Canada Quebec Indians

Date: Wed, 25 Oct 1995 14:42:19 -0400

By Overwhelming Margin, Quebec's Crees Vote To Stay in Canada

With AM-Quebec-What If?, Bjt, AM-Canada-Quebec

By DAVID CRARY

Associated Press Writer

MONTREAL (AP) -- Challenging Quebec's separatists, the Cree Indians who claim 
the northern half of the province announced Wednesday they had voted 
overwhelmingly to remain part of Canada if Quebec secedes.

``The message is clear -- we won't go,'' said Matthew Coon Come, grand chief of 
the 12,000 Crees, who released results of Tuesday's referendum showing that 96 
percent of those voting opted for Canada.

He spoke at a news conference in Montreal, six days ahead of a province-wide 
referendum in which all 5 million Quebec voters will decide whether to break 
away from Canada. Polls show the separatists with a narrow lead.

The Crees reported a 77 percent turnout of eligible voters across their vast, 
sparsely populated land, with 4,849 rejecting Quebec secession and 183 voting 
for it.

``We have spoken as unanimously as a people possibly can,'' Coon Come said. ``We
 will not be separated from Canada because we have withheld our consent.''

Officials of the separatist provincial government say they are willing to 
negotiate greater autonomy for the Crees and other native peoples, but they 
insist that Indian lands cannot be separated from Quebec.

Coon Come, however, said his people would seek public support for their cause 
both inside and outside Quebec. He also said the Crees would insist on retaining
 control over natural resources, including major hydroelectric projects, in 
their territory.

``To forcefully take us out of one country into another would be the hijacking 
of a whole people and our lands,'' he said. ``This we will not allow the 
separatists to do.''

The referendum was conducted during the Crees' hunting season, and three 
chartered helicopters were used to ferry mobile polling stations to families 
based at isolated hunting camps in the bush.

The federal government, while opposed to Quebec secession, has not spelled out 
whether it would intervene on behalf of the Crees in the event of a separatist 
victory.

Other native groups in Quebec share the Crees' opposition to secession and one 
of them, the Inuit -- formerly known as Eskimos -- plan their own referendum 
Thursday.

AP-WS-10-25-95 1400EDT