[Onthebarricades] CANADA/INDIGENOUS: News articles about Lubicon protest at Alberta legislature

[Andy]

Subject: [FOL] : News articles about Lubicon protest at Alberta legislature


> Edmonton Sun
> June 29, 2007
> 
> Aboriginal day of action brings protests to city
> 
> By Nicki Thomas, Special To Sun Media
> 
> The National Day of Action for First Nations people was marked Friday by
> two demonstrations in the city's core.
> 
> At the Legislature, Friends of the Lubicon Alberta (FOLA) staged a mock
> takeover of government land to raise awareness about the plight of the
> Lubicon Cree, a 500-member band living 450 km north of Edmonton.
> 
> The Lubicon say they were left out of the signing of Treaty 8 over a
> century ago and have been fighting with the government over land claims
> ever since.
> 
> Today, they have no reserve land, no running water, inadequate
> infrastructure and are affected by a litany of health problems --
> including high rates of tuberculosis, cancers, suicide, alcoholism and
> birth complications, they say.
> 
> They claim that oil exploration and forestry activity has contaminated
> local lakes and streams and devastated the wildlife they once depended
> on for food and income from trapping.
> 
> Cosanna Preston, a member of FOLA, said Canada continues to violate the
> rights of their own people despite international outcry from groups like
> Amnesty International and the United Nations Human Rights Committee.
> 
> At Canada Place, native leaders and supporters chanted slogans and
> displayed signs of protest against the inequalities suffered by First
> Nations people.
> 
> Alexis First Nations Chief Cam Alexis said there has been an erosion of
> government funding for health, housing, education and economic
> initiatives.
> 
> He said treaty rights and native people themselves must be respected by
> both the Canadian government and the public.
> 
> "We still exist. We want our rights respected," he said.
> 
> Ben Houle of the Whitefish Lake First Nations said that the aboriginal
> population is growing at three times the national average but funding
> has not increased accordingly.
> 
> He remembered being at a protest twenty-five years ago and said native
> people are fighting with the government over the same issues today as
> they were then.
> 
> "We don't want our kids to do this protest in another twenty years,"
> said fellow band member Andy Jackson.
> 
> 
> * * * * * * * *
> 
> 
> Edmonton Sun
> June 30, 2007
> 
> Lubicon join protest
> 
> The National Day of Action for First Nations people was marked by two
> demonstrations in the city's core yesterday.
> 
> At the legislature, Friends of the Lubicon Alberta (FOLA) staged a mock
> takeover of government land to raise awareness of the plight of the
> Lubicon Cree, a 500-member band living 450 km north of Edmonton.
> 
> The Lubicon were left out of the signing of Treaty 8 over a century ago
> and have been fighting with the government over land claims ever since.
> 
> Today, they have no reserve land, no running water, inadequate
> infrastructure and are affected by a litany of health problems, they
> say.
> 
> They claim that oil exploration and forestry activity has contaminated
> local lakes and streams and devastated the wildlife.
> 
> At Canada Place, native leaders and supporters chanted slogans and
> displayed signs of protest against the inequalities suffered by First
> Nations people.
> 
> Alexis First Nations Chief Cam Alexis said treaty rights and native
> people themselves must be respected by both the Canadian government and
> the public.
> 
> "We still exist. We want our rights respected," he said.
> 
> 
> * * * * * * * *
> 
> 
> Prince George Citizen
> June 29, 2007
> 
> Lubicon, former Alberta premier Don Getty, call on Ottawa to resolve
> land claim
> by John Cotter
> 
> EDMONTON (CP) - The Lubicon First Nation and former premier Don Getty
> are calling on the federal government to finally resolve the northern
> Alberta band's 67-year-old land claim.
> 
> Lubicon spokesman Alphonse Ominayak said there have been no negotiations
> with Ottawa since 2003 when talks stalled over the issues of self
> government and financial compensation.
> 
> He accused the federal government of deliberately stalling while the
> Lubicon struggle without safe drinking water or other basic services
> that most Canadians take for granted.
> 
> "We need all the help we can get," Ominayak told a small rally at the
> Alberta legislature Friday in support of the Lubicon Cree.
> 
> "We are very tired of being ignored and put on the backburner when this
> could be settled in a manner of months.
> 
> Getty, who negotiated an agreement with the band in 1988 to transfer
> land to the federal government for a Lubicon reserve and then tried
> unsuccessfully to broker a final land-claim settlement with Ottawa,
> called the impasse "a shame and a disgrace."
> 
> Speaking from his home in Edmonton, the former premier laid the blame on
> the federal government and said with a little work the claim could be
> resolved.
> 
> "I think they (the Lubicon) have been handled horribly by mainly the
> federal government and the Department of Indian Affairs," said Getty,
> who stepped down as premier in 1992.
> 
> "We were within pennies of an agreement that would have had them
> building a new community in a beautiful spot.
> 
> 
> * * * * * * * *
> 
> 
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> 
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