Lubicon Lake Indian Nation
Little Buffalo Lake, AB
403-629-3945
FAX: 403-629-3939
Mailing address:
3536 - 106 Street
Edmonton, AB T6J 1A4
403-436-5652
FAX: 403-437-0719
November 16, 1991
On October 30, 1991, Lubicon Chief Bernard Ominayak received a phone call
from an assistant of Peace River MP Albert Cooper. Mr. Cooper's assistant
indicated that Mr. Cooper would like to set up a meeting between the Chief
and Federal Indian Affairs Minister Tom Siddon the following Friday,
November 1st, when Mr. Siddon was in Edmonton supposedly on other business.
It's likely that Mr. Cooper was trying to set up the meeting for the
Minister due to growing pressure on the Federal Government resulting from
the Daishowa campaign but that Mr. Siddon didn't want people to think he
was responding to such pressure. In fact Mr. Siddon went so far as to
actually suggest to several reporters before the meeting that Chief
Ominayak had requested the meeting. In response to close questioning by
knowledgable reporters after the meeting, however, Mr. Siddon admitted that
he'd requested the meeting.
Seeking a meeting because of pressure resulting from the Daishowa campaign
is unfortunately not the same thing as genuinely seeking a settlement of
Lubicon land rights. The evidence suggests instead that Mr. Siddon wanted
a meeting with Chief Ominayak to launch yet another anti-Lubicon propaganda
campaign, likely inspired by the pressure resulting from the Daishowa
campaign, but still directed at defeating rather than settling with the
Lubicon people. Prior to the Daishowa campaign Federal officials were
confident that the Lubicons had been effectively destroyed. The
increasingly effective Daishowa campaign has now apparently convinced
Federal officials that the Lubicons aren't yet completely destroyed and
Federal Indian Affairs Minister Siddon has consequently been dispatched to
help finish the job.
Mr. Siddon asked that the meeting with Chief Ominayak be private,
confidential, one-on-one, behind closed doors with no media notice or
involvement. Chief Ominayak didn't like Mr. Siddon's preconditions, having
lots of reason to distrust Federal motives behind requesting such a highly
secretive meeting, but he reluctantly agreed not wishing to jeopardize a
possibly sincere initiative on Mr. Siddon's part. The Chief needn't have
worried about Mr. Siddon suddenly becoming sincere.
The meeting between the Minister and the Chief was set for Friday afternoon
at 3 o'clock. That morning, at Mr. Siddon's request and contrary to his
own meeting preconditions, Mr. Siddon met to discuss the up-coming meeting
with the Editorial Board of the Edmonton Journal.
Mr. Siddon "suggested" to the Editorial Board that the Chief had requested
the meeting. He said that he would be telling the Chief that the "take-it-
or-leave-it" offer was still on the table but would have to be reduced to
take into account the settlement with the Government-created Woodland Cree
Band last summer. He said that another band was now being created by the
Federal Government to the east of Lubicon Lake at Loon Lake which would
soon reduce the "take-it-or-leave-it" offer still further. He said "If
(the Loon Lake people) want to come forward on the basis of the (take-it-
or-leave-it) offer made to the Lubicon then we are prepared to (do what he
euphemistically called) negotiate a settlement". He said "It's a question
of whether people want to wait, as Mr. Ominayak and his advisor seem to
want to do, or if they want to settle". He said "Maybe they won't sign at
Loon Lake if Lubicon Lake is there to make a deal".
Mr. Siddon went on to tell the Editorial Board that the Lubicons aren't
"entitled" to compensation for the billions of dollars worth of resources
taken from traditional Lubicon lands, because, he said, the Lubicon people
no longer retain unceded aboriginal land rights over traditional Lubicon
lands. He "insisted" that "other natives" who "shared those traditional
lands with the Lubicons" had ceded aboriginal title to traditional Lubicon
lands by either signing or adhering to Treaty No. 8. He failed to say that
the only "other natives" who've "either signed to adhered to Treaty No. 8"
and can claim any kind of ties to traditional Lubicon lands are the
previously disparate individuals from a half-a-dozen different aboriginal
societies surrounding the traditional Lubicon territory whom Mr. Siddon
recently brought together to form the new Woodland Cree Band -- and who
then signed a Government orchestrated adhesion to Treaty 8 only last summer
as part of transparent Canadian Government efforts to subvert unceded
Lubicon land rights.
If the Lubicons didn't agree with the Federal Government's position that
they no longer retain unceded aboriginal land rights over traditional
Lubicon territory, Mr. Siddon told the Editorial Board, they could
challenge the Federal Government's position in the Canadian Courts. Mr.
Siddon failed to mention that the Lubicon people tried for some 13 years to
get the Canadian Courts to make the Canadian Government obey Canadian law
with regard to unceded Lubicon territory, only to have the Government write
legislation retroactively changing the law while one of the Lubicon legal
actions was before the courts, then to face an ex-oil company lawyer turned
Provincial Court judge who decided despite uncontested evidence to the
contrary that the Lubicon people had no traditional way of life left to
protect, then to face an appeal court judge who was the ex-family lawyer of
the Provincial Premier and ex-partner of the senior oil company lawyer on
the case, then to have a Lubicon application to freeze development in the
traditional Lubicon territory pending judicial determination of Lubicon
land rights denied by a panel of Provincial Court judges who decided that
the Lubicon people didn't need an injunction to protect their traditional
economy and way of life because they could supposedly "restore the
wilderness" with money damages if they could ever "prove" to the Canadian
courts that they own their traditional lands, then to face an ex-oil
company lawyer turned Supreme Court judge who declined to even hear their
appeal and has since retired from the bench and been appointed to the Board
of one of the major oil companies operating in the Lubicon area, and then
to be told that for procedural reasons there was not a single court in
Canada prepared to hear their aboriginal rights case against the Canadian
Federal Government even though the Federal Government has exclusive
constitutional responsibility for dealing with aboriginal land rights in
Canada. Neither did Mr. Siddon mention to the Editorial Board that the UN
Human Rights Committee, after studying this horrendous Lubicon legal
history, concluded that the Lubicons just simply couldn't achieve effective
legal redress from the Canadian Courts.
Mr. Siddon then went on to try and bedazzle the Editorial Board with a
provocative but deliberately misleading, inaccurate and essentially
irrelevant per capita analysis of the Lubicon and Federal Government
positions -- clearly designed only to inflame blind anti-Lubicon
emotionalism and appeal to racist anti-Indian sentiment. What's of course
really involved in Lubicon settlement proposals is not any kind of per
capita calculation at all but rather detailed, specific proposals with
related costs for specific items like buildings and roads which the Lubicon
people are and always have been prepared to discuss publicly, and in fact
to negotiate publicly, but Mr. Siddon doesn't want to publicly debate
either the reasonableness or the cost of specific items. Rather in typical
Mulroney Government fashion Mr. Siddon systematically avoided discussing
the real issues in favour of simply depicting the other side as somehow
unworthy, in this case unreasonably greedy, and by threatening terrible
consequences if Canadians don't just blindly support the Government -- like
a multi-billion dollar tax bill.
Mr. Siddon told the Editorial Board both that the Federal and Provincial
Governments have offered 500 Lubicons "a benefits and compensation
package...worth $100,000 per capita" and that "the Ottawa/Alberta package
is worth $54 million". Aside from the fact that a per capita calculation
of bottom line numbers isn't at all helpful in assessing the reasonableness
of various Lubicon settlement proposals, Mr. Siddon's figures simply aren't
right. 500 people times $100,000 per capita isn't $54 million and the only
possible way to make the Government's so-called offer worth that kind of
money is to totally ignore explicit Government qualifications and to
include the cost of highly questionable items like a largely off-reserve
Provincial Government road providing the Provincial Government access to
the shores as bed of Lubicon Lake (as per the Grimshaw Agreement), and the
5 year cost of the Provincial Government operating an off-reserve academic
up-grading trailer never proposed by the Lubicons.
Mr. Siddon told the Editorial Board that "the (500) Lubicons are asking for
a package worth between $400,000 and $500,000 per capita" and that the
Lubicon package would cost between $150 and $200 million". Again Mr.
Siddon's numbers are purposefully provocative but unhelpful, and again his
calculations simply aren't right. The total value of Lubicon settlement
proposals is approximately $170 million. $400,000 per capita times 500
Lubicons would equal $200 million and $500,000 per capita times 500
Lubicons would equal $250 million.
Mr. Siddon told the Editorial Board that "if (the Canadian Government) were
to offer the equivalent of what the Lubicons are asking for across Canada,
the taxpayers are looking at a bill that would exceed $400 billion". He
didn't say exactly who he's talking about -- there are only about 500,000
officially recognized Indians in Canada -- or how they'd all qualify for
the so-called "equivalent" of the cost of rebuilding the shattered Lubicon
economy and way of life -- which has in fact been systematically destroyed
for the multi-billion dollar benefit of the rest of Canadian society -- but
the unreasoning fear which he's deliberately seeking to instil by such
dramatic statements is crystal clear. He's saying in his own sleazy and
deliberately deceitful way that the settlement being sought by the Lubicons
would somehow set a horrendously expensive precedent for the Canadian
taxpayer, presumably even more costly than the interminable
intergenerational poverty and welfare dependency guaranteed by the Federal
Government's so-called "take-it-or-leave-it" offer, or even the $200
million plus spent a year ago last summer when the Canadian Army was used
to temporarily repress one aggrieved aboriginal society.
Lastly in his meeting with the Editorial Board Mr. Siddon took a page from
the tactics of the late US Senator Joseph McCarthy and used slanderous
unsubstantiated charges, racist insinuations and carefully calculated
innuendo to subvert and defame both the Lubicons and Lubicon advisor Fred
Lennarson. Ignoring internationally well known and continuing genocide of
the Lubicon people by both levels of Canadian Government in order to steal
valuable Lubicon lands and resources, Mr. Siddon spoke darkly of Lubicon
"advisors and consultants who have an interest in the process and in the
process continuing". With feigned concern about the plight of the Lubicon
people Mr. Siddon said "It is a terrible disservice to have this matter
held up by other people who have other interests". Mr. Siddon charged that
the real reason there's no settlement of Lubicon land rights is that the
supposedly poor dumb Lubicons are somehow being manipulated into acting
contrary to their own vital interests by Lubicon advisor Lennarson. And,
Mr. Siddon charged, the reason that Lennarson supposedly wants to
perpetuate the agony of this continuing tragedy is because, according to
Mr. Siddon, "The (welfare-dependent) Lubicons are Lennarson's only meal
ticket".
Having thus prepared the public back-drop for his supposedly private,
confidential, behind closed doors meeting with the Chief Ominayak, Mr.
Siddon then assumed a quite different demeanour during his actual meeting
with the Chief. If he'd taken the same position with the Chief that he
took with the Editorial Board, of course, the meeting with the Chief would
have ended practically as soon as it started, denying both Mr. Siddon and
officials of Daishowa the ability to claim, as they've both since done,
that the Lubicons and Canadian Government are once again talking --after
nearly three years.
Immediately following the meeting with the Editorial Board an Edmonton
Journal reporter named Jack Danylchuk phoned the Lubicon Edmonton office
and asked for the Chief's reactions to what Mr. Siddon had told the
Editorial Board. Consequently Chief Ominayak was aware of what Mr. Siddon
had told the Editorial Board and asked Mr. Siddon about Mr. Siddon's
comments that the Federal Government's so-called "take-it-or-leave-it"
offer not only still stood but would be reduced by 40 per cent to take into
account the Woodland Cree settlement. Mr. Siddon declined to discuss the
matter with the Chief, saying that he didn't want to get into matters of
substance but only wanted to talk about how it would be possible to re-
start "negotiations".
Faced with the unhappy prospect of more talks about talks regarding an
offer already known to be unacceptable -- which would undoubtedly only be
used politically by Government officials to deflect criticism of Government
inaction and blunt the Daishowa boycott -- Chief Ominayak gave Mr. Siddon a
copy of the draft settlement agreement which the Lubicon negotiating team
had presented to the Province in June of 1990. The Chief asked Mr. Siddon
for a reaction to the Lubicon draft settlement agreement in order to
determine whether or not there was anything to talk about. Caught off
guard by what amounted to a Lubicon counter-proposal to the Federal
Government's so-called "take-it-or-leave-it" offer, Mr. Siddon agreed to
study the Lubicon draft settlement proposal. Mr. Siddon didn't, however,
give the Chief any timetable for providing the Chief with a reaction.
The following day, November 2nd, the Edmonton Journal printed a commentary
by "Business Beat" writer Rod Ziegler basically echoing the transparent
propaganda line used by Mr. Siddon during the meeting with the Editorial
Board. Mr. Ziegler repeated Mr. Siddon's slanderous unsubstantiated
charges, racist insinuations and carefully calculated innuendo regarding
"advisors and consultants who have an interest in the process and the
process continuing". Mr. Ziegler's offensive column ended by asking the
question "who or what is really holding up the successful resolution of the
Lubicon land claim dispute?"
On November 5th Chief Ominayak responded to Mr. Ziegler's 700 word column
with a 1,400 word letter to the Editor of the Edmonton Journal. On
November 12th the Journal "Letters Editor" phoned the Lubicon office and
asked that the Chief's letter of response to Mr. Ziegler's 700 word column
be "reduced" to 300 words. On November 15th the Chief wrote the "Letters
Editor" a 302 word letter saying that "the Journal shouldn't print columns
containing sleazy insinuations, innuendo and slanderous unsubstantiated
charges without at least allowing injured parties the right of a full and
detailed reply". The Chief concluded his 302 word letter to the Editor by
offering to send his detailed, point-by-point 1,400 word letter of response
directly to readers of the Edmonton Journal. (Copies of Mr. Ziegler's
column and both of the Chief's related letters of response are attached.)
On November 4th the Edmonton Journal printed a letter to the Editor from
Mr. Siddon, claiming, among other things, that the UN Human Rights
Committee supported the Federal Government's so-called "take-it-or-leave-
it" offer as an "appropriate remedy to the situation"; that the Lubicon
people would have "the largest such settlement in the Province" if they
accepted the Federal Government's so-called "take-it-or-leave-it" offer;
and that both (Canadian) governments have indicated publicly their
willingness to negotiate but the band has consistently refused to resume
negotiations". On November 7th the Chief wrote the Editor of the Edmonton
Journal a letter responding to Mr. Siddon's November 4th letter. On
November 20th the Edmonton Journal printed an abridged version of the
Chief's November 7th letter. (Copies of Mr. Siddon's November 4th letter
and both versions of the Chief's November 7th letter are attached.)
On November 11th the Edmonton Journal printed an editorial on Mr. Siddon's
latest anti-Lubicon propaganda initiative calling upon Mr. Siddon to "make
a new and honourable offer soon". A copy of the Journal editoral and other
related media coverage are also attached.
* * * * *
Attachment #1: Transcript of CBC Radio News Broadcast (12:30 P.M.)
Friday, November 1, 1991
CBC Radio
The Minister of Indian Affairs is meeting this afternoon in Edmonton with
the Chief of the Lubicon Indians. Tom Siddon and Chief Bernard Ominayak
will meet at 3:00 at the Westin Hotel. The meeting will be private. The
Lubicons say Siddon requested the meeting. No other details are available.
* * * * *
Attachment #2: Transcript of CKUA Radio News Report (5:15 P.M.)
Friday, November 1, 1991
Don Bell, CKUA Radio
For the first time Bernard Ominayak, Chief of the Lubicon Lake Indian Band,
met face to face with Tom Siddon, Minister of Indian Affairs, in Edmonton
today. Siddon invited Ominayak to the meeting to ask for suggestions on
how to re-start negotiations between Ottawa and the Lubicons in northern
Alberta. Ominayak says he thinks progress in negotiations is possible.
Chief Bernard Ominayak, Lubicon Lake Indian Nation
The important thing, like I told Mr. Siddon, is if there's a will then
there are ways to arrive at solutions.
Bell
But he's cautious because he says there's not yet been a time or place set
for negotiations to begin. Siddon says he wanted to meet Ominayak today to
become acquainted and to start to find ways to settle their disputes. He
says no negotiations took place today, but he says he now better
understands the position taken by the Lubicons.
Tom Siddon, Federal Minister of Indian Affairs
I understand very well the position that the Lubicons take and the
principles that they have expressed in adhering to their position and I
think the Chief understands very well that I can't change the mandate that
I have from Cabinet to negotiate in terms of the legal and financial limits
that are there. But the Chief did undertake to provide me with a document
that they've prepared for discussion with the Province, which essentially,
I suppose, will lay out the ways and means of getting back to the
negotiating table.
Bell
Both sides say they are carefully hopeful that today's meeting is at least
a good start in ending the stalemate.
* * * * *
Attachment #3: Transcript of CBC Radio News Broadcast (5:30 P.M.)
Friday, November 1, 1991
Krysia Jarmicka, CBC News
The Federal Minister of Indian Affairs says he wants to know what it will
take to get land claim talks going again with the Lubicon Indians. To find
out, Tom Siddon met today in Edmonton with the Chief of the Lubicon Band,
Bernard Ominayak. It is the first time the two have talked face to face.
Dave Cooper reports.
Dave Cooper, CBC Radio
The Federal Government made what it called a final offer to the Lubicons of
northern Alberta nearly 3 years ago. There have been no formal
negotiations since then. But Tom Siddon says he'd like to settle the claim
while he's still Minister of Indian Affairs. He says that that's why he
asked for a face to face meeting with Lubicon Chief Bernard Ominayak.
Tom Siddon, Federal Minister of Indian Affairs
I felt it would be timely to have a private discussion with the Chief --
Minister to Chief -- as to the possibilities of getting on with settling
the situation with the Lubicon people. That was the essence of our
discussion.
Cooper
Ominayak and Siddon talked by themselves in the Minister's hotel room for a
little more than 1/2 hour. When he came out, Ominayak said he would be
sending Siddon a copy of the latest Lubicon proposal for a settlement.
Chief Bernard Ominayak, Lubicon Lake Indian Nation
I stated to him that if the will is there on the part of his government
then I'm sure that we could find ways to arrive at a solution. Now we're
still a long ways from anything at this point, and in fact we don't even
know if negotiations are going to proceed until they've had a chance and an
opportunity to consider the counter-proposal that we made.
Cooper
Siddon says the same offer Ottawa made to the Lubicons three years ago is
still on the table. But he also says he is willing to look at the Lubicon
proposal if it's a way to get negotiations going again. Dave Cooper, CBC
Radio, Edmonton
* * * * *
Attachment #4: Transcript of CBC TV News Broadcast (6:00 P.M.)
Friday, November 1, 1991
Bob Chelmick, CBC
There was a meeting today between the Lubicon Indians and the Federal
Government. In a surprise move today the Federal Minister of Indian
Affairs met with the Chief, Bernard Ominayak, in Edmonton. The two sides
remain far apart on the issue of a land claim settlement for the Lubicons,
but, as Rick Boguski tells us tonight, the fact that they're even talking
is a sign of progress.
Rich Boguski, CBC
Lubicon Chief Bernard Ominayak arrived at an Edmonton hotel this afternoon
for private talks with Federal Indian Affairs Minister Tom Siddon.
Siddon's office, the Chief said, had called him with an offer to help
settle the Band's land claim dispute that's dragged on for more than 50
years.
Chief Bernard Ominayak, Lubicon Lake Indian Nation
I just don't know what to expect from these guys any more. If there's any
seriousness, I hope we will be able to arrive at some kind of process
whereby we can get some serious discussions going.
Boguski
Talks broke down between the government and the Lubicons two years ago,
after the Government presented the Lubicons with what the government called
a "take-it-or-leave-it" offer -- $45 million to create a reserve for the
Lubicons in northern Alberta and get people on their feet again. The
Lubicons said it was nowhere near what they really needed. They're looking
for approximately $170 million.
Tom Siddon, Federal Minister of Indian Affairs
Well Chief, I thought it was time we had a good chance to talk.
Boguski
The meeting took place behind closed doors for more than 1/2 hour. When
the meeting was over, Ominayak held out little hope for a quick deal.
Ominayak
What I got, basically, was that he would like to get it resolved while he's
the Indian Affairs Minister. He wouldn't like to leave it outstanding if
he should leave at any point. Again, I stated to him that if the will is
there on the part of his government, then I'm sure that we could find ways
to arrive at a solution.
Boguski
But doing that might be difficult. While Ominayak said he would present
the government with a counter-proposal the Band drafted more than a year
ago, Siddon said the government's last "take-it-or-leave-it" offer hasn't
changed.
Siddon
That offer still stands, of course. I have no mandate to change that
offer. But I'm certainly most prepared to hear from the Chief and the
document that he's presenting me with this afternoon will be something
we'll look at very, very carefully. I'm going to be meeting the Minister
for Alberta later today and we'll see what he feels. I would like to see
us make some progress on this question now.
Boguski
Both sides are still a long ways apart. In fact they don't even know if
negotiations will take place. But today's meeting marks a first -- it's
the first time that the Chief and the Indian Affairs Minister have sat down
face to face for talks. Rick Boguski, CBC News, Edmonton.
* * * * *
Attachment #5: THE EDMONTON JOURNAL, Saturday, November 2, 1991
LUBICON CHIEF, MINISTER MEET IN BID TO RESTART LAND TALKS
Jack Danylchuk
Journal Staff Writer
Edmonton
Lubicon Chief Bernard Ominayak and Indian Affairs Minister Tom Siddon
dusted off old proposals Friday in a bid to restart land-claim talks that
stalled almost three years ago.
The Lubicons still want $170 million and 246 sq. km of reserve land, but
the federal government's offer may turn out to be much less than the take-
it-or-leave-it package of $45 million and 246 sq. km it countered with in
January 1989.
Arranged at Siddon's request, Ominayak's first-ever meeting with an Indian
affairs minster "went well," Siddon said after spending 40 minutes along
with the chief.
Ominayak's assessment was more guarded: "We're still a long ways from
anything; we don't even know if negotiations are going to proceed.
"He was asking for ways to start dialogue," said Ominayak.
"If there is any way to start on those bases, they know how to get hold of
us and we'll leave it at that."
The band's position is essentially the same one it staked out in January
1989, when the federal government countered with the take-it-or-leave-it
offer.
Siddon spoke separately with reporters after the meeting and said "there is
an offer on the table that was presented in 1989. That offer still stands;
I have no mandate to change it."
However, the minister told THE JOURNAL's editorial board earlier Friday
that a settlement last summer with the Woodland Cree will almost certainly
reduce whatever offer Ottawa makes to the Lubicons.
"I have a budgetary ceiling of $45 million. Period. We've settled with
the Woodland Cree at 40 per cent of that," said Siddon.
Any offer to the Lubicons would be based "on provable adherents to the
Lubicon Lake band. It's up to the chief to produce (the band list) if we
get back to negotiation."
The controversial $47.5 million, 160-sq.-km settlement with the Woodland
Cree enticed as many as 125 Lubicon to join the new band that Siddon
created under a special section of the Indian Act.
"It's a question of whether people want to wait, as Mr. Ominayak and his
adviser seem to want to do, or if they want to settle," Siddon said.
Another band is being organized at Loon Lake. If it is formally
recognized, the new band would likely draw away still more Lubicon members.
"If they want to come forward on the basis of the offer made to the Lubicon
then we are prepared to negotiate a settlement," Siddon told the editorial
board.
"It's a question of whether people want to wait. Maybe they won't sign at
Loon Lake if Lubicon Lake is there to make a deal."
Fred Lennarson, adviser to the Lubicons, waited in the hallway while
Ominayak and Siddon talked in the minister's hotel room. He speculated
that Siddon asked for the meeting because of pressure from Daishowa Canada.
Much of the wood Daishowa needs to feed its Peace River pulp mill is on
land claimed by the band.
But Siddon said he sought the meeting because "I felt it was timely to have
a private discussion, minister to chief, as to settling the situation with
the Lubicon people."
* * * * *
Attachment #6: ALBERTA NATIVE NEWS, November, 1991
LUBICON CHIEF MEETS WITH SIDDON
by Dale Stelter
Lubicon Chief Bernard Ominayak and Indian Affairs Minister Tom Siddon met
briefly in Edmonton on November 1st.
The meeting was initiated at the request of Siddon, who did not offer much
information to Ominayak other than to say that he wanted to restart
negotiations on the Lubicon's long-standing land rights dispute.
However, Siddon told the EDMONTON JOURNAL that the Canadian government's
offer to the Lubicon may end up being less than the take-it-or-leave-it
package it put forth in January of 1989. That package would provide the
Lubicon up to $45-million and 246 square kilometres of land.
During the meeting with Siddon, Ominayak gave the minister a copy of the
draft settlement which the Lubicon had prepared in response to the federal
offer, and had presented to the Alberta government in June of 1990.
The Lubicon are awaiting Siddon's reaction.
The Lubicon are asking for approximately $170 million, to go with the 246
sq. km. of reserve land. The Lubicon maintain that this amount is
essential if they are to build a self-sufficient community and ensure
control over their own lives, after the destruction of their traditional
economy and way of life by oil and gas development.
Band advisor Fred Lennarson stated that the Canadian government is under
heavy criticism on a number of fronts for its handling of Native issues,
and wants to give the appearance that it is taking action on the Lubicon
situation. He said that there is no evidence that the federal government
wants to take part in serious negotiations.
Assembly of First Nations Chief Ovide Mercredi has called for "all fair-
minded people" to support the Lubicon in preventing "this destruction".
He stated that "The Assembly of First Nations calls on the growing numbers
of concerned people, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, to stand with the
Lubicon People in non-violent defence of their heritage and future. We all
must be prepared to act if there is going to be anything left for the
Lubicons -- or other First Nations under similar threat. We must not let
unceded lands be lost forever to their Aboriginal claimants."
In a related issue, it has been reported in the media that Daishowa Canada
and the Alberta government have reached an informal agreement allocating
alternate land to the forestry company, so that it will not be logging on
land claimed by the Lubicon. Lennarson stated, however, that the Lubicon
have not been officially informed of that agreement.
Lennarson emphasized that until the Lubicon's land rights dispute is
settled, and an agreement is reached that satisfied Lubicon concerns about
wildlife and environmental protection, there must be an unequivocal
commitment that neither Daishowa nor Brewster Construction (a wholly-owned
subsidiary of Daishowa) will log on Lubicon traditional land.
* * * * *
Attachment #7: THE EDMONTON JOURNAL, Saturday, November 2, 1991
SIDDON HINTS DAISHOWA ISSUE IS RED HERRING IN LUBICON DISPUTE
Rod Ziegler
Business Beat
Daishowa Paper Company has not sold its Peace River pulp mill to Marubeni
Corporation.
"The reports are unfounded," Daishowa Canada Vice-President Tom Hamaoka
said Friday. "I categorically deny that a sale has taken place.
"Marubeni Corp. had expressed an interest in working with Daishowa in
Daishowa's Alberta operations. Daishowa is prepared to start preliminary
discussions." (Marubeni and Daishowa each own 25 per cent of the Caribou
Pulp and Paper mill in Quesnel, B.C. Weldwood Canada owns the other half.)
"Marubeni had wanted to come in with us when we built the Peace River
mill," Hamaoka said, "but we decided to go it alone. We are prepared to
discuss other arrangements but it should be clearly understood that
Daishowa plans to maintain a significant presence in Alberta, now and in
the future."
Whatever the fate of Daishowa's Peace River mill, there is no need for it
to be an impediment to the successful resolution of the Lubicon Lake Band's
land claim dispute with Ottawa.
That inference was raised by Indian Affairs Minister Tom Siddon, in a
letter to the editor published in today's JOURNAL. In the letter, Siddon
takes issue with Tom Hamaoka's remarks last month that Ottawa and Alberta
should "face up to their responsibility across Canada to settle native land
claims."
Siddon's letter concludes: "I would urge Mr. Hamaoka to directly encourage
Chief (Bernard) Ominayak to join Alberta and Canada at the negotiating
table."
With respect, I think Hamaoka's original Oct. 9 remarks are valid. The
guts of his remarks in a luncheon speech to an Edmonton Chamber of Commerce
meeting were: don't use Daishowa as a pawn, as a lever to put pressure on
both sides in the Lubicon land dispute.
On Friday, Siddon had a one-on-one meeting with Lubicon Lake Band Chief
Bernard Ominayak (the first time the two had met). Before that meeting,
Siddon explained to the JOURNAL's editorial board that he simply wanted to
meet Ominayak. However, implicit in that remark is the suggestion that
perhaps, just perhaps there is something the two men can say to each other
that might help break the deadlock on the Lubicon's land claim.
It's important to strip the emotion from any discussion of what the Lubicon
Cree are asking and what Ottawa is offering. Siddon says the Lubicon's
claim to a traditional 7,000-square-miles is not valid because the
Lubicon's rights were dealt with in a treaty signed by natives in the area
in 1899. The Lubicons disagree, saying they did not sign this treaty and,
therefore, their aboriginal rights were not "extinguished."
And, since the Lubicons insist their rights remain intact, they say they
are entitled to compensation for all the wealth that was taken from their
traditional hunting and fishing areas since Treaty No. 8 was signed in
1899. Ottawa insists that other natives, who shared those traditional
lands with the Lubicons, either signed or adhered to Treaty No. 8; that the
Lubicons, therefore, do not hold aboriginal title to the land they claim.
And Ottawa invites the Lubicons to challenge that position in the courts,
courts the Lubicons say they do not recognize as legitimate.
Siddon says that Ottawa and Alberta have offered a benefits and
compensation package for 490 to 500 Lubicons worth $100,000 per capita;
that the Lubicons are asking for a package worth between $400,000 and
$500,000 per capita. The minister says the Ottawa/Alberta package is worth
$54 million; that the Lubicons are demanding a package that would cost
between $150 million and $200 million.
Perhaps Siddon's most telling point, though, is this. "If we were to offer
the equivalent of what the Lubicons are asking for across Canada, the
taxpayers of Canada are looking at a bill that would exceed $400 billion."
Equally telling is Siddon's comment that it is a terrible disservice to
have this matter held up by other people who have other interests. Siddon
spoke of "advisors and consultants" who have an interest in the process and
in the process continuing.
Maybe the question you and I should be asking is who or what is really
holding up the successful resolution of the Lubicon land claim dispute?