[James Bay Development]
https://archives.anglican.ca/link/official5129
- Date
- 1972 November 14
- Source
- Anglican News Service
- Type
- Press Release
- Text of motion
- The Anglican Church of Canada declared itself in the middle of the testy James Bay development scheme today, with the appointment of a liaison-fieldman to deal with the 6,000 Indians on the east shore and the James Bay Development Corporation.
- Rev. Lynn Ross of Schefferville, Quebec, who has worked three years with the Cree people of the Ungava area, will begin research and liaison work immediately and report to a Committee of Concern representing the whole of the Anglican Church of Canada.
- His assignment is "to be a communications link between the native peoples, the James Bay Development Corporation and the committee, to facilitate a process whereby the native peoples share fully in the decision-making procedures affecting the social, economic and political development of the area."
- The Anglican Primate, Archbishop E.W. Scott, also is writing to the corporation to announce Mr. Ross' appointment and to arrange a meeting between the Committee of Concern and top officials of the corporation early in the new year.
- The United Church of Canada is sharing in research, although it does not have congregations in the area.
- "We are not just reacting negatively," Archbishop Scott said, "although we have a bias in favour of the Indians. We want our inquiry to be open and to help resolve the difficulties."
- "We have seen trends develop very quickly, and we are reacting against the trends rather than against the basic idea of development."
- Underlining his concern, the Primate said: "I believe that the whole 'soul of Canada' will be determined in large part by the attitudes we develop towards the aboriginal peoples of this country."
- The request for help came from the Indian people, virtually all of them Anglican, to the Diocese of Moosonee at Schumacher, Ontario. The decision of the National Executive Council of the General Synod was to give full support, naming the five dioceses most closely affected: Moosonee, Montreal, Quebec, Ottawa and the Arctic, to the Committee of Concern.
- Since then the Indian people have initiated court action in Quebec seeking an injunction to stop any development on the grounds that aboriginal rights have not been settled - in fact there have never been treaties signed over land or hunting rights.
- The Indians argue that, at this point, the responsibility for treaties and settlements lies with the federal government and that the provincial government is merely its agent.
- "We are concerned about the people," Bishop James Watton of Moosonee said. "We are talking about the responsibility of government and its agencies towards people and their environment. This scheme is a threat to the whole cultural identity of the Cree people, who have had almost no contact with our society. You can almost see the debilitating effects day by day."
- Rev. Hugo Muller of Noranda, Quebec, who ministers to the eastern shore people, said: "Certainly, the Indians think the whole idea (of massive development) is evil and wrong."
- Bishop N.R. Clarke of James Bay (Noranda) said: "We all realize that we can't turn back the clock. We want to draw attention to the fact that certain things are being done wrongly and are disturbing basic elements of life, culture, ecology and other factors affecting people."
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- For further information, contact:
- Michael O'Meara, Director
- Division of Communications
- 924-9192 (Bus.)
- 742-8327 (Res.)
- Subjects
- Cree - Quebec (Province)
- James Bay Hydroelectric Project
- Dams - Environmental aspects
- Indigenous peoples - Canada
- Indigenous peoples - Quebec (Province)
- Indigenous peoples - Canada - Claims
- Indigenous peoples - Canada - Claims - Anglican Church of Canada
- Anglican Church of Canada. Diocese of Moosonee
- Ross, Lynn (Lynn Curtis)
- Scott, Edward W. (Edward Walter), 1919-2004
- Indigenous peoples in conservation of natural resources - Canada
- Muller, Hugo, 1929-1984
- Clarke, Neville R. (Neville Richard), 1910-1975