James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement
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The James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement (French: Convention de la Baie-James et du Nord québécois) is an Aboriginal land claim settlement, approved in 1975 by the Cree and Inuit of northern Quebec, and later slightly modified in 1978 by the Northeastern Quebec Agreement (French: Accord du Nord-Est québécois), through which Quebec's Naskapi First Nation joined the agreement. The agreement covers economic development and property issues in northern Quebec, as well as establishing a number of cultural, social and governmental institutions for Indigenous people who are members of the communities involved in the agreement.
In the 1960s, Quebec began developing potential hydroelectric resources in the north, and in 1971 created the James Bay Development Corporation to pursue the development of mining, forestry and other potential resources starting with the James Bay Hydroelectric Project. This massive undertaking, which was directed by an increasingly assertive government of Quebec without consulting Indigenous people, was opposed by most of northern Quebec's Cree and Inuit. The Quebec Association of Indians – an ad hoc representative body of Indigenous northern Quebecers – sued the government and, on 15 November 1973, won an injunction in the Quebec Superior Court blocking hydroelectric development until the province had negotiated an agreement with the Indigenous nations.
This judgment was overruled by the Quebec Court of Appeal seven days later, after the government's efforts to quickly negotiate an agreement failed. Nonetheless, the legal requirement that Quebec negotiate a treaty covering the territory had not been overturned, even though construction continued.
Over the course of the next year, the government of Quebec negotiated the required accord. On 15 November 1974 – exactly a year after the Superior Court decision – an agreement-in-principle was signed between the government of Canada, the Province of Quebec, the publicly owned Hydro-Québec corporation, the Grand Council of the Crees (chaired by Billy Diamond), and the Northern Quebec Inuit Association. The final accord – the James Bay And Northern Quebec Agreement (French: La Convention de la Baie James et du Nord québécois) – was signed on 11 November 1975. This convention originally only covered claims made by Quebec Cree and Inuit; however, on 31 January 1978, the Naskapi of Quebec signed a parallel agreement – the Northeastern Quebec Agreement – and joined the institutions established under the 1975 accord.
Negotiating the first land claim on behalf of the Inuit, the Northern Quebec Inuit Association (NQIA) included as members Zebedee Nungak, Lazarusie Epoo (Inukjuak), Tommy Cain, Johnny Watt, Charlie Watt (from Fort Chimo) and Jacob Oweetaltuk. Charlie Watt acquired a James Bay development map and found two rivers were going to be impacted; the Great Whale and Caniapiscau were to be dammed and diverted.
Zebedee Nungak describes the Quebec government's approach to negotiations was "overt greed backed up by raw power". Another section Zebedee describes Quebec's attitude was; "In the status of our quo, we are the Bosses; we have legal authority over all land. You need our permission to attain any benefits from this land, over which we are "maitres chez nous".
The James Bay and Northern Quebec agreement has been further modified by some 20 additional accords affecting the implementation and details of the original agreement, as well as expanding their provisions. Furthermore, the Constitution Act, 1982, entrenched in the Constitution of Canada all the rights granted in treaties and land claims agreements enacted before 1982, giving the rights outlined in the original agreement the status of constitutional rights.