LUBICON SUPPORT RESOLUTION
7-31-95
WHEREAS in 1899 the Government of Canada made a
treaty with indigenous peoples in the area
surrounding the traditional Lubicon territory
purporting to extinguish indigenous land rights
in northern Alberta;
AND WHEREAS traditional Lubicon lands were
isolated, inaccessible and geographically
unknown to the Government of Canada at the time
the Government of Canada entered into treaty
with the indigenous peoples in the area
surrounding the traditional Lubicon territory;
AND WHEREAS the Lubicon people were consequently
missed by the Canadian government treaty party,
have never signed a treaty with the Government
of Canada extinguishing Lubicon ownership of
traditional Lubicon lands and therefore retain
unceded aboriginal title to traditional Lubicon
lands;
AND WHEREAS the Government of Canada first
established contact with the Lubicon people in
1939, officially recognized that the Lubicon
people are a distinct indigenous society with
land rights and promised to establish a Lubicon
reserve;
AND WHEREAS the Lubicon people have been seeking
unsuccessfully to negotiate a settlement of
Lubicon land rights with the Government of
Canada ever since first contact in 1939;
AND WHEREAS indigenous societies negotiating
land settlement treaties with the Government of
Canada have historically been allowed to
determine their own membership -- which has in
turn traditionally been used to calculate
reserve land quantum;
AND WHEREAS successful negotiation of Lubicon
land rights and establishment of a Lubicon
reserve was effectively blocked for a number of
years by the Alberta Provincial government
demanding the right to play a role in
determination of the traditionally related
issues of Lubicon membership and reserve land
quantum;
AND WHEREAS in October of 1988 then Alberta
Provincial Premier Getty resolved the long-
standing dispute between the Lubicons and the
Provincial government over membership and
reserve land quantum by proposing to base the
amount of land which the Provincial government
would be prepared to transfer to the Federal
government for purposes of negotiating a
settlement of Lubicon land rights and
establishing a Lubicon reserve on what the
Premier and Lubicon Chief Ominayak as two
honourable men could agree was "fair".
AND WHEREAS the Premier and the Chief met in a
northern Alberta community called Grimshaw and
agreed to a reserve land quantum of 95 square
miles;
AND WHEREAS the reserve land agreement between
the Premier and the Chief is called the
"Grimshaw Accord" after the community in
northern Alberta where it was made;
AND WHEREAS all that basically remained to
achieve settlement of Lubicon land rights
following the "Grimshaw Accord" was for the
Federal government to negotiate reserve
construction and financial compensation with the
Lubicon people -- as well as of course for the
Federal government to request transfer of the 95
square miles agreed at Grimshaw.
AND WHEREAS Federal officials deliberately broke
down settlement negotiations January of 1989
with a so-called "take-it-or-leave-it"
settlement offer which they knew in advance was
unacceptable since it did not make adequate
provision for the Lubicons to once again become
economically self-sufficient -- a conclusion not
only of the Lubicons but of Premier Getty and
independent observers such as the Lubicon
Settlement Commission of Review;
AND WHEREAS following the break-down of
negotiations in January of 1989 the Federal
government sent agents into northern Alberta to
try and organize the political overthrow of duly
elected Lubicon leadership;
AND WHEREAS when the effort to politically
overthrow duly elected Lubicon leadership failed
Federal officials commenced a well-documented
campaign to dismember Lubicon society by
creating two new Indian Bands in the surrounding
area and trying to entice individual Lubicons
into joining these new Bands by offering them
what Federal officials openly called "little
bribes".
AND WHEREAS following Premier Getty's departure
from office in 1992 Provincial officials also
became actively involved in the effort to tear
Lubicon society asunder through "little bribes",
spreading disinformation about settlement
issues and negotiations among the Lubicon
people, making unlikely promises to Lubicons who
cooperate with initiatives designed to undermine
duly elected Lubicon leadership, rubbing raw
resulting tensions and divisions within Lubicon
society, encouraging and supporting dissent,
and, most recently, attempting to fragment
Lubicon society still further by organizing
government sponsored dissenters into a proposed
new third Band.
AND WHEREAS Provincial officials are now falsely
claiming that the "Grimshaw Accord" was based on
membership allegedly reduced by Federal
government creation of the two new Bands, that
the "Grimshaw Accord" should therefore
effectively be abdicated, and, as Provincial
officials insisted before Premier Getty resolved
the long-standing dispute over land and
membership with the "Grimshaw Accord", that the
Provincial government should be involved in
determination of Lubicon membership and reserve
land quantum;
AND WHEREAS representatives of European Support
Groups were in Alberta when the Grimshaw Accord
was made and know that it was not based on
membership but was rather based on a proposal by
Premier Getty to set the question of membership
aside and instead base reserve land quantum on
what the Premier and the Chief could agree was
"fair";
AND WHEREAS abdication of the Grimshaw Accord
would push things back to a point to before
Premier Getty resolved the long-standing land
and membership dispute between the Provincial
government and the Lubicons, would significantly
reduce any hope of ever achieving an equitable
settlement of Lubicon land rights and would
effectively reward both levels of Canadian
government for blatant divide and conquer
tactics which no decent human being could
possibly countenance;
NOW THEREFORE the participants of the Tenth
Annual Meeting of Support Groups for North
American Indigenous Peoples representing 25
organizations from 10 European countries hereby
resolve to work to ensure that the Alberta
Provincial government:
1.)honour the Grimshaw Accord
made between Premier Getty and Chief
Ominayak in October of 1988;
2.)stop spreading deliberately
deceitful misinformation about the
basis
and nature of the Grimshaw
Accord;
3.)cease efforts to destabilize
Lubicon society by creating,
encouraging
and supporting dissent;
4.)Cooperate with hopefully
sincere current efforts by the
Federal government to
negotiate a fair and equitable
settlement
of Lubicon land rights.
Moved by
Seconded by
Robert Glattau, GfbV(Austria)
Renate
Domnick, GfbV (Germany)
Passed
Certified
Dionys Zink, Chairperson of the Euromeeting
Date