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Damning picture of dam-building

Feds failed to help bands, report says

By: Mary Agnes Welch

Posted: 03/10/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

A 1985 report suggests the province railroaded three northern First Nations into allowing a hydro dam that flooded one of the continent's best wildlife habitats and that Ottawa dodged its duty to protect the bands.

Lawyers for three northern First Nations -- Grand Rapids, Chemawawin and Opaskwayak -- highlighted the old report Tuesday in federal court to convince a judge to release hundreds of secret documents that could paint an even more damaging picture of Ottawa's involvement in the construction of the Grand Rapids dam in the 1960s.

"Instead of extending protection to the First Nations and making sure the deal was appropriate, they went ahead and approved the dam, which we say was an exploitative and imprudent bargain," lawyer Harley Schachter told the court.

The First Nations are suing Ottawa for failing to ensure they were properly protected, represented and compensated when the dam was built. Before the 20-year-old case goes to trial, though, the bands must convince a judge to force Canada to release 259 briefing notes, letters, reports and legal opinions that the First Nations say could prove that Ottawa knew for years it was liable.

Canada is claiming those documents are confidential under lawyer-client privilege and shouldn't be shared with the court, the First Nations or the public. Crown lawyers have not yet had a chance to make their arguments. That's expected to happen this afternoon.

Much of Tuesday's hearing was held behind closed doors to preserve the potential secrecy of the documents. That forced about 40 elders, chiefs and band councillors to clear the courtroom, but not before Schachter walked the federal judge through the 1985 report.

It was written by Hobbs and Associates, a Winnipeg-based consulting firm that still does significant work on hydro negotiations in northern Manitoba. Using documents available in the 1980s and interviews with former government staff, the 135-page report reconstructs what the Cree were told by the province and Ottawa in the early 1960s.

It lays out how the Manitoba government wanted to build the dam as fast and as cheaply as possible, stifling even internal dissent from staff who feared the economic future of the Cree would be severely damaged.

The Cree were on their own, with no provincial organization to aid them, no lawyers or consultants of their own and limited English. Field officers from the province and Indian Affairs wrote to their supervisors, worried the Cree didn't grasp the incredible magnitude of the flooding.

After one 1962 meeting where no band members asked any questions, one Indian Affairs field representative said he "left with the distinct feeling that no one could care less as to whether the people sink or swim."

Ottawa knew how serious the damage might be and how vague the offers of provincial compensation were but was unwilling to rock the boat by demanding a better deal for the Cree, according to the report. "A key question which must be addressed is the extent to which, during the negotiations, Indian Affairs advised the Cree of their concerns regarding the band's economic future, the prospects for securing an equitable settlement and the doubts which they began to voice about the province's genuine commitment to the economic rehabilitation of the Cree after the project," said the report.

maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca

The government floods over 1.5 million acres of trapping ground, killing off all the wild muskrat, beaver, moose and other animals and completely destroying one of the largest nesting areas for ducks and geese in all Canada. Now we'll have to feed some one thousand Indians for the next 100 years.

-- Tom Lamb, northern pioneer, as quoted in the 1985 Hobbs and Associates report

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 10, 2010 A8

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