Trial
of a Northwoods Nation
Canada
- Despite generations of subtle or overt cultural invasion, the
Lake Lubicon Cree Indian nation (now 500 people living in the
boreal forest north of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada), has managed
to maintain its woodland subsistence hunting and ceremony-centered
family lifeways.
The Lubicon
never ceded their lands or signed any treaties, but that didn't
seem to matter to the Canadian politicians who condoned the massive
oil and gas exploitation, starting in 1979, that has devastated
Lubicon society. And it didn't matter to the Japanese paper giant
Daishowa, Inc., which leased the Lubicon Crees' land from the
Canadian government, thus gaining permission to "harvest" up to
11,000 conifers a day for production of kraft paper grocery bags
and other wood pulp products.
Since
1988, Daishowa has built a pulp mill, logging roads have gone
in, trees have fallen in the tens of thousands, and moose - the
Lubicon hunters' mainstay - and other wildlife have been driven
off. Industry-generated pollution and a crippling economic downspin
have wracked the Lubicon Cree village of Little Buffalo, closely
followed by diseases, depression, birth defects, family disruptions
and suicides.
A group
of urban activists in Toronto decided to publicized Daishowa's
role in the destruction of the indigenous Lubicon community. Friends
of the Lubicon (FoL) surveyed the situation and, after conferring
with Lubicon Cree elders, organized protests outside supermarkets
across Canada, informing consumers about the shameful origins
of their grocery bags. As a result, consumers stopped using Daishowa's
paper bags and stores stopped ordering them.
Instead
of heeding the message, Daishowa claimed losses of an estimated
$14 million in revenue and sued FoL in an attempt to use Canada's
courts to suppress political expression. The whole issue of the
constitutionality of public protest in Canada hangs in the balance.
"You
in the US have inalienable rights guaranteed by your constitution,"
comments FoL's Stephen Kenda, "In Canada the chartered rights
and freedoms are [only] privileges." "The Canadian government
is trying to split people up, buy people off … [because] the Lubicon
are the only ones claiming aboriginal control of a territory."
As FoL
observed on their website, "The intimate nexus of corporate and
government interests vs. native, human and citizen rights was
abundantly apparent at the trial."
Chief
Bernard Ominayak and other members of the Lake Lubicon Cree community
traveled to Toronto to testify at the trial. Chief Ominayak said
that clearcutting would "finish off" his people. Other expert
witnesses painted a grim picture of the negative effect Daishowa's
logging has had on the Lubicon people and on the flora and fauna
of a once-flourishing land.
Ontario
Court Judge James MacPherson has put off a decision on Daishowa
v. Lubicon until sometime this spring. The judge's ruling
will probably be appealed whichever way the decision goes. - SRS
What You
Can Do: FoL's funds have been sapped by a drawn-out trial
that took 28 days and ran from September 2 to December 12, 1997.
To raise funds, FoL is staging an auction of donated-art on the
theme of "Power." To donate art or financial support, contact
FoL, 485 Ridelle Ave., Toronto ON, M6B 1K6, (416) 763-7500
