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Innu people from both sides of the border between Quebec and Newfoundland have come together to fight a series of hydro-electric dams which the two provinces have announced they are going to build on the principal river running through the region.

The $12 billion Lower Churchill River project, which was announced in March, will have a direct impact on the Innu people who spend the greater part of the year living on the land, yet neither government consulted with the Innu in the months of closed-door meetings leading up to the announcement. In fact, Newfoundland Premier Brian Tobin publicly denied that any negotiations were taking place.

In response, representatives of Innu organizations from Newfoundland and Quebec, the Innu Nation and Mamit Innuat, have announced that they will oppose development projects that do not have the consent of all Innu. "This is our common position," said Guy Bellefleur, the chief negotiator for Mamit Innuat. "The premiers can expect a strong, united Innu response if they choose to proceed."

"We are tired of being lied to, tired of being misled and tired of having our rights ignored," said Daniel Ashini, vice-president of the Innu Nation. "The Innu will take whatever actions are necessary to prevent Newfoundland and Quebec from entering into any contracts regarding the Lower Churchill or other hydro developments in our territory without our consent."

When the premiers called a press conference on the Churchill River to officially announce the agreement, Innu protestors and their supporters blocked the access roads, forcing the premiers to relocate the press conference. It was the first move in a struggle that Innu leaders said will go to the courts or to the barricades.

An earlier dam project on the Churchill River, launched by the governments of Newfoundland and Quebec almost 30 years ago, flooded more than 1,300 square kilometers of forest, leaving Innu burial grounds and camp sites under water. But flooding is not the only concern for the Innu. Since the first project on the Churchill River, the Innu have come under siege by low-level NATO training flights over their hunting grounds and by preparations for large-scale mine development in the region. The new Churchill falls project would open new roads into the region and the energy itself is likely to be used to power new mines and other forms of industrial development.

The two provinces are clearly committed to building the dams. Dam building has long fueled the industrial development of Quebec and the re-election plans of Quebec premiers. Talk of a new series of dams on the Churchill River began to surface after Quebec's plans for a much larger hydro-electric megaproject in the north was defeated by opposition led by the James Bay Cree. Now, with the Quebec economy stalling, provincial elections coming within the year, and a realignment of federalist forces challenging the popularity of separatist premier Lucien Bouchard, plans to build the new dams on the Churchill River could not be more timely.

For the Newfoundland government, the Churchill River project also represents a timely mixture of politics and economics. Since the collapse of the East Coast fishery, there has been growing interest in industrial development in the Labrador peninsula as a means to rebuild the Newfoundland economy. At the same time, the agreement with Quebec is also a chance to address an old embarrassment. When the first dams were built on the Churchill River, Newfoundland signed a deal to sell the power to Quebec. But when energy prices surged shortly afterward, Newfoundland was caught in a contract to sell the energy at a fraction of its value until 2041. Newfoundland Premier Brian Tobin, an ambitious politician who likes to play to the national media, may want to be seen as the man who negotiated a better deal with Quebec.

Despite all this, Daniel Ashini said the Innu are planning to fight the provinces and win. The Innu were unable to resist the first Churchill River project, but after a decade of court challenges and civil disobedience against the NATO training flights, Ashini claims the Innu are much better prepared. "We were not organized then like we are now," Ashini told reporters. "The realities today are very different. We will not be bulldozed again."

In addition, recent Canadian court decisions appear to favor the right of Native peoples to have a say in development projects affecting their territories. For example, in considering the case of the Gitxsan and Wet'suwet'en in British Columbia, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled in December that Native peoples have a collective property right to their territories and resources. And although the court conceded that governments may be able to expropriate land in the interest of development, the ruling suggests that, at a minimum, the federal and provincial governments would need to consult with the affected peoples and work with them to minimize the impact. Significantly, the Innu, like the Gitxsan and Wet'suwet'en, have never ceded their territory through a treaty or land claim settlement.

The agreement between the provinces of Newfoundland and Quebec that was announced in March, is only the beginning of the process. Formal negotiations between the provinces are still taking place, and the provinces are planning to carry out feasibility studies before construction gets under way. They are also obliged to take part in environmental impact assessments for many aspects of the project.