James Bay Cree hydroelectric conflict

The James Bay Cree hydroelectric conflict refers to the resistance by James Bay Cree to the James Bay Hydroelectric Project and the Quebec Government, beginning in 1971.

The Quebec government announced plans in April 1971 for a hydroelectric project in the bay-James region of northern Quebec. It followed typical practice of neither informing the Cree people living in the area, nor estimating the consequences of the development as far as they were present a unified front in negotiations in order to protect their lands and future autonomy provided the foundation for increased contact between the different communities and the start of a regional identity for the James Bay Cree.

The Quebec Association of Indians, an ad hoc association of native northern Quebecers, won an injunction on 15 November 1973 blocking the construction of the hydro electric project. They were represented by their lawyer James O'Reilly, who became one of the foremost experts in Indian law. The following day after the Malouf judgement was issued, two appeals were launched, one against the merits of the Malouf Judgement and one was an application that the effects of the Malouf judgement should be suspend pending the hearing. One week later the Court of Appeal of Quebec heard the case. The three judges, Lucien Tremblay, Jean Turgeron, and P.C. Casey suspended the Malouf judgement, until the Court of Appeal was ready hear the case. In 1974 the Court of Appeal overturned the Malouf Judgement. Although the judgement was suspended 7 days later and overturned in 1974, the Malouf judgement confirmed Quebec's legal obligation to negotiate a treaty covering the territory, even as construction proceeded.

The Grand Council of the Crees, representing the Cree villages of Northern Quebec, was created in 1974 to better protect Cree rights during negotiations with the governments of Quebec and Canada.

The governments of Canada and Quebec and representatives from each of the Cree villages and the most of the Inuit villages signed the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement on November 11, 1975. The Agreement offered, for the first time, a written contract which explicitly presented the rights of indigenous people. The result of the hydroelectric treaty became a representative for future conflicts in other communities with issues of the same nature. It allowed hydroelectric development on Cree lands in exchange for financial compensation, greater autonomy, and improvements to health care, housing, and educational services. The Agreement strengthened the social and political position of the Cree, but drove a split between them and other native groups by establishing what was seen as an undesirable precedent by which native land claims could be resolved. The intention of the Cree was not to 'sell-out' and sacrifice a part of their Cree culture to compensate their place into Canadian society, but to secure and uphold as much of their rooted lifestyle and land as possible, maintaining the power of their native traditions while carefully amalgamating into the economically dominant society.

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