Le territoire dans l’univers innu d’aujourd’hui

Ce texte porte sur le sens du territoire qu'ont les Innus selon leur vision traditionnelle du monde et sur les modifications que le contact avec la société maintenant majoritaire a pu y apporter. La nouvelle conscience territoriale innue comporte des dimensions géographiques et autres qui sont variables et qui font en sorte que certains s'identifient à un territoire innu plus vaste qui rappelle le sens traditionnel du territoire alors que d'autres s'identifient plus facilement à des aires géographiques plus localisées, en l'occurrence les réserves ou les communautés innues elles-mêmes.This article examines the meaning of territory among the Innu taking into account their traditional world view and the changes that contact with majority society have wrought. The new Innu territorial consciousness includes geographic and other dimensions with the result that many identify themselves with a larger Innu territory reminiscent of the traditional world whereas others more easily identify themselves with more localized geographical areas, the Innu reserves and communities

Effects of presenting forest simulation results on the forest values and attitudes of forestry professionals and other forest users in Central Labrador

This research tested whether demonstration of the long term effect of different forest management scenarios in a large forested area changes people's forest values and attitudes. Forestry professionals and other forest users in Central Labrador were shown simulation results of three alternative forest management scenarios illustrating possible long term effects on various indicators. Forest values and attitudes towards forestry were measured before and after the presentation. Our conception of values and attitudes is based on the cognitive hierarchy model of human behaviour which states that values are more enduring and more difficult to change than attitudes. It was thus hypothesized that attitudes would change but not values and that change in forestry professionals would be less than in other forest users since foresters are trained to think about long-term effects and large-scale processes of forest management scenarios. We also hypothesized that a greater number of people would have an opinion on forest management after the presentation. All three hypotheses were partially supported by the results. The results indicated that some attitude change occurred, but that values also changed somewhat. Most of the significant changes occurred when persons with no clear opinion on several forest-related questions formed an opinion. Long-term, landscape simulation results provide valuable information and enhance understanding of both forestry professionals and other forest users. However, being provided the same information, the two groups learned different things. While forest users gained more confidence in the current forest management plan and were motivated to further participate, professionals learned more specific things. This reflects differences between technical and local knowledge

Appendix A – A Brief Introduction to the Religious Faiths and Spiritual Beliefs Included in the Primary Religious Education Program

Religions and spiritual beliefs answer the profound questions we ask ourselves: What is the meaning and purpose of my life? Who am I? What is right and wrong behaviour? Of course, in a resource like My Place in the World and in this Teacher’s Resource Guide, we can barely scratch the surface of the beliefs, traditions, and practices of the faiths and spiritual beliefs discussed. Nevertheless, in this part of the Teacher’s Resource Guide, we provide information about each of the faiths included in the student resource. We present the information in chronological order of the appearance of each major spiritual belief or religious faith. Our hope is that we have provided enough background information to allow you to teach informatively about the faiths and spiritual beliefs included in My Place in the World

Abstract commensurators of lattices in Lie groups

Let Gamma be a lattice in a simply-connected solvable Lie group. We construct a Q-defined algebraic group A such that the abstract commensurator of Gamma is isomorphic to A(Q) and Aut(Gamma) is commensurable with A(Z). Our proof uses the algebraic hull construction, due to Mostow, to define an algebraic group H so that commensurations of Gamma extend to Q-defined automorphisms of H. We prove an analogous result for lattices in connected linear Lie groups whose semisimple quotient satisfies superrigidity.Comment: 35 pages. v4 added references and improved exposition based on referee's comments. Added results 6.4 and 6.5 relating abstract commensurator of lattice to automorphism group of some ambient Lie group. Final version, to appear in Comm. Math. Hel

Explaining Aboriginal Treaty Negotiations Outcomes in Canada: The Cases of the Inuit and the Innu in Labrador

From 1921 to the early 1970s, the federal government refused to negotiate any new land claims agreements with aboriginal peoples in Canada. In 1973, in Calder, a majority of the Supreme Court of Canada affirmed the existence of aboriginal title. The Court ruled that aboriginal title was not a creation of the Crown, but rather stemmed from aboriginal possession of ancestral lands from time immemorial (Macklem, 2001: 268–269). Six months after Calder, the federal government invited aboriginal groups who had not yet signed a treaty with the Crown to enter into negotiations with them under a new federal comprehensive land claims process (RCAP, 1996: 533; Scholtz, 2006: 68–71). This process, which still exists today, is designed to replace undefined aboriginal rights with a new set of specific treaty rights. To do so, aboriginal groups must prove to the federal and provincial governments that their rights to their claimed lands have never been extinguished; that they traditionally and currently occupy and use their lands largely to the exclusion of other groups; and that they are a clearly identifiable and recognizable aboriginal group (INAC, 1998). Once this is accomplished the three parties negotiate a Framework Agreement, setting out the process, the issues and the timeline for negotiations. Once a Framework Agreement is achieved, the parties negotiate a non-legally binding Agreement-in-Principle (AIP), and then a Final Agreement. The Final Agreement must be signed and ratified by all three parties. In 1977, the Inuit and the Innu in Labrador each submitted statements of intent to the federal and provincial governments to begin comprehensive land claims negotiations. On 22 January 2005, the Labrador Inuit Association (LIA) and the governments of Canada and Newfoundland and Labrador concluded 28 years of negotiations by signing the Labrador Inuit Land Claims Agreement. The Innu, however, are nowhere near to completing their agreement. Although the Innu were able to complete a Framework Agreement in 1996, an Agreement-in-Principle (AIP) remains elusive. What explains this variation in comprehensive land claims (CLC) negotiation outcomes? The common explanation among politicians, bureaucrats, negotiators and observers is that a large-scale economic development project is a necessary condition to “get a deal.” This paper challenges this explanation by looking at two separate cases located in the same province and virtually ignored by the literature: the Inuit and the Innu in Labrador. To do so, this paper relies on primary and secondary sources, including 28 interviews with Innu, Inuit, and federal and provincial politicians, negotiators, bureaucrats, lawyers, elders, advisors and citizens from Nain, Makkovik, Natuashish, Sheshatshiu, North West River, Happy Valley-Goose Bay, St. John’s, Cornerbrook and Ottawa.1 The main findings of this paper are that a set of internal and external factors relative to the First Nation provides a better explanation for: (a) whether a CLC negotiation outcome is obtained; and (b) at what speed an outcome is obtained

Local Nonlinear Least Squares Estimation: Using Parametric Information Nonparametrically

We introduce a new kernel smoother for nonparametric regression that uses prior information on regression shape in the form of a parametric model. In effect, we nonparametrically encompass the parametric model. We derive pointwise and uniform consistency and the asymptotic distribution of our procedure. It has superior performance to the usual kernel estimators at or near the parametric model. It is particularly well motivated for binary data using the probit or logit parametric model as a base. We include an application to the Horowitz (1993) transport choice dataset.Kernel, nonparametric regression, parametric regression, binary choice

Territoire et sacré chez les Innus

À partir d’une comparaison entre l’attitude de l’Occidental face au monde — qu’il considère avant tout comme un objet d’exploitation — et celle de l’Innu qui le perçoit comme un tout qui le porte et à l’intérieur duquel il doit se situer en relation d’alliance avec les autres éléments qui le constituent, cet article examine les fondements de la conception innue qui sont à l’origine de cette attitude : un monde dont chacun des éléments dévoile le sacré et à l’intérieur duquel tous les groupes d’êtres entretiennent des rapports de don. Il en conclut que pour les Innus, l’identité est liée au territoire. L’état québécois comprendra-t-il qu’une assise territoriale s’avère nécessaire à l’existence même de ce peuple et saurons-nous profiter de l’apport que sa conception pourrait apporter aux questions environnementales?Drawing on a comparison between the Western man’s attitude towards the world — understood in terms of exploitable resources — and the Innu perception of the world as a totality which supports life and where he/she is inherently connected to other constitutive elements, this paper examines the foundations of the Innu conception of the world. All parts of this world are infused with and reveal the “sacred”; all the beings therein relate to one another through the notion of “exchange of gifts”. The paper concludes that Innu identity is closely linked to the land. It asks whether the Quebec government is capable of understanding the need for a territorial basis to allow the continued existence of the Innu way of life. It also wonders about our collective ability to draw lessons from the Innu experience and conception of the land for the management of environmental challenges

Canada's Strategy of Dispossession: Aboriginal Land and Rights Cessions in Comprehensive Land Claims

This paper offers a sociological interpretation of the Canadian Comprehensive Land Claims (CLC) process, arguing that CLC is a strategy used by the state to dispossess Aboriginal peoples. CLC does this through leveraging the cession of Aboriginal rights and the relinquishing of indigenous lands. Drawing upon the ongoing Innu Nation Tshash Petapen (?New Dawn?) agreement, I examine four related aspects of the process and the agreement which operate to dispossess the Innu: (1) the undemocratic social and political contexts in which agreement is elicited, (2) the depletion of Aboriginal rights of the indigenous party, (3) the depletion of indigenous lands, and (4) the creation of wealth and debt. Finally, I will interpret these processes as building on social changes inflicted on the Innu. These are characterized by imposed law and the state of exception