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November 16, 1991
On November 15th Lubicon Chief Bernard Ominayak started his day with a
talk show in Edmonton, spent the afternoon speaking to local high school
students and then addressed a largely white, middle-class audience of
adults at the Provincial Museum in the evening.
Enclosed are related media reports.
* * * * *
Attachment #1:
Transcript of ITV News Broadcast (6:00 P.M.)
Friday, November 15, 1991
Neil Thomas, ITV
Lubicon Band Chief Bernard Ominayak is now urging you to defeat Aldermen
who don't support the Lubicons. As Giselle Bernardo reports,
Edmontonians have mixed feelings.
Ron Collister, CJCA "Talk Back"
Is the Lubicon Chief going to win? Is he going to stop the logging and
defeat City Aldermen? And what will you do...
Giselle Bernardo, ITV
Chief Bernard Ominayak has taken his battle to Edmonton. He's hoping
public sympathy will oust City Aldermen who don't support the Lubicons.
Chief Bernard Ominayak, Lubicon Lake Indian Nation
We've seen a lot of hard-line positions and a whole lot more interest in
our natural resources than in dealing with our people.
Caller to CJCA Talk Back Show
You've got to be reasonable and I think the Chief is not being
reasonable. He just wants too much.
Bernardo
But it's not too much according to Chief Ominayak. The Band is
rebuilding its community, trying to move forward. All that takes money.
The Lubicons don't like the deal Ottawa's offering in exchange for the
land.
Ominayak
In this case, I think the Lubicon people -- if we were, for example, a
white society, I think we would have been dealt with a long time ago.
Bernardo
Mayor Jan Reimer supports the Lubicons. She has publicly criticized
Daishowa for logging on disputed lands. But not all members of Council
feel the same way, and that may cost some of them their seats come next
election.
Alderman Ron Hayter, City of Edmonton
I don't respond to those kind of comments?
Reporter
Why not?
Hayter
Because I don't think they're worth commenting about. Pure and simple.
Bernardo
Giselle Bernardo, ITV News.
* * * * *
Attachment #2:
Transcript of CBC TV News Broadcast (11:00 P.M.)
Friday, November 15, 1991
Larry Langley, CBC News
Some (Archbishop MacDonald) High School students were given a living
lesson in current events today. The Chief of the Lubicon Indians told
them that social injustices carried out by the Canadian Government
threatened to wipe out his people unless something is done soon. The
Lubicons are embroiled in a bitter land claim dispute with Ottawa. Today
Chief Bernard Ominayak talked to one school in Edmonton as part of his
campaign to win public support.
Grant Gelinas, CBC News
There is no doubt Chief Bernard Ominayak is a popular public figure.
He's travelled the world telling the story of the Lubicon Indians in
northern Alberta. Today students in Edmonton jammed a gymnasium to hear
it first hand.
Chief Bernard Ominayak, Lubicon Lake Indian Nation
In the late 70s they found oil in our traditional territory and that's
when problems really started. Prior to that we lived off and survived
off the land -- hunting, trapping...
Gelinas
Now with that way of life destroyed, with 95% of the Lubicons on welfare,
Ominayak has been fighting Ottawa for title to the land and a share in
oil revenues to build a new way of life.
Ominayak
We've been in this fight for a long time and we certainly intend to keep
fighting for as long as possible. And that's why I hope that the public-
at-large understands.
Gelinas
Some students applauded his condemnation of the Federal Government which
he says is deliberately trying to wipe out his people by taking their
land away.
Student
The Government has no right to take it away from them because it was
theirs in the first place.
Gelinas
But some were skeptical.
Student
How do you believe that these problems were imposed on you by the
Government?
Ominayak
Because of the destruction that has been done to the environment and to
the wildlife within our traditional homelands, at this point chances are
very slim that we could survive in that way. And recognizing that fact,
we have to have some alternative way of livelihood. For example, you
can't make a doctor into a trapper overnight, nor can you make a trapper
into a doctor overnight.
Gelinas
Chief Ominayak left hoping he had educated these students about his
peoples' plight, and that they might help when they become adults. For
his people, he says, it's a matter of survival. Grant Gelinas, CBC News,
Edmonton.
* * * * *
Attachment #3:
THE EDMONTON JOURNAL, Saturday, November 16, 1991
CHIEF TAKES LUBICON MESSAGE TO STUDENTS
Paul Marck
Journal Staff Writer
Spread the word. That's Lubicon Lake Chief Bernard Ominayak's message in
his people's battle with the federal and provincial governments to gain a
land settlement.
Ominayak took the band's 50-year quest to Archbishop MacDonald High
School on Friday. Education and communication are the band's bywords for
aboriginal rights as they forge ahead with a public relations agenda,
rather than getting involved in scraps with governments and bureaucrats.
Telling people everywhere of the Lubicon people's fight against
encroachment and resource development is now the band's key strategy,
Ominayak said, after being ushered into the school gym to thunderous
applause from 650 students.
In his trademark Lubicon Lake Nation cap, the diminutive chief took to
the podium and asked students to compare his people's plight if similar
conditions existed in Edmonton.
"Try to imagine the city of Edmonton if its population had 95 per cent of
people on welfare" because they lost their livelihoods due to government
policies encroaching on their lands and rights, Ominayak said.
"There needs to be a greater understanding of why there are such problems
in the aboriginal community."
Both Ominayak and band advisor Fred Lennarson told students how the
Lubicon lived undisturbed for centuries until oil development in the late
'70s violated their way of life.
Lennarson described how exploitation of aboriginal lands resulted from
provincial policies allowing oil development that saw 200 companies drill
400 wells on disputed lands from 1979 to 1982. This, he said, threw off
the food chain and moose -- the Lubicons' primary source of meat --
declined from 219 kills in 1979 to 19 by 1983.
With this and their land base shrinking due to resource development, the
band had its first welfare case in 1981. Two years later, 95 per cent of
the band was on welfare.
There followed social problems like alcoholism and suicide, Ominayak
said.
Forcing a settlement of band claims means stopping resource development,
particularly mega-projects like the Daishowa pulp mill, which logs on
disputed lands, Lennarson said.
The pair answered more than a dozen questions from students. When one
asked if natives, like Quebec, want distinct-society status, Ominayak
replied: "We don't have to be recognized by anybody. We are
(distinct)."
In reply to another question about how far the Lubicon would go, Ominayak
said: "It may take a commitment at the risk of losing your life," in the
Lubicon fight for their beliefs. However, he doesn't speak for the
entire band and won't advocate violence.
After the assembly, Grade 11 student Jacinda Clark asked Ominayak if
aboriginal recognition wouldn't open a floodgate of every minority
seeking special status.
"That's like saying we shouldn't recognize this group because there may
be a couple of more individuals over there," Ominayak said.
The band has fought the federal government for 50 years in an effort to
secure a land settlement.
The band has repeatedly turned down the federal government's "final
offer" of $45 million and 246 square km for a reserve at Lubicon Lake,
about 350 km northwest of Edmonton, since it was first presented in 1989.
* * * * *
Attachment #4:
Transcript of CBC Radio News Broadcast (7:30 A.M.)
Saturday, November 16, 1991
CBC News
The Chief of the Lubicon Indians is calling on Canadians to defeat Brian
Mulroney in the next Federal election. Chief Bernard Ominayak, speaking
in Edmonton last night, said Mulroney's Tories have done nothing to help
Native people, and they've got to go. Byron Christopher reports.
Byron Christopher, CBC News
Chief Ominayak spoke to about 200 people at the Provincial Museum. He
stood at the podium, wearing his familiar black baseball cap, and told an
audience for the umpteenth time how the Federal Government has jacked his
people around over the years. After more than half a century, the
Lubicon Cree are still waiting for Ottawa to make good on a promise for a
reserve. The Band proposed an economic development scheme so its members
could have employment, but the Government turned that down. Meanwhile,
companies continue helping themselves to oil from land never given up by
the Lubicon. And a lot of oil: more than a million dollars' worth every
day. Not one nickel of that oil money has gone to the Lubicon. None of
it is being held in trust, either. The Mulroney Government does not want
to pay the Lubicon Nation any compensation. Ominayak said Mulroney has
not played fair with the Lubicon, nor with any of Canada's aboriginal
people.
Chief Bernard Ominayak, Lubicon Lake Indian Nation
We've tried every possible way that we can think of. I think at this
point there's not really anything we can do with the Federal Government
and the people who are heading the Federal Government but replace them.
Christopher
When the evening ended, Ominayak was given a standing ovation. There are
no talks scheduled between the Lubicon Nation and the Federal Government.
Talks broke down nearly 3 years ago.