robert Bourassa, has called 'the project of the century" — a three-stage plan he initiated during his first term as premier In the early Seventies.
If completed, an area of fond the size of Germany will be affected by the diversion of 19 rivers, the building of more than 200 dams and dikes and the construction of 23 hydroelectric power stations. The plan is to sell electricity to the United States.
The Cree people are" determined to stop It. They accepted construction of the first phase after the courts awarded them Can8250 million. But thqy have since suffered a series of Ill-effects and say that no amount of money as compensation will win their support for the two later stages, ooc on the Great Whale River, the other on the Not taway. Rupert and Broadback rivers. Because of phase I, mercury poisoning has become a serious problem. Trees drowned In the huge reser-. volrs created by four dams on La Grande River have produced bacteria that leach the mercury out of the rocks and into the food chain. Today the Cree cannot cat the fish in the river, and In villages at its Junction with Janies Bay as many as one third of the people have high levels of mercury In their bod les.
As well, the dams have al tered the seasonal flow of rivers. endangering the movement of wildlife. In 1984 about 5.000 caribou on their annual migration drowned because hydro officials upstream had let the Caniapiscau river rise to abnormal levels.
Robert Bourassa may regret these environmental Problems, but more Important are the enormous economic benefits he sees flowing from the James Bay project. The first stage now produces more than 10,000 megawatts of power and during the peak of con-struction In 1978 provided Jobs for 18,000 Quebeckers.
After these Jobs were gone, several aluminium plants and other factories were set up using the new hydro power.
•For Quebec nationalists. Hydro Quebec symbolises their politi -cal and economic power. Is a tribute to their engineering skills and proof that English-speaking businessmen no longer run the Quebec economy.
For Robert Bourassa, an economist by training; the James Bay project seems to have become an obsession. After nine years out of office he became premier again in 1985 by promising to cut unemployment The James Bay II complex on the Great Whale was Bourassa's means of 'putting Quebec back to work".
He had just written a book called Power from the North explaining In detail how the United States was running out of coal and would buy billions of dollars worth of Quebec's
The figures involved are sky-high. James Bay I, originally projected to cost 83.5 billton. eventually jumped to • 14 billion. James Bay II Is costed officially at 912.7 billion, but may well rise to 920 billion. Earlier this year deals he believed he had made with Vermont and New York states amounted to 925 billion to supply 1,450 megawatts of power until the year 2022.
This time though, the Cree took their own initiatives early. With Inuit (Eskimo) compan ions, they paddled canoes down to New York In April 1990 to dramatise their protests.
Thfs month a Cree delegation is in Geneva, telling the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations that If Quebec declares Itself Independent of Canada, the Cree of James Bay will declare their own independence from Quebec, tn effect claiming the whole northern half of the province.
A month earlier. 100 unarmed Cree had formed a bar-ricade at a small airport and chased away with goose-calls and shouts a party of Hydro Quebec officials who had Down up to hold hearings into the Great Whale project.
These moves have had a sharp effect. American environmental bodies, notably the National Audobon Society, have backed the Crees' stand argu-ing that their lands arc the northern equivalent of tropical rainforests and an irreplaceable sanctuary of wildlife.
This month American politicians Including New York mayor David Dinkins, have voiced concern about the hydro deal with Bourassa 'and about native rights.
Bourassa exploded in frustration. There are seven mil lion Quebeckers on this land, in Canada, who need thfs proJect. The native* blocked ratification of the Meech Lake Accord. Now should they block Great Whale?"
Last summer a native Canadian blocked the passage of the Meech Lake Accord, a constitutional agreement between Quebec and the rest of Canada, because it did not acknowledge native rights.
The federal government has tiptoed around the issue. Last month Environment Minister Jean Charest announced ft would do a full social and economic study of the impact of the Great Whale project, lasting about two years. But It has not tried blocking construction of 575 kilometres of access road* or the building of three airport* due to start shortly.
Charest, himself a Quebecker like Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, was attacked by an opposition critic as "deceptive and totally lacking in courage." Critic* believe that once some •750 million has been spent on these preliminary work*.
Except possibly the Cree people. A referendum on Quebec sovereignty Is due by October 1062. unless Ottawa and the other nine provinces produce a better constitutional deal for Quebec than the Meech ^Lake Accord that col-
(Clude Sanger. an author andJournaitot who
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