Announcer: A small lobby group, the Friends of the Lubicon, will find out
today if it can continue to urge people to boycott paper products made by a
Japan-based company called Daishowa. The company has asked an Ontario court
for a permanent injunction to end a boycott it says has cost $14 million in
revenues. The decision will be released today. Sandra Bartlett reports.
Sandra Bartlett: Friends of the Lubicon started the boycott to support the
land claim fight of the Lubicon Indian band in northern Alberta. Kevin
Thomas is with the lobby group.
Kevin Thomas: The Lubicon people have a right to have their land rights
decided upon before any kind of clear-cutting activity is done on their
land.
Bartlett: Daishowa was just the latest company to be given rights to the
enormously abundant natural resources on the disputed land. But for the
Lubicon people, it was the last straw. And Friends of the Lubicon saw a
paper company as the perfect target for a boycott. It managed to convince
Pizza Pizza, Country Style Donuts, and Club Monaco amongst others to switch
to another paper supplier. Daishowa stopped logging. But it took the group
to court. In the December court case, Daishowa asked for a permanent
injunction forbidding the lobby group from handing out pamphlets or talking
to its customers about the boycott. This morning, the court's decision will
be released, and Thomas says if it goes against the boycott, it's a loss
for everyone in Canada who wants to launch a consumer protest.
Thomas: If you don't have the money to take out ads in the Globe and Mail
or buy TV ads, how do you actually reach the people buying the product in
question?
Bartlett: No matter which way the decision goes, the case is not likely to
be settled today. Both sides expect and appeal, right up to the Supreme
Court of Canada. Sandra Bartlett, CBC News, Toronto.