Photo: Image from Checkpointparent.
Social media posts on checkpointparent note: “The Echaquan/Weizineau family is holding the front line to defend their great traditional territory—all the ancestral family territories of the Nehirowisiw Aski nations.”
Checkpointparent describe themselves on their Instagram account as a “Sovereignty Camp at KM 133, Chemin Parent” and as “guardians of the land in exercising their sovereignty against Bill 97. MAMO!”
KM 133, Chemin Parent
A more precise map and directions will follow, but for now our understanding is that the Checkpoint is located about a 3.5 hour drive north of Ottawa.
Bill 97
In June, APTN News reported: “Quebec’s proposed new forestry law Bill 97 has become a lightning rod for anger in the province as Indigenous leaders, concerned that the proposed law would erode their inherent and treaty rights, are at the head of opposition to the changes. …Indigenous objections are centred around the bill’s lack of recognition of inherent Indigenous rights, coupled with the proposal to privatize one third of the land in Quebec, nearly half of it unceded and not subject to treaties.”
MAMO
The APTN article also explains: “On April 11, two weeks before the legislation was tabled, members of the Innu and Atikamekw nations, as well as the Abenaki nations on the south side of the Saint-Lawrence river, formed the group Mamo-Mamu First Nations. Mamo-Mamu, named for the Atikamekw and Innu terms for ‘together’, describes itself as an alliance of hereditary chiefs and land defenders and does not represent elected chiefs and councils.”
Defending ancestral territory
This week, Sandrine Giérula provided further context in Le Devoir: “Since May 28, Mamo and the Guardians of the Nehirowisiw Aski territory have been exercising their ancestral sovereignty by declaring logging operations on their lands illegal, evicting machinery and preventing trucks from refueling. They have been there 24 hours a day for more than two months, to defend the forests and our future.”
Giérula also notes: “At kilometer 133, there is a camp. Guardians of the territory stand as tall as conifers to say no to this ransacking… [as] …forestry company trucks drive day and night to get out of the woods.”
Lampron Inc.
The Checkpointparent social media posts suggest that it is the Mélanie Lampron Forest Management Inc., a company whose head office is in Saint-Aimé-du-Lac-des-Îles (about 160 kilometres north of Ottawa), that is currently logging on their ancestral territory.
Land defenders seek support
The Checkpointparent social media posts highlight: “To continue their resistance, they need gas to power the generator, supplies, food, and above all… solidarity!” Interac e-transfers can be made to robertechaquan2018@gmail.com and to “support the movement more broadly” donations can also be made at this GoFundMe page.
In September 2024, Global Witness reported that 196 land and environmental defenders were killed worldwide in 2023. 85 of those defenders killed were Indigenous peoples. We continue to follow this situation in Quebec with concern.
Further reading
– Innu and Atikamekw blockades seek to defend ancestral territories in Quebec from logging (PBI-Canada, June 9, 2023)
– Nehirowisiw land defenders establish blockade to stop clearcutting on unceded Nitaskinan territory in northern Quebec (April 12, 2024)
