[Indigsol] Chief Mathewan's letter to AbitibiBowater

[Indigenous Peoples' Solidarity Movement -Ottawa]

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

August 25, 2009
Mr. Paul Grondin
Manager,
AbitibiBowater
200 chemin de Montcerf
Maniwaki, Quebec
By Fax: (819) 449-6947

Re: Forestry Operations Within Trilateral Agreement Territory

Mr. Paul Grodin:

I am writing to advise you of developments under the Trilateral Agreement,
which will affect your forestry operations within the Trilateral Agreement
Territory.

REASONS FOR THE SUSPENSION OF FORESTRY OPERATIONS

Recent actions and/or inactions by the Governments of Quebec and Canada
leave us no choice but to ask that you immediately suspend forestry
operations within the territory pending the clarification and resolution
of
certain outstanding matters under the Agreement, including the following:

1. The failure of the government of Quebec to honour the spirit and terms
of the 1991 Trilateral Agreement and the 1998 Bilateral Agreement,
including the protocol and procedures for measure to harmonize forestry
activities with the traditional activities of our First Nation.

2. The failure of the government of Quebec to implement in a timely
manner, the recommendations made jointly, in July 2006, by the Quebec
Special Representative, John Ciaccia, and the Barriere Lake Special
Representative, Clifford Lincoln.

3. The failure of the governments of Canada and Quebec to acknowledge the
results of a June 24, 2009, leadership selection process conducted by our
First Nation and the failure of the governments of Canada and Quebec to
conduct relations with our Customary Council led by myself.
Allow me to elaborate on these points.

1. Failure of the government of Quebec to honour the spirit and terms of
the 1991 Trilateral Agreement and the 1998 Bilateral Agreement, including
the protocol and procedures for measure to harmonize forestry activities
with the traditional activities of our First Nation.

In August 1991, the Governments of Canada and Quebec entered into a
Trilateral Agreement with the our First Nation, under my signature, to
develop and implement an Integrated Resource Management Plan for forests
and wildlife.

The Trilateral Agreement is modeled on the notions of coexistence and
co-management and provides for a process to “harmonize forestry operations
with Algonquin traditional activities”. Under this process, companies
would develop their cutting plans in draft and submit them to our First
Nation, for review and approval, based on importance to our traditional
economy. Once an agreement was reached between our First Nation and the
companies, the plans would be submitted to the Quebec government for its
review and the issuance of requisite cutting permits.

We should point out that throughout the discussions and negotiations on
"measures to harmonize", MNRF officials of the Quebec government
participated fully, consistently and a consensus was achieved
on all aspects of the process. Therefore, these officials are well aware,
not only of the overall process, but all of the details involved in it,
such as the buffering of sensitive zones, and the projected "green" "red"
and "in-between" zones. So there is no excuse for their intentional breach
of protocol and procedures to which they have given their unqualified
agreement.

The measures to harmonize process has been breached by your company and
the government of Quebec. We have been advised by the Ratt family, in
whose area cutting operations are apparently proposed, as represented by
Mr. Charles Ratt, that your current road building and forestry operations
in the "Esden" sector have not been subject to our measures to harmonize
process. As such, we are requesting an immediate suspension of your
forestry operations, including the related road building.

We have been informed that Casey Ratt, who purports to be our Chief, may
have entered into an agreement with AbitibiBowater or the government of
Quebec, to permit the forestry operations. I am giving you notice that he
has no authority whatsoever to enter into any such agreements. While the
Casey Ratt group has been recognized by the Minister of Indian Affairs,
this does not confer legitimacy or legal status on Casey Ratt’s group, as
acknowledged by the Federal Court. Moreover, our First Nation held a
new leadership selection on June 24, 2009, and I was re-selected as the
Customary Chief of our First Nation. Casey Ratt has never been Chief in
accordance with our customs and is not authorized to sign any agreements
on behalf of our First Nation.

As the measures to harmonize processes under the Trilateral Agreement has
not been honoured by the governments of Quebec or Canada, our First Nation
requests all forestry operations be suspended.

Failure by Quebec to Respond to the Joint Recommendations of the Special
Representatives for Quebec and Barriere Lake

As you know, there are three signatories to the Trilateral Agreement:
Canada, Quebec and the Algonquins of Barriere Lake. I signed that
Agreement as Chief on behalf of the Algonquins of Barriere Lake in August
1991.
Article 1 of the Trilateral Agreement describes three phases to the
trilateral process. Phases one and two of the Trilateral Agreement commit
the signatories to undertake technical work related the development of a
draft integrated resource management plan (“IRMP”) for the Trilateral
Agreement Territory. Phase three commits the signatories to formulate
recommendations to carry out the draft IRMP. Article 6 (b) (4) says that
the draft IRMP and the recommendations for carrying it out must be
formulated by the special representatives of Quebec and the Algonquins of
Barriere Lake. Article 7 obligates Quebec and the Algonquins of Barriere
Lake “to negotiate an agreement on the carrying out of the recommendations
retained”.

The commitment to fulfill the terms of the Trilateral Agreement was
reaffirmed by Quebec and Barriere Lake in a further Agreement signed in
1998 (“1998 Agreement”). That Agreement also specified, in section 7, a
list of items which were to be negotiated as part of the Trilateral
Agreement negotiations.

Phases one and two of the Trilateral Agreement are essentially complete.
Pursuant to phase three, the Special Representatives for Quebec and
Barriere Lake came to a consensus on a set of joint recommendations on
both
the IRMP and on section 7 of the 1998 Agreement. These are contained in a
brief report consisting of seven points, which was submitted to Quebec
Ministers Corbeil and Kelley, under a letter dated July 13, 2006. Thus
far, the Ministers have not responded to the Special Representatives’
Report and this has resulted in a delay in the start of negotiations
contemplated by both the Trilateral Agreement and the 1998 Agreement. It
is the position of Barriere Lake that three years is more than enough time
for the government of Quebec to respond: this is unreasonable, and not in
good faith.

Forestry operations will not be permitted until Quebec responds to these
joint recommendations and agrees to their implementation.

The failure of the governments of Canada and Quebec to acknowledge the
results of a June 24, 2009, leadership selection process conducted by our
First Nation and the failure of the governments of Canada and Quebec to
conduct relations with our Customary Council led by myself

Since March 10, 2008, the government of Canada with the apparent support
of Quebec has attempted to once again try and replace our Customary Chief
and Council with a illegal minority faction.

On March 10, 2009, the federal Department of Indian Affairs, without
consulting our Elders or our community members, recognized Casey Ratt as
Chief and several of his supporters as Councillors. This was based upon
allegations by this minority faction that a leadership change had occurred
within our First Nation. These allegations are false and our Elders
Council started a federal court action to challenge the decision of the
federal Department of Indian Affairs. This case is still before the
courts.

After months of court delays and federal neglect, our Elders Council
decided to clarify the leadership confusion that was caused by the illegal
interference by the federal Department of Indian Affairs into our First
Nations internal affairs by starting a new leadership selection process.
Our Customary Council agreed to resign and submit ourselves to the new
leadership selection process.

Our Elders Council selected Mr. Keith Penner, a former Member of
Parliament, to act as a facilitator and document the leadership selection
process. The Ratt group was invited to participate in the new leadership
selection process but they refused.

Consequently, on June 24, 2009, our First Nation held a leadership
Assembly and I was re-selected as the Customary Chief of our First Nation
in accordance with our customs. Along with me, Benjamin Nottaway and
David Wawatie were re-selected as Councillors. Two new Councillors were
also added to our Custom Council, Eugene Nottaway and Joey Decoursay.

We are the legitimate Chief and Council of our First Nation.

On July 20, 2009, I wrote to the federal Department of Indian Affairs
indicating that we are prepared to conduct relations with them provided
they recognize we are the Customary Chief and Council of the Algonquins of
Barriere Lake. We gave them 10 days to respond otherwise we would assume
they had no intention of respecting our peoples decision in selecting us
as their customary Chief and Council. I have attached a copy of this
letter for your information.

To this date, we have received no response from the federal Department of
Indian Affairs. We provide you with this information so that you are aware
that Casey Ratt has no authority to allow forestry operations in our
territory. We do not see the possibility of further forestry operations
within our territory until the issue of authority is clarified and normal
relations are resumed between our First Nation and the governments of
Canada
and Quebec. As such, we are requesting the immediate suspension of all
forestry operations within the Trilateral Agreement Territory.

CONCLUSIONS

The Trilateral Agreement provides for a system of measures to harmonize to
enable forestry operations to continue pending the completion of the three
phases of the trilateral process, including the negotiations. We have
always held-up our end of the bargain, making sure that measures to
harmonize were done to ensure companies continued access to forestry
resources, as long as we felt that the other signatories to the Trilateral
Agreement were acting in good faith.

It is our view that Canada and Quebec are not in good faith. As a result,
and especially given the undue delay in implementing the Special
Representatives’ Joint Recommendations, and failing to recognize the
outcome of our June 24, 2009, leadership selection process, we cannot
agree to forestry operations within the Trilateral Agreement Territory
until these issues are resolved to our satisfaction.

Moreover, the recent Haida and Taku River decisions have clarified legal
responsibilities of the Crown. These cases impose a duty on the Crown in
right of the province to consult and accommodate those aboriginal peoples
asserting aboriginal and treaty rights.

We hope that Quebec, will take the necessary steps that will allow us to
overcome the current impasses to enable us to move forward, on a more
productive basis, in the implementation of the IRMP and section 7 of the
1998 Agreement.

We have had good relations with the companies throughout the difficulties
encountered over the last several years, especially as a result of the
problems created by the federal decision to walk away from the Trilateral
table. I believe that we have been able to do so because we keep our lines
of communication open and we have been open and frank in our
communications with you. When we have foreseen potential problems, we have
alerted you in advance and we have maintained mutual support and
cooperation.

In light of the foregoing, we are hereby giving you until the end of this
week to cease all of your forestry and road building activities and remove
all of your equipment out of the Trilateral Agreement Territory until all
of these issues are resolved to our First Nation's satisfaction.

If you ignore our notice and attempt to continue log and build forestry
roads within the Trilateral Agreement Territory without our agreement, we
will be taking action to remedy the situation. As such, we hope you will
respect this notice, cease your activities and remove your equipment.

We are prepared to meet with you and will keep you informed on our further
progress and would appreciate your ongoing patience and support. If you
want to arrange a meeting please contact our Grand Chief, Norman
Young, at the Algonquin Nation Secretariat office (819) 723-2019.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

Yours Truly,
Chief Jean Maurice Matchewan
Algonquins of Barriere Lake
cc. Hon. Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Foreign Affairs, M.P. Pontiac
Riding, Government of Canada
Hon. Chuck Strahl, Minister of Indian Affairs, Government of Canada
Hon. Pierre Corbeil, Minister Responsible of Native Affairs, Government of
Quebec
Hon. Nathalie Normandeau, Minister of Natural Resources & Wildlife,
Government of Quebec
Grand Chief Norman Young, Algonquin Nation Secretariat
Chief Conrad Polson, Timiskaming First Nation
Chief Harry St. Denis, Wolf Lake First Nation
Ghislain Picard, Quebec Regional Vice-Chief, Assembly of First Nations
Shawn Atleo, National Chief, Assembly of First Nations
Clifford Lincoln, Special Representative, Algonquins of Barriere Lake
John Ciaccia, Special Representative, Government of Quebec
Michael Wernick, Deputy Minister, INAC, Government of Canada
Andre Maltais, Deputy Minister, SAA, Government of Quebec
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