The following article appeared in the January 1995 issue of the
People's Voice Newspaper:
Water, waste, sour gas
By Randy Lawrence, Edmonton
Questions of jurisdiction and the nature of native
land claims and self government are being raised anew by a variety
of issues in western Canada. At Energy Resources Conservation Board
(ERCB) hearings in Edmonton, the Lubicon Cree Indian Nation battles
to stop a UNOCAL sour gas plant from starting up just 2.5 km south
of their proposed new reserve. Meanwhile, Woods Cree communities
along the south shore of Lesser Slave Lake in northern Alberta are
resisting a proposal to import toxic waste from across North
America to a public/private facility at Swan Hills. And in early
November, a nine-month study period began into an Environmental
Impact Statement (EIS) on a proposal to bury high-level nuclear
waste in northwest Saskatchewan.
In seeming direct contradiction, the Lesser Slave Lake Indian
Regional Council in Alberta is seeking to shut down a local toxic
waste facility, while the Meadow Lake Tribal Council in
Saskatchewan attempts to strike a deal with Atomic Energy Canada
Ltd. (AECL) to accept nuclear waste for permanent disposal in the
northern part of the MLTC's "tribal area." In virtually all these
issues, the desire for indigenous self-government has been cited.
Basic constitutional issues are being raised in the ERCB
hearings into a prefabricated sour gas plant hastily erected by
Union Oil of California (UNOCAL) near Lubicon Lake last summer. The
Lubicon Band, which has been fighting for a land claims settlement
(including a reserve) for over 50 years, denied that it was
properly informed about the project, or that it gave explicit
permission to build the plant. The Lubicon demands have now been
turned down by yet another federal government, as the Liberals
continue the Mulroney strategy of divide-and-conquer in the region.
Some community members are expected back in court in Edmonton early
this year, on provincial charges relating to the 1990 torching of
an illegal logging camp on traditional Lubicon territory.
The sour gas plant represents a direct challenge to unceded
Lubicon sovereignty east of the Peace River, and a particular
threat to the entire Lubicon project of ultimately moving their
present squatter community at Little Buffalo, permanently back to
their ancestral home. The Lubicons have the support of many local,
national and international groups, including the Rainforest Action
Network. RAN has made common cause with the band against predatory
transnational forestry giants like Daishowa-Marubeni International,
headquartered in San Francisco. It has already organized a consumer
boycott of Unocal's Union 76 gas stations in California. The ERCB
hearings are to resume shortly in Little Buffalo, where UNOCAL will
doubtless use the "Woodland Cree Band" created by the Mulroney
government in the area as a convenient colonialist foil.
The Lesser Slave Lake Indian Regional Council has not been
particularly vocal about indigenous rights, other than to oppose
Bill C-31 (i.e. the inclusion of the Canadian Charter in First
Nations self-government). But the council is in an important
struggle on indigenous land rights. Through two NRCB hearings since
1991, the Sucker Creek Band has consistently opposed the handling
of toxic waste in their traditional hunting and gathering area,
airshed and watershed. Just as consistently, the Alberta government
since the late 1980s has promoted the Swan Hills region, between
Edmonton and Lesser Slave Lake, as a final destination for
hazardous wastes. Ottawa and the other western provinces have all
acquiesced in this strategy.
But in the course of the hearing it became obvious that the
Swan Hills waste facility, jointly owned and operated by an Alberta
crown corporation and Chem Security, a subsidiary of Calgary-based
Trimac Corp., is a financial black hole. Running directly counter
to the Klein government's "no handouts" claims, a secret $100
million loan guarantee has been revealed. Despite the undermining
of the NRCB's credibility by its own government, the Board approved
the waste imports on Nov. 22. Several appeals are expected.
Finally, in Saskatchewan, the Meadow Lake Tribal Council,
headquartered at the Flying Dust Reserve outside Meadow Lake, has
announced a plan to accept nuclear waste on a continent-wide basis.
Deep burial would take place in the Canadian Shield, probably north
of La Loche and the Clearwater River, on the way to the Cluff Lake
uranium mine. It has been revealed that the MLTC, using funds from
AECL, has been negotiating since early 1994 with the Mescalero
Apaches of New Mexico, who would "take care of" low-level nuclear
waste. AECL has held "open houses" in Regina, Saskatoon and North
Battleford to discuss the MLTC proposal, signalling an ominous new
stage in a long effort by the federal crown corporation to remove
the waste "hurdle" from the larger anti-nuclear argument.
Federal Environmental Assessment Review Office (FEARO)
hearings, possibly in late 1995, are apparently scheduled at
present only for those provinces perceived to have a vested
interest in the nuclear fuel cycle. AECL does major business in New
Brunswick, Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. A "final solution"
to the nuclear waste issue would fit in perfectly with current
plans to sell large CANDU reactors to China, and small "low-tech"
CANDU 3's around the world, with an understanding that spent fuel
would be returned to Canada. It would give new life to a moribund,
lethal technology, which has relied on dubious sales to Romania and
South Korea in recent years just to stay in existence in Canada.
The way the waste issue has been raised by the MLTC tends to
turn conventional notions of indigenous self-government upside
down. The Tribal Council is an unlikely amalgam, quasi-colonialist
in origin, of two southern Treaty 6 Cree bands and half a dozen,
mostly Chipewyan Treaty 10 (1906) communities. The MLTC is within
its rights and responsibilities saying it should have a direct
share in "development" in its own traditional territory, and that
outsiders should not make all the profits. But the Council has been
doing quite well through its existing stake in local development,
including clearcut logging. And there's some classic buck-passing
in prospect. The MLTC says it will not really move on the nuclear
waste issue until FEARO declares the disposal plan "safe." But then
the project would be deemed to be on "Indian land," beyond
government control!
Speaking on CBC Radio's Sunday Morning (Nov. 20), Roy
Ahenakew, executive director of the MLTC, has even likened burying
nuclear waste to the indigenous spiritual practice of "giving
something back to Mother Earth." He was opposed as usual by Leon
Iron, from the Canoe Lake-based Sakaw-Aski Elders Association and
the protectors of Mother Earth in the middle of the tribal area.
While the Chretien government pushes nuclear technology, it has yet
to respond to a 40-year old claim directly involving the Canoe Lake
Band and Alberta's Cold Lake Band, in the Primrose Lake bombing
range. (See P.V., Sept. 1994)
Such issues, combined with the impasses at Davis Inlet, James
Bay, Oka, and other indigenous centres across Canada, show the
depth and breadth of the First Nations self-determination issue as
a whole, as we approach the quincentenary of Giovanni Caboto's 1497
arrival on the east coast.
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