This Is Land Back: Defending Nitassinan from Bill 97

by Olivia-Jeri Pizzuco-Ennis and The Lorax

On April 25th Innu and Nehirowisiw land defenders began actively resisting Quebec’s Bill 97, an act that opens two-thirds of the province’s forests to intensified logging activities. The act, voted through this spring, fast-tracks commercial extraction on unceded Indigenous land, threatening vulnerable ecosystems and violating Indigenous sovereignty.

The Coalition Avenir du Québec (CAQ)’s Bill 97 amended logging and other exploitation rights in an effort to “modernize the forestry regime” by way of the Ministère des Régions. In three logging zones defined by the new Bill, Quebec’s forest industry was given a green light to proceed with the acquisition of wood processing plants, who would not be priorly operating (as their sustainable forest development licenses were revoked) given current or planned wildlife mitigation measures or projects. 

By way of the bill, the CAQ itches to quadruple forestry exploitation, ignoring the ongoing ecological collapse responsible for the disappearance of the caribou, central to Innu way of life. Bill 97 was pushed through the NAQ, on April 23rd by the Minister of Natural Resources and Forests, under the pretense of “job insecurity in the forestry sector” and “securing the national economy”: a response to the trade war with the United States. 

On April 11, 2025, land defenders established the MAMU First Nation Alliance (Première Nation MAMO), formed a common front to oppose the change in the forestry regime. By May 15th, they issued eviction notices to 11 forestry companies. Première Nation MAMO and Association des Gardien.ne.s du territoire Nehirowisiw Aski put in motion a number of blockades and checkpoints. These direct actions followed a long legacy of resistance by Innu and Nehirowisiw land stewards who have protected and cared for Nitassinan (Innu territory) and Ndakin (Abenaki territory) since time immemorial.

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The movement calls for:

  •  Materials (consult Facebook groups above) and donations
  •  Presence on the land (prepare to be self-sufficient) and to join the blockades

We wrote this piece as settlers on Turtle Island. Our intention is to bring attention to the Land Back Movement and Indigenous resistance on the stolen land we occupy. We call on readers, creators, students and all community members to find cunning and creative ways to move in lockstep with the Land Back Movement.