Muskrat Falls Inuit Arrested Battling Churchill River Hydroelectric Project in Labrador 13th April

A 74-year old Inu­it elder has end­ed a hunger strike and been released from jail after being arrest­ed along with sev­en oth­ers protest­ing the con­tro­ver­sial Muskrat Falls hydro­elec­tric dam on the Churchill Riv­er in Labrador.

But anoth­er of the arrestees says the pro­test­ers, who have been fight­ing for decades to gain full nation­al recog­ni­tion as Inu­it descen­dants in Canada’s east­ern­most province, are undaunt­ed.

“We’ve been pushed around for gen­er­a­tions,” said Todd Rus­sell, pres­i­dent of the NunatuKavut Com­mu­ni­ty Coun­cil (for­mer­ly the Labrador Métis Asso­ci­a­tion), who was tak­en into cus­tody along with Elder James Learn­ing for block­ing roads to protest the con­tro­ver­sial Muskrat Falls hydro­elec­tric project. “We will defend our­selves in the court sys­tem, but we will con­tin­ue to assert our abo­rig­i­nal rights to our tra­di­tion­al ter­ri­to­ry, and we will con­tin­ue to mount protest after protest if that’s what it takes to have our views known and our rights respect­ed.”

At issue is the Muskrat Falls pow­er project, a $7.7‑billion plan to build a hydro­elec­tric pow­er sta­tion and a new dam on the Churchill Riv­er. The project would also see mas­sive trans­mis­sion lines installed to sup­ply pow­er to Nova Sco­tia and New­found­land.

 

Sev­er­al months after a judge issued an unusu­al per­ma­nent injunc­tion against dis­rup­tion of dam con­struc­tion, mem­bers of the com­mu­ni­ty blocked the Trans-Labrador High­way on April 5 in protest over what they see as being shut out of any nego­ti­at­ing process­es, the com­mu­ni­ty coun­cil said.

“It’s the area where we hunt, where we fish, where we have built homes, where our peo­ple have trapped,” said Rus­sell, a for­mer Lib­er­al Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment. “There are areas of a sacred, and very spe­cial, nature there. The gov­ern­ment will not rec­og­nize that there are over­lap­ping and con­flict­ing inter­ests with this hydro­elec­tric devel­op­ment.”

Dur­ing his arrest Rus­sell was dragged by mem­bers of the Roy­al Cana­di­an Mount­ed Police (RCMP) after he lay down along­side the oth­er pro­test­ers, all arrest­ed on obstruc­tion charges. Though sev­en were released on bail the same day, Learn­ing refused to sign a writ­ten promise to stay off the land on the grounds that doing so would extin­guish his abo­rig­i­nal title and rights to his people’s tra­di­tion­al ter­ri­to­ries.

Learning’s fam­i­ly released a state­ment express­ing con­cerns over his incar­cer­a­tion, not only because he has been on a hunger strike since his arrest on April 5 but also because the Inu­it elder has prostate can­cer that has spread to his bones. Learn­ing was impris­oned at Labrador Cor­rec­tion­al Cen­tre, in Goose Bay. He was released on April 9.

“It is trag­ic that our father has had to risk death through hunger to protest the destruc­tion of his home­land and cul­ture, of NCC ter­ri­to­ry and cul­ture,” said Learning’s daugh­ter, Car­ren Dujela, in a state­ment before his release. “How do you tell your chil­dren their grand­fa­ther is in jail and on a hunger strike? With tears in your eyes and pride in your heart!”

The com­mu­ni­ty coun­cil has been locked in a bat­tle for gov­ern­ment recog­ni­tion for years. Also known as Inu­it-Métis or Labrador Métis, the com­mu­ni­ty traces its lin­eage to Inu­it peo­ple liv­ing along the Atlantic coast in Labrador who signed a treaty with Euro­peans in 1765. When research revealed in 2006 that the Labrador Métis, though mixed blood, are direct descen­dants of the Inu­it, the Labrador Métis Asso­ci­a­tion renamed itself the NunatuKavut Com­mu­ni­ty Coun­cil, mean­ing “our ancient land.”

Now, the com­mu­ni­ty coun­cil wants the gov­ern­ment to enter talks over devel­op­ment on lands claimed as tra­di­tion­al ter­ri­to­ries. In Cana­da, though the courts have not grant­ed Indige­nous Peo­ples a veto over indus­tri­al projects, they have gen­er­al­ly upheld the right to be con­sult­ed and accom­mo­dat­ed. But the coun­try is a sig­na­to­ry to the Unit­ed Nations Dec­la­ra­tion on the Rights of Indige­nous Peo­ples, which guar­an­tees abo­rig­i­nal com­mu­ni­ties the right to “free, pri­or and informed con­sent” over devel­op­ment on their land.

“You can’t keep putting our peo­ple in jail, or keep arrest­ing our peo­ple, or forc­ing our peo­ple to go on hunger strikes to have our rights rec­og­nized,” Rus­sell added. “We know, and the gov­ern­ment knows, that all of these things end in nego­ti­a­tions. It’s about time the gov­ern­ment real­ized it’s bet­ter to do that now than put our peo­ple through these ter­ri­ble expe­ri­ences of being incar­cer­at­ed.”