Oil companies exploiting Lubicon to near-extinction
By Gray Jones
Lubicon Band Chief Bernard Ominayak Photo: Chris Bruun
Edmonton, AB - The Lubiccon people's struggle to preserve their traditional land is the most researched, documented and long-standing indigenous land claim dispute in the world. The despicable treatment of the Lubicon people stems from a quest for money and the need to protect its continued flow.
In 1979, the oil company crews resembled an invading army as they came into the area with bulldozers and exploration equipment. Access roads, cat-gouged seismic-lines, pipelines and refining facilities soon fragmented the forest, driving away the game animals and destroying traplines.
The oil and gas companies exploiting the region realized an average of $500 million per year in revenues from Lubicon lands alone. Between 1980 and 1995, oil corporations including Norcen, Nova, Husky, and Unocal generated a staggering $8 billion of which the Province of Alberta received 20 per cent in royalties.
Daishowa
It is in the interest of both the oil and gas companies and the Alberta government not to resolve the Lubicon land claim. It is to the mutual benefit of these big players to do business as they have until all oil and gas reserves on Lubicon lands are exhausted.
It is also in the interest of the enormous Japanese forestry company Daishowa and Ralph Klein's Conservative government to promote the dismemberment of Lubicon society by clearing the rich, easily accessible hardwood trees from the Lubicon's lands to fee Diashowa's pulp mill at Peace River, Alta.
The Lubicon's 4,000 square mile traditional territory is encased within Daishowa's forest management area, an 11,600 square mile tree-harvesting region handed over by the provincial government. Daishowa has the province's permission to clear cut all the unceded territory of the Lubicon people.
To stop this, the well-connected international group Friends of the Lubicon mounted the largest consumer boycott in Canadian history, pitting themselves against companies that buy Daishowa paper products. As a result, several large corporations have stopped using Daishowa products. This on-going boycott assists the Lubicon in defending their lands from Daishowa's clear cutting.
No cuts yet
So far, the company has not begun clear cutting on Lubicon land. But the problem has not gone away.
"What we have experienced so far is slow genocide," said Lubicon Chief Bernard Ominayak. "If Daishowa crosses the river, it will be the end of the Lubicon people."
Federal and provincial governments have come and gone but the Lubicon's situation never changes. The land claim is unresolved. Political bureaucracies survive the winds of change and remain intent on diffusing the Lubicon claim.
Government tactics of bribing and dividing the band and constantly pulling out of negotiations have successfully delayed the talks while breaking apart the Lubicon leadership and society. The petroleum companies continue to extract oil and gas while skirting their role in the destruction of the Lubicon by hiding behind government regulations; corporate bullies sanctioned by a witless government.
Social Justice
The Last Stand of the Lubicon Cree by John Goddard, available from the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, explains this situation in greater detail. The terrible tragedy unfolding on Lubicon land concerns everyone who believes in corporate or government responsibility and social justice. If we cannot assist the Lubicon in resolving their land claim and protecting their environment, we have failed not only the Lubicon children but our own children as well.
Canada's current Prime Minister Jean Chretien said "resolving the Lubicon land claim is a number one priority of my government."
The world must hold him to his word.
Gray Jones is Executive Director of Western Canada Wilderness Committee Edmonton
