It is unfortunate that this country has to rely on someone else’s misery to force them to sign away their rights. When you look at it, with the level of their poverty, their socio-economic conditions, they come to a point when they want to sign a deal. Sometimes before stretching out their hands to give something to us – we look at it, what do we do, do we take it just to satisfy our immediate needs, say for housing or development, and in return sign away our rights? It’s not an easy situation.

Out of someone’s misery you will be able to manipulate [them] easily because that person somehow wants to get out of that misery. Governments play on that with the aboriginal communities. They know that they are weak, fragile mentally, and they are therefore susceptible to manipulation.

It’s hard for the young people because, you know, when you take the agreement it has 24 chapters and when you look at that in detail it is hard to summarise that for the people here. Only specialists can summarise that. It is hard for ordinary people because there are different views from young men or women or for a man who is related to the Naskapi. There are 30–40 people here who have Naskapi blood. That’s why half the community has a different opinion from others who are not beneficiaries of the agreement. It is hard because when you see people going into the country, the Montagnais people going into the country and the Naskapi band and we have no money, you know, we each go into the country.

I know in the West of Canada a lot of treaties have been signed … [but] even the Quebec agreement since it was signed, 50 per cent of the agreement was not respected, just like the others – Treaty 8, etc. If we sign an agreement with Quebec or Canada – the general [land claims] treaty – I know a few years later maybe half of the content of the agreement will not be respected. If we sign with the Quebec agreement, to fix the mistake that they did, I know 50 per cent will not be respected.