KITCISAKIK, Que. — Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe on Saturday saw for himself some of the hardships faced by natives and forestry workers in northern Quebec.
Duceppe's campaign stop in the Algonquin community of Kitcisakik gave him an opportunity to see a town that has no running water.
Native leaders say the situation makes them feel they are living in 1920.
Duceppe is believed to be the first political leader to visit the town of nearly 400 people, located several hundred kilometres northwest of Montreal.
Residents need generators to light and heat their houses -- despite living in the shadow of hydroelectric dam.
All the village's children over the age of six also have to live in Val-D'Or, about 100 kilometres away, to attend classes because there is no school.
Duceppe, who shook hands with people in a meeting hall, wondered how things could be this bad in the community.
"It's completely ridiculous,'' he said, voicing his support for a proposal to spend $100 million to build a new village for the people.
The grand chief of the Algonquin nation, Lucien Wabanonik, who was on hand for the visit, slammed the government for letting things get so bad.
"It makes us think of 1920. We're Quebec in 2005. Very little has been done for this community and several other of our communities. Is this the social justice that Canada promotes?'' he said.
"My biggest desire, me, is to have our children with us every day,'' added Adrienne Anichiapeo, the wife of Kitcisakik's chief, Edmond Brazeau.
"It's inconceivable what we're going through as mothers, as fathers.''
Brazeau also made a painful appeal to federal and provincial leaders.
"We need for the parties to put aside their endless bickering,'' he said.
"We've always been victims ... I dream that these chiefs make a promise to the chiefs of Kitcisakik -- and Canadians -- to work hard with us to fix the problems that civilization has brought us,'' he said.
Part of the Kitcisakik problem is its refusal to become a reserve -- leading to years of bickering between Ottawa and Quebec City over who has responsibility for its people.
Earlier in the day, the Bloc leader also lent his support to forestry workers in Lebel-sur-Quevillon, a community where Domtar Inc. has idled two mills.
More than 400 workers lost their jobs in November when the company closed both its pulp mill and saw mill in the town as part of a plan to return to profitability.
Domtar pledged to reopen the complex when conditions permit, but it was a massive blow to the town founded as a result of the mill being built there in the 1960s.
In nearby Champneuf, newsprint leader Abitibi-Consolidated Inc. also closed a saw mill last month, leaving about 50 people jobless.
"We'll never abandon you,'' Duceppe told the Lebel-sur-Quevillon residents, adding that he always kept his word.
However, he was careful on the issue of forestry policy.
He notably avoided delighting in the borrowing by the Liberals of his idea to guarantee loans to forestry companies hurt by U.S. import duties.
He said that the aid only covers 16 per cent of the $5 billion "confiscated'' by the Americans
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