[Indigsol] Lubicon open letter and news release

[Pei-Ju Wang]

News Release

November 18, 2008

 

 

Growing demand for justice for the Lubicon Cree: 

More than 60 organizations call for implementation of United Nations
recommendations

 

 

OTTAWA - In an open letter to the federal government and the government of
Alberta, more 60 Canadian and international human rights, environmental,
labour, religious and Indigenous peoples' organizations are calling for a
negotiated resolution of the long standing Lubicon land dispute and
suspension of a planned pipeline across Lubicon lands until the Lubicon give
their consent.

 

Signatories to the open letter released today include the Council of
Canadians, the Alberta Federation of Labour, Amnesty International, Oxfam
Canada, the Sierra Club of Canada, Greenpeace, the David Suzuki Foundation,
the Canadian Friends Service Committee, and the Archbishop of
Grouard-McLennan, Alberta.

 

Calling the situation of the Lubicon Cree a "well-documented and
longstanding Canadian human rights tragedy" the organizations cite over two
decades of United Nations human rights decisions condemning Canada's
treatment of the Lubicon Cree.

 

The most recent of these is an August 15th letter from the UN Committee on
the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The Committee questioned whether
TransCanada Corporation's planned billion dollar North Central Crossing
pipeline across the Lubicon Traditional Territory can be legitimately
authorized by the Government of Alberta or the Alberta Utilities Commission
without prior Lubicon consent. 

 

Despite the concerns expressed by the United Nations, the Alberta Utilities
Commission approved the pipeline in October.

 

"It's unacceptable that Canadian officials simply ignore UN human rights
bodies when they don't like what these bodies have to say," says Maude
Barlow, UN Senior Advisor on Water and National Chairperson of the Council
of Canadians. "If international law is to mean anything, governments can't
cherry pick the standards they are willing to respect."

 

Gil McGowan, President of the Alberta Federation of Labour, added, "The
provincial government has got to start dealing fairly with Aboriginal people
and the Lubicon case is a good place to start. For years they've left the
Lubicons out in the cold while they let oil and gas companies do anything
they want in the land claim area. That's got to stop now."  

 

"Three decades of large-scale oil and gas development has already had a
devastating impact on Lubicon lands," said Eriel Deranger of the US-based
Rainforest Action Network. "The Lubicon have the right to ensure that the
pipeline won't add to the cumulative damage already done by unbridled
resource extraction."

 

On November 4, the Assembly of Treaty Chiefs of Alberta passed a resolution
to "fully support the Lubicon Lake Indian Nation in their position that
TransCanada Corporation must obtain the approval of the Lubicon Lake Indian
Nation before TransCanada Corporation begins construction of any projects
within Lubicon Lake Indian Nation Traditional Territory."

 

- 30 -

 

For more information, please contact:

 

Elizabeth Berton-Hunter

Media Relations (Toronto) 

Amnesty International Canada


(416) 363-9933 #32

Cell (416) 904-7158

 

Kevin Thomas

Friends of the Lubicon

(416) 533-1329

 

 

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