Innu Chief takes case against Quebec to United Nations forum in Switzerland

An Innu community is taking their case against the provincial government and how its attitude violates the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) all the way to a United Nations forum in Switzerland.

Pekuakamiulnuatsh First Nation Chief Gilbert Dominique is attending the 17th session of the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples being held this week in Geneva, Switzerland.

He presented to the forum Tuesday.

Speaking on behalf of the Regroupement Petapan, made up of the Essipit, Pekuakamiulnuatsh, and Nutashkuan communities, Dominique said Quebec’s heel-dragging and failure to ratify a tripartite, updated Petapan Treaty by March 31, 2023 constitutes a violation of UNDRIP. He also said that Quebec’s failure to live up to a commitment to finalize the treaty represents their “closed” position toward First Nations.

“This non-recognition by the Quebec government has many consequences for our peoples,” Dominique said. “The most obvious is the impossibility for our nations to ensure the application of the Declaration and enforce the rights it recognizes. Quebec's closed position also prevents us from completing the negotiation of a modern treaty, which has been underway for over 40 years.”

The Petapan Treaty, between the Innu First Nations, the province and the federal government, would exempt the three communities from the federal Indian Act and recognize their right to self-determination and to their ancestral rights.

A draft treaty is ready, Dominique said, but the Quebec government’s refusal to come to the table is making it impossible to finalize.

“Worse still, for the past two years, the Quebec government has been multiplying its delaying tactics which make it impossible to conclude our draft project, even though we had reached the finish line and concluded all the chapters that concern the federal government,” he explained. “The Quebec government's actions in negotiating the Petapan Treaty are contrary to good-faith negotiation and to the preservation the Crown’s honour, which are principles recognized by Canadian law.”

It marks the first time the Regroupement Patapan has appeared before the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and that by itself is significant, Dominique said.

“We are doing this to raise an issue that could concern many other nations in federated states where, despite the efforts of a central state to ensure the implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, this implementation remains partial, or even blocked, when the federated states are not cooperative,” he said.

Marc Lalonde, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Iori:wase