OUJÉ-BOUGOUMOU, QUEBEC, NL – Several Innu from the northern Labrador community of Natuashish, including the Grand Chief of the Innu Nation, Gregory Rich, were fined today by Quebec Wildlife Officers in Oujé-Bougoumou, a small town in central Quebec, for possession of caribou from the Leaf River herd. The caribou –a gift from the Chisasibi Cree Nation – were also seized.
The Innu were traveling to Labrador when they were detained earlier this afternoon. Chief Bobbish of the Cree Nation of Chisasibi, had provided a letter intended to support safe passage and declaring the caribou a gift from their Nation to the Innu. However, the letter was not accepted by the Quebec Wildlife Officers, who seized the caribou, rather than allow the Innu to bring the gift back to the Innu communities in Labrador. Grand Chief Gregory Rich said, “The practice of historical sharing between the Cree and the Innu of what is now Labrador goes back to long before the assertion of sovereignty by the Crown”. A member of the Innu Nation who was with the Grand Chief also said “We do not accept that the Province of Quebec can prevent the exercise of this gifting. The Innu and the Cree have many blood relationships and Cree and Innu customary law support gifting of caribou between our peoples.” The Grand Chief agrees, calling the actions of the Quebec government ‘Colonial’. Innu Nation states that this is but the latest attempt to criminalize Innu and that both the Governments of Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador need to recognize the importance of caribou to Innu cultural and spiritual survival.
