Algonquin residents of the Barrière Lake reserve have accused Quebec police of hurting a man and a little girl at a protest on Monday. The 50 community members were blockading highway 117, the only route to Abitibi, a region in northern Quebec.
Police fired tear gas to break up the demonstration, leaving a 3-yr-old girl hurt and a man hospitalized. Protesters claim the man was shot in the chest with a tear-gas canister.
Quebec provincial police spokesperson Melanie Larouche told the CBC that the police only acted when the protesters became violent.
“They took cement blocks and they broke them on the road, and they took the pieces of cement in their hands,” she said.
Michel Thusky, a spokesman for the demonstrators, maintained, speaking to the CBC, that police were not being provoked when they used tear gas.
The First Nations residents are protesting the federal and provincial government’s alleged interference in their internal affairs.
In 1991, the Algonquins signed a sustainable development and resource co-management agreement with the respective governments.
But the federal government ousted the Customary Chief and Council and replaced it with a leadership—rejected by the community—that opposed the agreement.
Protesters are demanding the appointment of an observer to oversee the selection of a new leadership elected by the people.
The highway was eventually opened, but Thusky said the community will continue to use pressure tactics until the provincial government agrees to meet with them.
