Jerome Morin Quotes
We turn now to plotting our own destinies, setting our own agendas. We are determined. We know what we want. Nation to nation—a bilateral process with the Canadian government.
Jerome Morin, Chief of the Canadian Enoch Indian Band, Policy Statement, 1994
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Justifying selling part of the reservation as a waste dump to the distress of neighbors:
French Canadian separatists had begun a movement for an independent Quebec. The area that was to be an independent nation, however, included the land of several Indian tribes including the Cree. They insisted on the same right of self-determination within Quebec as the French Canadians claimed within Canada. Their opposition among others led to the failure of the Meech Lake Accord.
He was referring to the fact that he had blocked the Meech Lake Accord preventing the Canadian Constitution being amended to recognize French-Speaking Quebec as a separate nation within Canada, but ignoring the Indians.
This is one of the first Policy Statements of the new Republic about the Indians. Essentially, although the government policy was reasonable and fair, public opinion was totally different and the leadership could not persuade the people on this point. One complicating factor was the fact that most of the Indian tribes had overtly or covertly sided with the British in the Civil War. Many Indians were exiled to Canada. Even the Indians who were American allies, had their lands encroached upon however.
