Fifty years since Quebec’s first modern Indigenous treaty – Thelinknewspaper

November 18, 2025

Inuit and Cree fought tooth and nail for this agreement, but at what cost?

Fifty years ago, on Nov. 11, 1975, lives were changed forever after the Cree and Inuit of Quebec signed the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement (JBNQA).

The document was the first modern treaty between Canada and Indigenous nations, and set the tone for every agreement that came after.

In the early 1970s, Quebec announced its “project of the century,” which was a $13.7 billion hydroelectric dam project stretching from the La Grande-1 dam to the Caniapiscau Reservoir. That amounts to 800 kilometres in length.

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