Innu Elder Tshuakuesh Elizabeth Penashue to speak on her opposition to fighter jets, militarization of Indigenous territories

Penashue with Peace Brigades International activist Anne Harrison in 1995.

This evening, Innu Elder Tshuakuesh Elizabeth Penashue will be speaking on a webinar about Indigenous struggles against the militarization of their lands.

You can register to hear her and others speak tonight by clicking here.

Innu resistance to fighter jets

Years ago, Penashue stated: “Canada sees our land as uninhabited land. It is inhabited by the Innu, and it is inhabited by wildlife.”

Just last September, when announcing “air defence exercises” near Goose Bay, Labrador, the Department of National Defence confirmed Penashue’s comment when it stated: “[The] exercise flights will be conducted over sparsely populated Arctic areas and at high altitudes where the public is not likely to hear or see them.”

That “5 Wing Goose Bay” air base was established after World War II.

Penashue has stated: “In the years that the military has been in Goose Bay, the Innu’s culture has collapsed. The use of our lands by others, without our being consulted, has caused stress in our family relationships and links to our family violence. The Innu did not welcome foreign domination. It happened against their will.”

There was similarly no consultation about the NATO low-level flight testing for the cruise missile over Nitassinan that begin in the late 1980s.

During the resistance against that, Penashue noted: “I went to the bombing range with others. We put tents on the base to protest. We were jailed many times, in Goose Bay and Stephenville. We walked from Toronto to Ottawa, and they put us in jail there, too.”

That low-level testing finally came to an end in 2005.

There have been other significant resistance struggles to Canadian military bases on Indigenous territories in this country.

Dene lands in Alberta

Dene Su’lene’ land defenders have stated: “In 1952, we were forcibly evicted from our homelands [so that 4 Wing Cold Lake could be constructed].”

“In Suckerville [on the shores of Primrose Lake], our people had a 7-day sit-in, refusing to leave. Reluctantly, after heavy coercion from the government, a deal was made.”

They add: “Our people left peacefully under the understanding that this was to be a short-term lease purely for military use, and that the 4,490 square miles of land was to be returned or re-negotiated after 20 years.”

Then in June 2001, Dene Su’lene’ Warriors established a Peace Camp blockade 300 metres from the gate to the military base that also includes the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range (CLAWR) where live fire training exercises are conducted.

Land defender Brian Grandbois was one of the opponents of the military base at that time. In an interview, he told The Dominion: “My great-great-great-grandfather is buried there on a point on that lake where they bomb.”

The Dene Warriors who set up the blockade stated: “They play with their air weapons and their fighter jets and all of their killing machines right on the homeland of the Dene who have confronted the giant military range by an unarmed peace camp.”

In August 2020, the Minister of National Defence announced that a $9.2 million contract had been award for “the design of a new fighter jet facility at 4 Wing Cold Lake, one of two main operating bases for Canada’s future fighter aircraft.”

“Forward Operating Location” for fighter jets in Nunavut

Nunatsiaq News recently reported that a “forward operating location” in Iqaluit, Nunavut is being contemplated that “includes three hangars capable of housing F-18 fighter jets.” This would be part of the “modernization” of NORAD.

This past January, the Royal Canadian Air Force conducted “High Arctic air training” exercises with two CF-18 fighter jets out of Iqaluit.

Militarization of territory

Part of this is happening due to climate change.

The Globe and Mail has reported: “In frank comments to the Ottawa Conference on Security and Defence, deputy minister Jody Thomas said that Beijing is turning its attention to the Northwest Passage as melting ice opens up Arctic sea lanes to shipping and resource exploitation, including fish, petroleum and critical minerals.”

Hence, Canada is seeking to “project force into the region” to counter their presence.

As we reflect on this militarization of territory, it’s also important to link it to the RCMP occupation of Wet’suwet’en territory to facilitate the construction of the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline that lacks free, prior and informed consent.

And to recall the words of Lenca land defender Berta Caceres who said less than a year before she was assassinated: “Our Mother Earth – militarized, fenced-in, poisoned, a place where basic rights are systematically violated – demands that we take action.”

The webinar these issues and more starts at 7 pm EDT tonight.

To register for it, click here.