PUEBLOS INDÍGENAS Y EMPRESAS EXTRACTIVAS EN CANADÁ: ¿EXISTE UN “MODELO CANADIENSE”?

Abstract

Based on elements from Canadian history and analizing recent conflicts and agreements in Quebec, this article wants to show the inexistence of any kind of ‘Canadian model’ of stable interrelations between indigenous peoples and extractive industries. In spite of a common juridical framework, concrete situations vary considerably from one people to the other, from accomodation to open conflict ; the same is to be observed within the same people, at different periods of time. The groups with greater success seem to be those who were able to exit from the strict community level where Canadian indigenous policy tried to enclose them, and form either large intraethnic fronts (like the cree in Quebec and Nunavut inuit) and/or mobilize other social forces in Canadian civil society like the Ekuanitshit Innu.