Aug 16/98: Mi'gmaqs show no sign of retreat

MICMACS SHOW NO SIGN OF RETREAT

The Montreal Gazette
August 16, 1998

[S.I.S.I.S. note: The following mainstream news article may contain biased or distorted information and may be missing pertinent facts and/or context. It is provided for reference only.]

An uneasy calm reigned over this Micmac reserve and a neighbouring logging town in the Gaspe yesterday as the 10th day of an aboriginal protest blockade of a provincial highway wound down with no early end to the conflict in sight.

The mood among demonstrators manning the two makeshift barricades about a kilometre apart on Highway 132 near the New Brunswick border was one of quiet defiance.

None of the two dozen men and women who could be seen manning the barricades through the day gave any indication they were ready to adopt new tactics in their fight for expanded aboriginal logging rights on nearby crown lands that the Micmacs claim as part of their ancestral territory.

Indeed, statements a day earlier by Premier Lucien Bouchard that the barricades must come down by tomorrow seemed to have had little or no impact on the demonstrators.

Instead, they raised the ante, informing operators of a freight train that passed by twice before dawn yesterday not to use the line any more.

The track runs parallel to the blockaded section of highway, which is right at the northern edge of the reserve, said Cpl. Ronald Boudreault of the Surete du Quebec, and the local private railway firm that uses it does not intend to use it again "in the coming days."

Some of the protesters at the barricades come from aboriginal communities outside Listuguj. They generally shunned contact with reporters.

But those who did grant interviews seemed motivated at least as much by antipathy toward elected band council chief Ronald Jacques and his administration as they were by a struggle over natural-resource rights.

They lashed out at what they said is patronage and a winner-take-all philosophy in Jacques's administration, pointed to news stories reporting that Jacques has a criminal record for fraud, and noted that the band chief tried to conduct a mass firing of staff who had been working for the previous band council when he took office last year.

Such behaviour is evidence, they predicted, that Jacques, who owns his own sawmill, would cut his foes on the barricades out of any deal he signs with the provincial government.

"That's where the problem lies," said Pauline Wysote, 41, who drove to the eastern barricade with her husband to lend support to the protesters. "He's going to stick to his own gang. He's not going to give work to anyone on this side."

"And it'll be back to Square One," added her husband, Joe Metallic, a cousin of protest spokesman Gary Metallic, nodding grimly.

Regardless, protest leaders say, the deal Jacques signed last week with Native Affairs Minister Guy Chevrette falls far short of their demands. Metallic, whose supporters have been locked in a bitter power struggle with Jacques's faction that stretches back almost 30 years, is seeking the right to harvest up to 160,000 cubic metres of timber on crown land.

Despite concessions in the last deal Chevrette signed with Jacques - including an increase in the number of seasonal jobs for Micmacs, from 65 to 110 - that agreement still guarantees only 10,500 cubic metres of timber for the aboriginals.

The Quebec government, probably fearing a precedent that would encourage other opposition groups to pursue the same tactics as Metallic's group, has stressed it has no choice but to negotiate with the democratically elected leaders of the community, regardless how they are viewed.

Jacques failed to return repeated telephone calls to his home by a reporter yesterday.

In an interview, meanwhile, local Parti Quebecois MNA Marcel Landry reiterated his government's line that a peaceful end to the standoff would be a far preferable solution to any police or military intervention to dismantle the barricades.

But if worse comes to worst and force is required to end the impasse, Landry said, the Micmac reserve's own aboriginal police force would be far better suited to the job than the Surete.

Still, Micmac police chief Harvey Martin virtually ruled that out, worrying that the roadblocks might have been booby-trapped with explosives.

In the event of such an operation, his force, which has been down to seven men since the weekend, would have the necessary resources only to maintain public order within the reserve and keep people away from the barricades at its boundaries, he added.

And, he said, since the barricades are just outside the reserve, any operation to take them down would normally fall under the Surete's jurisdiction.

Still, Ivan Gray Jr., a peacekeeper on Martin's force, said involving the Surete in taking down the barricades would create "a very touchy situation."

As in the 1990 armed standoff in the Mohawk communities of Kanesatake and Kahnawake near Montreal, lingering bitterness over what local aboriginals describe as past heavy-handedness and brutality by the Surete seems to have stiffened many Listuguj reserve residents' resolve not to allow provincial police to set foot on their territory.

In this case, the most oft-cited source of the resentment is over the way the Surete conducted themselves in 1981 during two raids in which they made arrests and seized Micmacs' fishing nets in another struggle over natural resources.

A subsequent investigation by the National Indian Brotherhood found there were instances of police brutality during the raids, including beatings and death threats.

Reflecting those memories, a hand-lettered sign nailed to a telephone pole just inside the western barricade now up at Listuguj reads: "1981: Je me souviens. SQ: Never again."

Still, as with so many other matters within the reserve, Listuguj's police force is a matter of hot political debate within the community. Its current members got their jobs only after Jacques took office last year and dissolved the previous force his predecessor had set up. This has led to charges among those manning the barricades that the force is far from politically neutral.

Perhaps reflecting this schism, Gray expressed little sympathy for the protesters yesterday. He suggested his aboriginal force wouldn't have much trouble taking down the barricades if ordered to do so.

"Talk is cheap," he said of their rhetoric. "If we really wanted to go today and do it, we wouldn't have much resistance, just looking at them."

Many of the protesters, he alleged, are from outside the community in any case.

Landry stressed he hopes it won't come to that.

The MNA acknowledged he and his government have come under great pressure to take a"tough" approach and send police in to clear away the barricades.


URGENT ACTION: PLEASE CONVEY YOUR IMMEDIATE AND VIGOROUS RESISTANCE TO THE ANNOUNCED INTENTION OF THE AUTHORITIES TO ASSAULT THE MICMAC PROTEST SITE!

Quebec Premier Lucien Bouchard
Email: premier.ministre@gouv.qc.ca
Phone: (418) 643-5321
Fax: (418) 643-3924

Prime Minister of Canada, Jean Chretien
Email: remote-printer.Jean_Chretien@16139416900.iddd.tpc.int
or: pm@pm.gc.ca
Fax: (613) 941-6900

SUPPORT AND SOLIDARITY

Grand Council of the Mi'gmaq
7th District Gespe'gawaqi
- Gary Metallic Sr.
Phone: (418) 788-3191
Fax: (418) 788-5575, (418) 643-4318
Email: jigug@nbnet.nb.ca


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