Algonguins defending land

Support the Algonquins of Barriere Lake, traditional people who know how to survive off the land. They are defending their land. Photo: Algonquins running from police tear gas attack. Photo courtesy Barriere Lake community.

Despite the presence of several Hydro Quebec dams, the community is still powered by a diesel generator. Although $100 million in revenue is extracted from the Barriere Lake Algonquins' traditional territory every year, the community receives nothing, and employment opportunities are scarce. Many of those at the blockade had been sent to residential schools aschildren. There, they were abused physically and sexually, andpunished for speaking their mother tongue.
Inside the Barriere Lake Algonquins' blockade of highway 117

by Dru Oja Jay

Posted originally in The Dominion

I'm perched on an embankment overlooking Highway 117, an obscure but economically important link between Montreal and northern Quebec. To look at most maps, there's nothing here, five hours north of Montreal, well out of the cottage towns and ski resorts of the Laurentians and still two hours short of the cluster of resource extraction economies around Val d'Or. I'm in the middle of a four hour stretch where most travellers could be forgiven for thinking was nothing but a few hunting lodges, logging roads and Hydro Quebec turnouts.A girl, young enough that I have to bend down to hear what she's saying, climbs up the embankment and points at the highway."Look where we're colouring," she says. I look. In the middle of the highway... read more