Update on Friends of Lubicon Court Case
(Daishowa vs. Friends of Lubicon)
May 1, 1995
The Friends of the Lubicon went to court last week to face the
injunction application filed by Daishowa Inc. The injunction
application, filed in the Ontario Court's General Division, seeks
to prevent Friends of the Lubicon from continuing its boycott
activities of Daishowa and those Daishowa customers who use
Daishowa products (ie. paper bags).
BACKGROUND
The boycott began in 1991 in response to a request from
Alberta's Lubicon Cree to help prevent the resumption of clear-
cut logging on their territory. In 1988 it was announced that
Daishowa was awarded a logging license (or "Forest Management
Agreement") by the Alberta government for a huge 25,000 square
kilometre area which includes almost the entire traditional
territory of the Lubicon Cree. The Lubicon, promised a reserve in
1939, still have not had their land rights settled, despite
decades of negotiations, broken government promises, and more
recently, pressure from groups around the world concerned about
the violated Aboriginal rights and human rights of the Lubicon
Cree. In the absence of a land rights settlement, the Lubicon's
traditional territory as well as the Lubicon community have been
devastated by extensive oil development and potential logging
development.
In 1990 Daishowa-owned Brewster Construction clear-cut on
Lubicon land. Fearing more cuts in 1991, the Lubicon people
requested help from their support network. In response, the
Friends of the Lubicon launched a public boycott of Daishowa
until such time as the company committed itself publicly and
unequivocally that it would stay out of traditional Lubicon
territories until a land rights settlement was attained and a
timber harvesting agreement respecting Lubicon wildlife and
environmental concerns was negotiated. Daishowa has never made
that public commitment. Consequently, the Friends of the Lubicon
approached the customers of Daishowa, which produces paper
products including paper bags, to convince them not to buy from
Daishowa given the company's refusal to commit publicly to
staying out of the Lubicon territory.
As a result of the boycott over the past four years, dozens of
national retail chains (representing thousands of retail outlets)
no longer buy paper bags from Daishowa. Daishowa alleges in the
injunction application that the boycott has cost the company
millions of dollars in lost sales.
THE COURT CASE
In January, Daishowa filed an application for an injunction in
the Ontario courts. If the application is successful, the Friends
of the Lubicon would be effectively prevented from pursuing a
highly effective consumer boycott. The injunction application was
heard in the Ontario courts on April 26 - 28, 1995.
Daishowa maintains, citing fifty year old labour laws used to
restrict picketing at secondary sites, that the boycott is
illegal because Friends of the Lubicon is singling out Daishowa's
customers. The Friends of the Lubicon can't organize a direct
consumer boycott of Daishowa because the company does not sell
directly to the public. Friends of the Lubicon argue that the
effective point at which people can make an ethical choice about
supporting the Lubicon is when they are purchasing products from
Daishowa customers, and that informational picketing at these
outlets is protected by the values embodied in the Canadian
Charter of Rights and Freedoms. "The issue is the right to inform
the consumer and ask them to make a moral choice at the time of
purchase," maintained the Friends of the Lubicon in court. Any
injunction barring the Friends of the Lubicon from approaching
Daishowa customers will, de facto, end the boycott.
The Friends of the Lubicon's legal counsel were Clayton Ruby,
Harriet Sachs and Jill Copeland, who argued that this was an
issue of freedom of expression. (As the Washington Post points
out [Washington Post, 29 IV 1995, "Canadian Boycott Turns
Spotlight on Free Speech"] this type of anti-boycott lawsuit
"would have very little chance in the U.S.")
Madam Justice Kiteley will deliver her ruling on the
injunction case on Friday May 19 at 9:00 am at the Osgoode Hall
Law Courts, Toronto, Ontario.
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Message posted by the Aboriginal Rights Coalition / Project
North. ARC can be reached at <arc@web.apc.org>