NEW YORK STATE PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION CASE NO. 10-T-0139
Exhibit A Part I - Impacts on First Nations of Canada December 1, 2020 Submittal of North American Megadam Resistance Alliance
October 7, 2020, Pessamit Innu First Nation, Wemotaci Atikamekw First nation, Pikogan, Lac-Simon and Kitcisakik of the Anishnabeg Nation Comments to U.S. Department of Energy on New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) Presidential Permit Application
October 6, 2020, Innu Nation of Labrador Files $4 Billion Claim Against Hydro-Quebec for Damages Caused by the Construction of the Churchill Falls Project
July 24, 2020, The Council of the Innu of Pessamit Letter to Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau
July 24, 2020, The Council of the Innu of Pessamit Letter to Premier of Quebec Francois Legault
April 14, 2020, Innu Nation of Canada Opposes Central Maine Power’s Transmission Line Permit: A Significant Source of the Hydro-Power Has Destroyed Innu Territory
November 20, 2019, The Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador (AFNQL) to the New Trudeau Government “Now is the Time to Deliver”
August 2, 2010, Submissions of the Uashaunnuat, Innu of Uashat mak Mani-Utenam Re. Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement and to Conduct Public Scope Meetings - Champlain Hudson Power Express, Inc
October 7, 2020
Mr. Christopher A. Lawrence [email protected] Electricity Policy Analyst Office of the Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (OE-20) U.S. Department of Energy 1000 Independence Ave. SW Washington, DC 20585
Re: Application for Presidential Permit OE Docket No PP-438 Central Maine Power Company - NECEC
Dear Mr. Lawrence,
Pessamit Innu First Nation, Wemotaci Atikamekw First Nation, Pikogan, Lac-Simon and Kitcisakik of the Anishnabeg Nation, wish to submit comments on the NECEC Project Presidential Permit Application. Our five communities have been established for more than eight thousand years in the Laurentian and Boreal Forests within the current boundaries of the Province of Québec in Canada. We are more than ten thousand registered members represented by our five Band Councils.
The Context of our intervention
We do not intend to express our position on the specific impacts of the NECEC Project in Maine. We want, however, to shed some light on how we view important and fundamental issues such as the source of the electrical power involved, its environmental, social and constitutional legitimacy, subjects that are neither addressed in Québec or Maine environmental analysis for this project.
Our Ancestral and Treaty Rights
Our ancestors lived and prospered for more than 8,000 years on a large part of the territory that is now the Province of Québec. When Europeans first came in contact with North American Native communities, our people occupied specific territories in Northeastern Québec and formed organized societies. We still occupy these same territories, known respectively as “Nitassinan”,” Nitaskinan” and “Nitakinan” which means “our land”. As a whole, our traditional territories cover more than 100,000 square miles.
2
The recognition by both the Canadian and Québec Governments of our continued occupation of our territories before and after the period of contact with Europeans is the basis of our “Ancestral Rights”.
In 1603, our Chiefs concluded a treaty with Samuel de Champlain representing Henri IV King of France, which permitted the French to settle in our lands. In 1763, during the conquest of Canada by England, our territorial rights were again recognized in the “Royal Proclamation”, signed and issued by the King of England, George III. These two main historic events are the foundation of our “Treaty Rights”.
The Innu, Atikamekw and Anishnabeg Nations have never been conquered, have never given up their rights over their traditional territories, and have never given in to any attempt or accepted any proposal to relinquish these rights.
Negation of our rights
In the middle of the 19th century, our multi-thousand-year-old way of life began to shift. At that time, the balance of power irrevocably reversed with newcomers moving into our ancestral lands. We were gradually pushed back deeper into our territories, and reservations were created by the government of Canada in order to turn us into sedentary communities and prevent our traditional activities from impairing on economic development.
The Government of Québec illicit schemes
Beginning in 1973, following more than a century of setbacks, the Supreme Court of Canada recognized through a series of historic rulings, our Ancestral Rights and the value of treaties with France and England. This led the Canadian Government to enshrine our rights in the Constitution of 1982. From that point on, however, Québec was the only province to refuse this outcome and the changes it involved. Québec’s Government challenged the validity of historic treaties and the existence of our Ancestral Rights. In 1996, the Supreme Court of Canada overturned Québec’s ill-founded position.
Québec Government’s ill will in this matter strategically provided enough time for Hydro- Québec, a state-owned entity, to proceed with the invasion of our traditional territories. As a result, thirty-three (33) hydroelectric plants, numerous reservoirs and transmission lines were implanted on our territories in the 20th century, without impact studies, without our consent and without compensation. This state-run extortion endeavor now provides for 36% of Hydro-Québec’s installed capacity illegally acquired at our expense. The Government of Québec, Hydro-Québec’s sole shareholder, has enabled its “entity” to become one of the largest and most profitable energy companies in the western hemisphere. In return, our Nations have been plunged into economic, cultural and social chaos that has no historical equivalent since the contact with Europeans in the 16th century. 3
Hydro-Québec flooded all major rivers in our traditional territories to create 4,000 sq. mi. of hydro-electric reservoirs. These rivers were used as transport routes based on the availability of seasonal food resources and fur harvesting. It resulted in the forced and brutal removal of our members from their traditional territories and their settlement on reservations that were not and are still not structured to ensure the economic well-being of our populations. It goes without saying that in so doing, the Government of Québec and Hydro-Québec are directly and with impunity violating several historic treaties, provincial and federal laws and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
NECEC Project
Pessamit, Wemotaci, Pikogan, Lac-Simon and Kitcisakik wish to respectfully confirm that the DOE’s decision regarding the NECEC Project, will have a major albeit indirect effect on both our Aboriginal Rights and the environment. A DOE decision in favour of this project could support the Québec and Canadian Governments’ failure to comply with principles enshrined in the Constitution of 1982, a number of Supreme Court rulings and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
We are concerned that the DOE Environmental Analysis has not been provided access to important information regarding the cross-border environmental impacts of the NECEC Project. In relation to this project, we can demonstrate the following:
• Detrimental and irreversible impacts affecting our human and constitutional rights as well as international conventions jointly signed by Canada and U.S.A.
• That 36% of the electricity destined for importation by Hydro-Québec to New England, still constitutionally belongs to our First Nations.
Conclusion
Our First Nations have lived for more than 8,000 years in our traditional territories and we still aspire to prosper in respectful harmony with our natural heritage. However, Hydro- Québec activities have profoundly affected the integrity of our territories and have directly collided with our Ancestral and Treaty Rights. Hydro-Québec, with the complicity of the Québec and Canadian Governments, have ravaged our social harmony and rendered it destitute. We strongly state that the forced migration of our First Nations is a defining act of a cultural genocide.
For decades, we have tried to work within the confines of the democratic and political venues in Québec to enforce the recognition of our rights. Our action outside of Canada’s borders aims to change the course of history or, at least, to make New Englanders aware that 36% of the electricity that Hydro-Québec intends to sell through the NECEC was acquired in an immoral and illegal manner, to the detriment of our First Nations. 4
Pessamit, Wemotaci, Pikogan, Lac-Simon and Kitcisakik require that remedial measures on our traditional territories be put in place before any new export project to the United States is carried out. We confirm our firm opposition to the Appalachian–Maine Interconnection Line and its connection with NECEC as long as our rights are not respected.
We hope to have successfully highlighted our legitimate concerns about the repercussions of implementing the NECEC Project. More detailed information directly related to this letter is available on our site http://quebechydroclash.com.
We urge you to take into consideration our standpoint, especially the aspects based on principles of international moral codes and law, as part of your decision regarding the NECEC Project. We remain available if you need further information.
In order to corroborate our statements, we would be pleased and honoured to welcome a delegation from the DOE on our traditional territories, to objectively assess Hydro- Québec’s so-called “clean energy”.
Sincerely yours,
______Gérald Hervieux Guy Laloche James Cananasso on behalf of on behalf of on behalf of Pessamit Band Council Wemotaci Band Council Pikogan Band Council
______Lucien Wabanonik Regis Penosway on behalf of on behalf of Lac-Simon Band Council Kitcisakik Band Council
News Release
“We were never consulted or compensated for this use of our land — in fact, we were never even told that, below the dam, the Churchill River would be reduced to a trickle, that Churchill Falls would cease to exist, and that our canoes, camps, trap lines, hunting grounds and our ancestors’ burial sites would be drowned forever by the Smallwood Reservoir.” - Late Daniel Ashini, former Grand Chief of the Innu Nation
FIFTY YEARS PAST DUE
INNU NATION OF LABRADOR FILES $4 BILLION CLAIM AGAINST HYDRO-QUÉBEC FOR DAMAGES CAUSED BY THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCHILL FALLS PROJECT.
Tuesday, October 6, 2020 • St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador – The Innu Nation of Labrador announced today that it has filed a $4 billion claim against Hydro-Québec in the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador as compensation for the illegal taking of their land in Labrador in 1969 to build the Churchill Falls hydro-electric project. This project was built on land that forms part of the land claim of the Innu Nation that is being negotiated with Newfoundland and Labrador and Canada.
“Over 50 years ago, Hydro-Québec and the provincial utility in Newfoundland and Labrador now called Nalcor Energy, through the Churchill Falls (Labrador) Corporation, stole our land and flooded it in order to take advantage of the enormous hydro potential of the Churchill Falls,” stated Grand Chief Etienne Rich. “This project was undertaken without consulting us and without our consent.”
“For decades,” continued the Grand Chief, “we have tried to meet with Hydro-Québec officials to get them to take responsibility and compensate us for this injustice. Despite its stated commitment to working in partnership with indigenous communities and nations, Hydro-Québec has repeatedly refused to address our issues. Many of our elders have passed on without seeing justice done. We were left with no other alternative than to seek justice through the courts.”
For thousand of years, the Labrador Innu lived, hunted, trapped, and were buried on this land. An area larger than Prince Edward Island was flooded to create the Smallwood Reservoir. Other Innu lands were taken for transmission corridors and access roads. As a result, many areas of cultural, historical, and spiritual significance were submerged or affected, Innu gravesites were destroyed, and many Innu hunters lost equipment when their seasonal campsites were flooded. The flooding and the ruined shorelines caused irreparable damage to the ecosystem, traditions, and livelihood of the Innu people.
Hydro-Québec played an essential role in the construction of Churchill Falls. Without Hydro-Québec, this project would never have been built.
1
Until 2011, the Innu had never been compensated for these damages. In 2011, with the signing of the Upper Churchill Redress Agreement, Nalcor Energy agreed to provide some compensation for the damages caused by the Churchill Falls project.
“While Hydro-Québec has made tens of billions of dollars from taking the power from Churchill Falls and selling it to the US, it has repeatedly refused to engage in dialogue and to address this travesty,” asserted Deputy Grand Chief MaryAnn Nui.
The Innu claim flies in the face of Hydro-Québec’s positioning as a socially and environmentally responsible crown corporation. For example, Hydro-Québec suggests that it strives “to develop sustainable, mutually beneficial partnerships with indigenous communities and nations, based on respect for values and cultures. Communities work with us from the initial stages of a project and, together, we make sure that the facilities remain socially acceptable throughout their service lives.”1
The Innu know that the flooded reservoir lands will never be restored. They cannot get the land back. As a result, they are asking for a fair share of the tremendous profits being made by Hydro-Québec from the destruction of their lands.
“What has been lost is priceless,” explained Nancy Kleer of Olthuis, Kleer, Townshend LLP which represents the Innu Nation. “In this case, there is no going back to fix what was lost. The only measure of justice left that the courts can give is a share of Hydro-Québec’s profits. Some have estimated that Hydro-Québec has already made up to $80 billion from Churchill Falls – and stands to make up to $150 billion by the end of the power purchase contract in 2041. In this claim, the Innu are asking for a fair share of Hydro-Québec’s profits, which will be at least 4 billion dollars based on estimates.”
“We are asking the courts to afford us justice for the damages done by Hydro-Québec to our land, our culture and our traditions, and we remain open to negotiations with them,” concludes Grand Chief Etienne Rich. “Hydro-Québec’s bill is fifty years past due. The time has come for them to take responsibility for their actions.” - 30 -
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
For additional information, as well as photos and videos: www.50yearspastdue.ca
INTERVIEW REQUESTS
Contact for interviews (French): Contact for interviews (English): Michèle LaForest Donna Paddon Avenue Strategic Communications Kashkuan Communications (514) 970-9617 (709) 899-5799 [email protected] [email protected]
1 Hydro-Québec and Indigenous Communities - PARTNERS FOR OVER 40 YEARS 2
The Council of the Innu of Pessamit
Wemotac\
BY EMAIL: [email protected]
July 24, 2020
The Right Honorable Justin Trudeau Prime Minister of Canada Langevin Building Ottawa, Ontario KIA OA2
Mr. Prime Minister,
Over the past hundred years or so, First Nations have borne the brunt of successive hydroelectric developments that have allowed Quebec to industrialize and the majority of its citizens to access a better quality of life. These successive and massive hydroelectric developments in traditional territories have never translated into a better quality of life for the members of the communities concerned. On the contrary, the occupation without warning and the irreversible industrialization of traditional territories has disrupted the way of life and the socioeconomic balance of the communities.
Pessamit and Wemotaci are by far the most impacted by these hydroelectric developments. In addition to being driven out of our traditional territories, we have been excluded de facto from the improved quality of life desired by governments for the non- Indigenous citizens of Quebec. By leaving our communities without resources and without compensation, the Government of Quebec, with the tacit complicity of the Government of Canada, has established two classes of citizens in the province. This state of affairs still persists since the Government of Quebec is still unwilling to respond to our legitimate and repeated requests to resolve these historic injustices. Let us recall that after having been stripped of the ability to pursue our traditional way of life on our historic territory, our members were brutally pushed into the cramped limits of the reserves and thus forced into idleness. This policy of cultural genocide still has serious consequences for the socioeconomic status of Pessamit and Wemotaci today. Indeed, all internationally recognized well-being indicators show that we are far behind compared to the entire population of Quebec and Canada. Even worse, the indicators which concern us are comparable to those of third world countries.
These changes by Hydro-Québec have also profoundly changed the course of history by violating, with impunity, ancestral rights and the spirit of the historic treaties entered into with France and England. What is more, the contemptuous manner in which these projects were set up and are still operated violates the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and our rights enshrined in the Canadian constitution.
The most recent legal episode in the Quebec government’s crusade to evade the ancestral rights of the First Nations ended in 1996. The Supreme Court of Canada then definitively put an end to Quebec’s claims that the First Nations had no ancestral rights over the territory of the province. The illegitimate position of the Government of Quebec nevertheless had given it enough time to de facto dispossess the First Nations of their traditional territories. This Supreme Court decision did not, however, convince Quebec to apply the necessary corrective measures. Since then, successive provincial governments have embarked on a strategy of perpetually delaying enforcement of the Supreme Court ruling. In doing so, Quebec scandalously awarded itself a suspended sentence. It is therefore clear that Quebec’s position, both historically and now, remains immutably the same, namely, not to apply the constitutional principle of the Honor of the Crown.
With one exception, all of Hydro-Québec’s hydroelectric facilities on the Pessamit Nitassinan were installed without authorization and without compensation. The Crown corporation operates twelve (12) hydroelectric production plants and eleven (11) reservoirs illegitimately on the Pessamit Nitassinan. These production facilities were commissioned between 1932 and 1978. The total power illegitimately installed on the of Pessamit Nitassinan is 10,042 MW.
The Wemotaci Nitaskinan is impacted by the presence of eleven (11) hydroelectric installations, nine (9) of which have never been the subject of consultations and even less of accommodations on the part of the Government of Quebec and Hydro- Québec. These production facilities were commissioned between 1911 and 1958. The total capacity illegitimately installed on the Wemotaci Nitaskinan is 1,892 MW.
Our two communities were dispossessed of their lands by the Government of Quebec and Hydro-Québec with the consent of the Government of Canada. In total, 21 production structures, some 10,000 km2 of reservoirs, tens of thousands of kilometers of transmission and distribution lines, and new roads, have been illegally installed on our traditional territories. These infrastructures are still operated by Hydro-Québec in violation of the rights recognized by the Constitutional Act of 1982 and the 1996 ruling of the Supreme Court of Canada.
In light of the repeated and unsuccessful attempts by our communities over decades to resolve these historic injustices, it is obvious that the Government of Quebec and Hydro- Quebec have never been interested in settling the matter. It is also evident that the uncoordinated efforts of individual First Nations to obtain justice have merely consolidated the Government of Quebec and Hydro-Québec in their historic position of denial. This observation stems from Quebec’s dilatory process which has been going on for decades. It has been admirably effective in thwarting any possibility of settlement.
The Innu and Atikamekws have never been conquered, have never ceded their rights, nor accepted the extinction of these rights. Currently, 33% of the total hydroelectric power installed by Hydro-Québec comes from our territories protected by ancestral rights and treaties. The illegitimate and unconstitutional seizure of these lands on the part of the Quebec government and its Crown corporation for nearly a century must end. The same is true of the appropriation of production income.
The opportunity to re-establish the balance of power between our First Nations, governments, and Hydro-Québec has now arrived. This opportunity is all the more important given that Hydro-Québec’s export intentions are contested in the United States. This is easily explained when we see that the residents of Maine would have to undergo the long term impacts of a transmission line to Massachusetts when they would derive little or no benefit from it. The people of Maine find themselves to some extent in the same situation that was imposed in the past and which still affects our First Nations. Pessamit and Wemotaci intend to testify in the United States concerning Quebec and Hydro-Québec’s age-old way of doing things. The similarity of perpetual inequities targeting the weakest is indeed outrageously startling.
In terms of legitimacy of action, we remind you that 33% of the energy that Hydro-Québec intends to sell in the United States has been appropriated from Pessamit and Wemotaci. We are therefore fully entitled to participate in the debate to protect our interests. To do this, we have arguments and irrefutable evidence to show that the government of Quebec, through its Crown corporation and with the complicity of the Canadian government, has seized the resources of our territories without regard to ancestral rights, under Aboriginal title and the Canadian Constitution.
The injustices described above also affect other Atikamekw and Anishnabe communities which should also make their voices heard soon, together with Pessamit and Wemotaci. Hydro-Québec has never had and still does not have the moral and constitutional legitimacy to operate 33 of the 63 production facilities on the traditional territories of the three aforementioned First Nations. This is 52% of the Crown corporation’s generating fleet. Hydro-Québec has even less the legitimacy to sell electricity in the United States when 13,179 MW, or 36% of the installed capacity in Quebec has been usurped. The First Nations concerned will not allow Hydro-Québec to benefit from their heritage without openly taking part in the debate currently underway in the United States.
The time has come to expose more broadly the situation that prevails in Quebec regarding the rights of First Nations, specifically to potential Hydro-Québec customers in the United States. The imminent contribution of Pessamit and Wemotaci to the permitting processes in the State of Maine could be decisive for the future of the export of electricity to the United States, more particularly if firm commitments are not made publicly and promptly to us on the international stage.
With a view to an international debate, the governments of Quebec and Canada will be invited by Pessamit and Wemotaci to express their views unequivocally: either endorse
Hydro-Quebéc’s approach to the detriment of the Honor of the Crown principle, or make a formal and swift commitment to respecting our constitutional and human rights.
In terms of human rights, Pessamit and Wemotaci have a moral obligation to participate in the international debate regarding systemic racism. After a century of denial by the Government of Quebec and apathy by the Government of Canada, we have the firm intention of demonstrating that the human rights of our members have been and still are violated within the framework of a structural and still operational policy of cultural genocide.
As part of the previously explained context, we respectfully wish to inform you of the common approach we are undertaking without delay in the United States. However, we agree to postpone it as soon as we obtain the following commitments from the governments of Quebec and Canada. First, that our members will henceforth be treated according to the same standards of fairness as those applied to non-Indigenous citizens of Quebec and Canada. Secondly, that the collective compensation which is due to us for the damages which have been caused by the unconstitutional hydroelectric developments be paid to us immediately.
Respectfully yours,
The Chief of Pessamit, The Chief of Wemotaci, René Simon François Néashit
The Council of the Innu of des Ali Pessamit
BY EMAIL : [email protected]
July 24, 2020
Mr. François Legault Premier of Quebec Honoré-Mercier Building, 3rd floor 835, boul. René-Lévesque East Quebec (Quebec) GIA IB4
Dear Premier Legault,
Over the past hundred years or so, First Nations have borne the brunt of successive hydroelectric developments that have allowed Quebec to industrialize and the majority of its citizens to access a better quality of life. These successive and massive hydroelectric developments in traditional territories have never translated into a better quality of life for the members of the communities involved. On the contrary, the occupation without warning and the irreversible industrialization of traditional territories has disrupted the way of life and the socioeconomic balance of the communities.
Pessamit and Wemotaci are by far the most impacted by these hydroelectric developments. In addition to being driven out of our traditional territories, we have been excluded de facto from the improved quality of life desired by governments for the non- Indigenous citizens of Quebec. By leaving our communities without resources and without compensation, the Government of Quebec, with the tacit complicity of the Government of Canada, has established two classes of citizens in the province. This state of affairs continues today since the Government of Quebec is still unwilling to respond to our legitimate and repeated requests to resolve these historic injustices. Let us recall that after having been stripped of the ability to pursue our traditional way of life on our historic territory, our members were brutally pushed into the cramped limits of the reserves and thus forced into idleness. This policy of cultural genocide still has serious consequences for the socioeconomic status of Pessamit and Wemotaci today. Indeed, all internationally recognized well-being indicators show that we are far behind compared to the entire population of Quebec and Canada. Even worse, the indicators which concern us are comparable to those of Third World countries.
These changes by Hydro-Québec have also profoundly changed the course of history by violating, with impunity, ancestral rights and the spirit of the historic treaties entered into with France and England. What is more, the contemptuous manner in which these projects were set up and are still operated violates the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and our rights enshrined in the Canadian constitution.
The most recent legal episode in the Quebec government’s crusade to evade the ancestral rights of the First Nations ended in 1996. The Supreme Court of Canada then definitively put an end to Quebec’s claims that the First Nations had no ancestral rights over the territory of the province. The illegitimate position of the Government of Quebec nevertheless had given it enough time to de facto dispossess the First Nations of their traditional territories. This Supreme Court decision did not, however, convince Quebec to apply the necessary corrective measures. Since then, successive provincial governments have embarked on a strategy of perpetually delaying enforcement of the Supreme Court ruling. In doing so, Quebec has awarded itself a suspended sentence. It is therefore clear that Quebec’s position, both historically and now, remains immutably the same, namely not to apply the constitutional principle of the Honour of the Crown.
With one exception, all of Hydro-Québec’s hydroelectric facilities on the Pessamit Nitassinan were installed without authorizations and without compensation. The Crown corporation operates twelve (12) hydroelectric production plants and eleven (11) reservoirs illegitimately on the Pessamit Nitassinan. These production facilities were commissioned between 1932 and 1978. The total power illegitimately installed on the Pessamit Nitassinan is 10,042 MW.
The Wemotaci Nitaskinan is impacted by the presence of eleven (11) hydroelectric installations, nine (9) of which have never been the subject of consultations and even less of accommodations on the part of the Government of Quebec and Hydro-Québec. These production facilities were commissioned between 1911 and 1958. The total capacity illegitimately installed on the Wemotaci Nitaskinan is 1,892 MW.
Our two communities were dispossessed of their lands by the Government of Quebec and Hydro-Québec with the consent of the Government of Canada. In total, 21 production structures, some 10,000 km2 of reservoirs, tens of thousands of kilometres of transmission and distribution lines, and new roads, have been illegally installed on our traditional territories. These infrastructures are still operated by Hydro-Québec in violation of the rights recognized by the Constitutional Act of 1982 and the 1996 ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada.
In light of the repeated and unsuccessful attempts by our communities over decades to resolve these historic injustices, it is obvious that the Government of Quebec and Hydro- Quebéc have never been interested in settling the matter. It is also evident that the uncoordinated efforts of individual First Nations to obtain justice have merely consolidated the Government of Quebec and Hydro-Québec in their historic position of denial. This observation stems from Quebec’s dilatory process which has been going on for decades. It has been incredibly effective in thwarting any possibility of settlement.
The Innu and Atikamekws have never been conquered, have never ceded their rights, nor accepted the extinction of these rights. Currently, 33% of the total hydroelectric power installed by Hydro-Québec comes from our territories protected by ancestral rights and treaties. The illegitimate and unconstitutional seizure of these lands on the part of the Quebec government and its Crown corporation for nearly a century must end. The same is true of the appropriation of production income.
The opportunity to re-establish the balance of power between our First Nations, governments, and Hydro-Québec has now arrived. This opportunity is even more important given that Hydro-Québec’s export intentions are contested in the United States. This is easily explained when we see that the residents of Maine would have to experience the long term impacts of a transmission line to Massachusetts when they would derive little or no benefit from it. The people of Maine find themselves to some extent in the same situation that was imposed in the past and which still affects our First Nations. Pessamit and Wemotaci intend to testify in the United States concerning Quebec and Hydro-Québec’s age-old way of doing things. The similarity of perpetual inequities targeting the weakest is indeed outrageously startling.
In terms of legitimacy of action, we remind that 33% of the energy that Hydro-Québec intends to sell in the United States has been appropriated from Pessamit and Wemotaci. We are therefore fully entitled to participate in the debate to protect our interests. To do this, we have arguments and irrefutable evidence to show that the government of Quebec, through its Crown corporation and with the complicity of the Canadian government, has seized the resources of our territories without regard to ancestral rights, under Aboriginal title and the Canadian Constitution.
The injustices described above also affect other Atikamekw and Anishnabe communities which should also make their voices heard soon, together with Pessamit and Wemotaci. Hydro-Québec has never had and still does not have the moral and constitutional legitimacy to operate 33 of the 63 production facilities on the traditional territories of the three aforementioned First Nations. This is 52% of the Crown corporation’s generating fleet. Hydro-Québec has even less the legitimacy to sell electricity in the United States when 13,179 MW, or 36% of the installed capacity in Quebec has been usurped. The First Nations concerned will not allow Hydro-Québec to benefit from their heritage without openly taking part in the debate currently underway in the United States.
The time has come to expose more broadly the situation that prevails in Quebec regarding the rights of First Nations, specifically to potential Hydro-Québec customers in the United States. The imminent contribution of Pessamit and Wemotaci to the permitting processes in the State of Maine could be decisive for the future of the export of electricity to the United States, more particularly if firm commitments are not made publicly and promptly to us on the international stage.
With a view to an international debate, the governments of Quebec and Canada will be invited by Pessamit and Wemotaci to express their views unequivocally: either endorse
Hydro-Quebéc’s approach to the detriment of the Honour of the Crown principle, or make a formal and swift commitment to respecting our constitutional and human rights.
In terms of human rights, Pessamit and Wemotaci have a moral obligation to participate in the international debate regarding systemic racism. After a century of denial by the Government of Quebec and apathy by the Government of Canada, we have the firm intention of demonstrating that the human rights of our members have been and still are violated within the framework of a structural and still operational policy of cultural genocide.
As part of the previously explained context, we respectfully wish to inform you of the common approach we are undertaking without delay in the United States. However, we agree to postpone it as soon as we obtain the following commitments from the governments of Quebec and Canada. First, that our members will henceforth be treated according to the same standards of fairness as those applied to non-Indigenous citizens of Quebec and Canada. Secondly, that the collective compensation which is due to us for the damages which have been caused to us by the unconstitutional hydroelectric developments be paid to us immediately.
Respectfully yours,
The Chief of Pessamit The Chief of Wemotaci
René Simon François Néashit
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
INNU NATION OF CANADA OPPOSES CENTRAL MAINE POWER’S TRANSMISSION LINE PERMIT: A Significant Source of the Hydro- Power Has Destroyed Innu Territory
April 14, 2020 (Natuashish, Canada) — The Innu Nation, an Indigenous people of Labrador, Canada last night filed comments with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection on Central Maine Power’s (CMP) proposed “New England Clean Energy Connect” project (NECEC), stating that a significant hydro-power source for the project has destroyed the Innu way of life. According to the Innu Nation, Hydro- Québec, the government-owned hydro-power giant, has ignored the Innu Nation’s request for redress in violation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The Innu have lived in most of the territory of Labrador for thousands of years. They rely upon its rich resources of fish, caribou, and other wildlife for their subsistence and cultural practices. Mista-Shipu, known in English as the “Churchill River,” is the longest river in Labrador and critical to the Innu way of life. Construction of the Churchill Falls Generating Station (CFGS), which finished in 1974, at the time the second largest hydro-electric project of its kind in the world, transformed the River into a massive 2,566 square mile reservoir, causing flooding of Innu homelands larger than the State of Delaware. The water from this reservoir powers the CFGS, which Hydro-Québec, in turn, seeks to sell with CMP through the NECEC.
“The Innu were not consulted about this flooding, and we certainly did not consent to it,” states the Innu Nation’s Grand Chief Gregory Rich in his declaration accompanying the comments. “We were not even told when the flooding would begin, or the degree to which the water would rise,” states the Grand Chief. His declaration describes extensive losses suffered by the Innu People:
[The flooding] destroyed our use of the area, and . . . the habitats of animals living there. Our hunting and trapping lands were inundated. Innu whose families had hunted in the region for generations lost their canoes, traps, Atiku (caribou) hide scrapers, and other tools that they stored in caches along the river’s edges. Beaver in the headwater ponds froze to death because of reduced water levels. Salmon spawning grounds were destroyed. Fish living in the Reservoir have been poisoned with methylmercury. Atiku calving grounds and
waterfowl nesting areas were drowned. We also lost the bones of our ancestors. Their burial grounds are now underwater.
Hydro-Québec, to this day, continues to ignore the Innu Nation’s requests for redress.
In submissions to public agencies and to the media, CMP consistently characterizes the NECEC project as “clean” energy. Innu Nation believes that it is extremely important for the people of Maine to know that despite multiple and continuing assertions of CMP, and by implication, Hydro-Québec, that the proposal to NECEC is in fact NOT ‘clean’ energy generation and approval for the project will adversely affect Innu traditional territory.
The Innu Nation’s rights are protected by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a charter endorsed by the State of Maine, the United States, the Canadian Government, and almost 150 countries around the world. The principle behind the Declaration is that lands and livelihoods should not be taken from Indigenous peoples unless they freely consent to it. More details about the Declaration are available below.
The Innu Nation asks the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (“DEP”) to order Central Maine Power to provide - prior to the start of the construction - written proof of Innu Nation’s authorization to Hydro-Québec to use Innu Territory to supply power through the NECEC.
Innu Nation is responsible for the protection, promotion and advancement of the legal, constitutional and Aboriginal rights of the Innu of Labrador.
An abridged version of the Innu Nation’s comments to the DEP are attached and the full version can be provided by email.
For more information:
Donna Paddon Innu Nation Communications [email protected] 709-899-5799
Senwung Luk OKT LLP [email protected] 416-981-9443
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Specific provisions of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
• “States shall provide effective mechanisms for prevention of, and redress for … [a]ny action which has the aim or effect of dispossessing [Indigenous peoples] of their lands, territories or resources.”
• “States shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free, prior and informed consent before adopting and implementing legislative or administrative measures that may affect them.”
• “Indigenous peoples have the right to own, use, develop and control the lands, territories and resources that they possess by reason of traditional ownership or other traditional occupation or use, as well as those which they have otherwise acquired. States shall give legal recognition and protection to these lands, territories and resources.”
• “States shall undertake effective consultations with the indigenous peoples concerned, through appropriate procedures and in particular through their representative institutions, prior to using their lands or territories for military activities.”
• “States shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free and informed consent prior to the approval of any project affecting their lands or territories and other resources, particularly in connection with the development, utilization or exploitation of mineral, water or other resources. States shall provide effective mechanisms for just and fair redress for any such activities, and appropriate measures shall be taken to mitigate adverse environmental, economic, social, cultural or spiritual impacts.”
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STATE OF MAINE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
) CENTRAL MAINE POWER COMPANY ) Applications Pursuant to SLODA and NRPA for ) the New England Clean Energy Connect ) Consisting of the Construction of a 1,200 MW ) COMMENTS OF HVDC Transmission Line from the Québec-Maine ) THE INNU NATION Border to Lewiston (NECEC) ) And Related Network Upgrades ) )
Innu Nation is the elected government of the Innu of Labrador, an Indigenous people of
Canada with a population of approximately 3,200 (the “Innu”). The Nation, pursuant to Chapter
2, Section 18.B, submits comments on the March 13, 2020 Draft Order issued by the Maine
Department of Environmental Protection (the “Department”).
The stated project purpose considered by the Department is for Central Maine Power
(“CMP”) “to deliver up to 1,200 MW of Clean Energy Generation from Québec to the New
England Control Area via a HVDC transmission line.” Draft Order at p. 58; see also id. at p. 15.
As will be explained further below, this project should not be permitted unless the Department imposes a condition that states: “Prior to the start of construction, the applicant must submit to the
Department documentation of permission to use Innu Territory that includes the signature of a duly authorized representative of the Innu Nation.”
I. Introduction
The Innu Nation submits these comments to dispel the multiple and continuing assertions of CMP, and by implication, Hydro-Québec, that the proposed New England Clean Energy
Connect project (the “Project”) is “clean energy generation” or “environmentally friendly.” For the Innu—the aboriginal inhabitants of lands and waters indiscriminately destroyed by Hydro-
Québec to generate the power that CMP wants to transmit through Maine by the Project—nothing could be further from the truth. This Project began as a lucrative partnership between CMP and
Hydro-Québec. See Draft Order at PDF page 196 (“On July 27, 2017, CMP and Hydro Renewable
Energy, Inc., an affiliate of Hydro-Québec, submitted to Massachusetts Electric Distribution
Companies a joint bid proposal, New England Clean Energy Connect: 100% Hydro, in response to the Massachusetts RFP.”). However, this Project and the economic returns it promises for CMP and Hydro-Québec are at the devastating expense of the Innu. The Project unquestionably proposes “use” of the Innu’s territory, and will exacerbate unreasonable adverse impacts thereon.
Neither CMP, nor Hydro-Québec, have sought, nor obtained, the necessary permissions from the
Innu Nation for this “use.” Unless or until they do so, under the plain language of Department’s own rules, the Department must either deny CMP’s application or condition any permit approval on CMP and Hydro-Québec obtaining the necessary permissions from the Innu Nation. In addition to the Department’s rules, this result would be required by faithful adherence to the United Nations
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which has been endorsed by the State of Maine, the United States, and the Canadian Government. If CMP and Hydro-Québec fail to satisfy this condition, the stated project purpose of delivering clean energy generation from Québec to the
New England Control Area is, by definition, impossible to accomplish.
II. Background
The Innu have lived on the Québec-Labrador Peninsula (“Nitassinan”, in Innu-aimun) since time immemorial. As explained by Grand Chief Gregory Rich of Innu Nation in his
Declaration signed April 9, 2020, attached hereto as Exhibit 1, the Innu are hunters who have travelled over these lands in family groups from time out of mind, using timeworn travelling routes
2 to hunt, fish, gather and trade. Travelling was central to the Innu identity, since through travel they maintained their social and ceremonial connections with other Innu, neighbouring peoples, and the land. Innu gatherings at central locations for trade and cultural events, including near
Churchill Falls, have been integral to their way of life.
The traditional territory of the Innu is in the far northeast of mainland North America. It is shown in yellow in the map below (Figure 1).1 They have lived here for thousands of years.
Figure 1: Map of the territory of the Innu of Labrador The Innu were able to resist the forces of colonization and maintain their way of life until resource developers started looking in earnest at their lands starting in the 1950s, at which point they were forced into settled communities by the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador.
The Innu now reside primarily in two communities, Sheshatshiu and Natuashish, marked by blue pins in Figure 1.
1 Exhibit B to the Declaration of Grand Chief Rich. 3
The Innu’s territory is a harsh environment for those not skilled in living on the land, which is why it was not until the mid-20th century that colonial powers realized that the resources on the
Québec-Labrador Peninsula are rich and could be exploited for significant profit. Since then, resource developers have started creating projects on the Peninsula to exploit the many resources there. The huge hydroelectric dam at Churchill Falls, the Churchill Falls Generating Station, is one example of this exploitation.
A. Churchill Falls Generating Station
The Churchill Falls Generating Station (“CFGS”) is a massive hydroelectric dam in western Labrador that is powered by an immense, man-made reservoir known as the Smallwood
Reservoir. It was constructed by the Churchill Falls (Labrador) Co. (“CF(L) Co.”) in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Hydro-Québec is one of two shareholders of CF(L) Co.
Before the reservoir was created by flooding, this area was a gathering place for the Innu from across the Québec-Labrador Peninsula. It was known to the Innu as the Meshikamau area, named for Lake Meshikamau. The area was rich in fish and wildlife and was on the migration path of two herds of caribou, which are integral to the Innu diet and cultural and spiritual identity.
It was also the location of an important Innu spiritual site, Petshishkapushkau. Meshikamau was also a place where the Innu buried their dead. The importance and history of this area is outlined in Grand Chief Rich’s Declaration (Exhibit 1), together with the Exhibits he has included in that document.2 The Innu Nation incorporates Exhibit 1 and the Exhibits attached thereto into these
Comments by reference.
2 See especially Exhibit C to the Declaration of Grand Chief Rich. 4
The river flowing through and from the Meshikamau Lake is called the Churchill River in
English. It was an important travelling route for the Innu, and had a significant waterfall known in English as Churchill Falls.
B. Destruction to Innu Land and Way of Life
Meshikamau and countless lakes around it were flooded in 1971 to create the Smallwood
Reservoir. The Churchill River was dammed at the Falls.
The Reservoir covers an immense area of approximately 2,566 square miles – larger than the state of Delaware. Figure 2 shows the flooded area, and Lake Meshikamau’s situation in that area. 3 The flooded area was named the Smallwood Reservoir.
Figure 2 Map showing area of the Smallwood Reservoir overlain on the previous Lake Meshikamau shoreline The image below (Figure 3) shows the flooded area, and where Innu travel routes and camps were located prior to the flooding.4
3 Exhibit G to the Declaration of Grand Chief Rich. 4 Exhibit E to the Declaration of Grand Chief Rich. 5
Figure 3 Map showing travel routes and camp locations overlaid by flooded lands Damming the Falls and flooding the lakes above them had correspondingly immense impacts. The flooding destroyed the Meshikamau area’s waters and lands. It destroyed the Innu’s use of the area, and it also destroyed the habitats of animals living there. The Innu’s hunting and trapping lands were inundated. Innu whose families had hunted in the region for generations lost their canoes, traps, caribou-hide scrapers, and other tools that they stored in caches along the river’s edges. Beaver in the headwater ponds froze to death because of reduced water levels. Salmon spawning grounds were destroyed. Fish living in the Reservoir have been poisoned with methylmercury. Caribou calving grounds and waterfowl nesting areas were drowned.
Innu burial grounds surrounding the waterways were also destroyed. Bones have been washed away, and burial grounds have been eroded. The images below show this destruction.5
5 Exhibit H to the Declaration of Grand Chief Rich. 6
Figure 4 Skeletal remains from an Innu cemetery eroding due to flooding
Figure 5 The Late Daniel Ashini on the bank of an eroding Innu cemetery The Innu were not consulted about the building of the CFGS, nor were they consulted about the flooding required to create the Smallwood Reservoir. Their consent to these profound, destructive alterations of their lands and waters was neither sought nor obtained. The Innu were also not told when the flooding would happen, and the scale of it was not explained to them.
Innu lands and waters, and the plants, animals and burial sites on those lands and waters, remain underwater to this day. The water level in the Smallwood Reservoir is controlled to maximize the profitability of Hydro-Québec’s production, having no account for impact of the operation of the CFGS on the continued destruction of Innu lands.
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III. CMP’s Claims That the Project Delivers “Clean” Energy Fail to Account for The Destruction of the Innu Way of Life For The Project’s Energy
Blind to the untold destruction of the Innu’s land and resources caused by the Churchill
Falls Generating Station, CMP throughout these and related proceedings and in its advertising campaigns, consistently asserts that the Project is generating “clean” energy from hydro-power sources. Some examples: