Manitoba First Nations' Justified Blockade of Keeyask Dam Site
- Barbara Biley -
 May
21, 2020, Tataskweyak Cree Nation continues to blockade Provincial Road
280 to protect the community from exposure to COVID-19.
Four Manitoba First Nations, partners with
Manitoba Hydro
in the Keeyask Hydropower Limited Partnership (KHLP), are
supporting actions taken by the Tataskweyak Cree Nation on May 14
to block Provincial Road 280 and the main gate and north access
point to Keeyask. Keeyask is a 695-megawatt hydroelectric
generating station being built on the Nelson River, 725 kilometres
north of Winnipeg, scheduled for completion in 2021. The four First
Nations in the partnership with Manitoba Hydro are
Tataskweyak Cree Nation, Fox Lake Cree Nation, War Lake First
Nation, and York Factory Cree Nation.
The blockade was set up
with the aim of stopping the spread of the COVID-19 virus to
their community. On May 18, Manitoba Hydro served the Tataskweyak
Cree Nation with a ten-day injunction issued by Manitoba Court of
Queen's Bench to remove the blockade. The following day, Manitoba
Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO) Inc., which represents 26 First
Nations who are signatories to Treaties 4, 5, 6 and 10, issued a
statement of support for the blockade. Also on May 19, the Fox
Lake Cree Nation issued a state of emergency and locked down its
community and established another blockade at the south access
road to the construction site.
On May 20, over a hundred people
gathered on the grounds of the Manitoba legislature to protest
the injunction, joining activists who have been camping on the
grounds since May 14 in solidarity with the blockade.
 The action of the
Tataskweyak Cree Nation was prompted by the
decision of Manitoba Hydro to bring in up to 1,200 new workers to
the site over the next month, including workers from across
Canada and some from the U.S. The arrival of these workers will
allow the 600 to 700 workers who have been on the site since March to
leave. Those workers volunteered to stay so that the
normal rotation of workers into and out of the site would stop in
the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, with the approval
of Manitoba's Chief Medical Health Officer, Manitoba Hydro
intends to resume regular work rotations, in spite of the fact
that Northern Manitoba remains closed to non-essential
travel.
The First Nations partners in the KHLP have never
agreed with the decision to continue construction. They have
proposed that Keeyask be put into 'care and maintenance' mode
which would require about 250 workers. York Factory First Nation
Chief Leroy Constant is quoted in an APTN report of May 19
saying, "We have been discussing these issues for weeks, but it
seems that our partners at Manitoba Hydro are not interested in
hearing our concerns. This is not how a partnership is supposed
to operate ... If Manitoba Hydro was to reduce the number of
people working at the project while we come to terms with this
pandemic, it would show respect for the concerns we have for our
people's health and wellness."
Northern Manitoba First Nations have taken action
to protect
their communities by managing access to prevent the introduction
and spread of COVID-19. They should be supported by federal and
provincial government leaders and health authorities but in
Manitoba, as in other provinces, major construction projects have
been exempted from travel restrictions and deemed "essential"
work. Concerns about the consequences of this decision have been
borne out by the transmission of COVID-19 through travel from the
Kearl Lake oilsands project near Fort McMurray in Alberta.
According to Alberta Health Services, as of May 20, the Kearl Lake
site outbreak has been linked to 84 patients in Alberta, 19 in
BC and one in each of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and
Labrador.
 Throughout the
COVID-19 pandemic and the emergency measures taken
by provincial governments to restrict travel and close all but
essential services and production, First Nations and remote
communities have acted in accordance with their particular
circumstances, including the level of health care services and
conditions that increase the vulnerability of the people in these
communities. Concerns about the 'essential' designation of
industrial camps with hundreds of workers on projects like Kearl
Lake and others in Alberta, Keeyask in Manitoba, Site C, LNG
Canada and Coastal GasLink in BC, Muskrat Falls in Labrador, and
others have been raised by Indigenous organizations, health care
professionals, and unions, including Building Trades Unions which
represent some of the workers in the camps.
On April 29, the Union of BC Indian Chiefs issued
a statement
entitled " Governments must respect First Nations
Jurisdiction," in which the First Nations Leadership Council urges
"all levels of government, federal, provincial and municipal, to
recognize and respect First Nations jurisdiction and decisions as
they take actions to protect their communities during the
COVID-19 pandemic. It is critical for all levels of governments
to include and work collaboratively with neighbouring First
Nations in our collective efforts in the fight against
COVID-19."
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 18 - May 23, 2020
Article Link:
Manitoba First Nations' Justified Blockade of Keeyask Dam Site - Barbara Biley
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
|
