Legal Action Outlawing Boycotts
Going Back to Court

(June 15, 1999) Beginning in 1991, the Friends of the Lubicon conducted a consumer boycott of the transnational paper company Daishowa in order to assist the Lubicon Lake Indian Nation in fending off impending clear-cutting on their traditional territory. The Province of Alberta granted to Daishowa the rights to clear-cut unceded Lubicon lands in 1989 even though Lubicon land rights in the area remain unresolved and despite well-known Lubicon objections.

That boycott was enormously successful. Since the boycott began, Daishowa has been forced to stay out of Lubicon territory year after year.

The boycott was so successful, in fact, that in January 1995 the Friends were slapped with a multi-million dollar lawsuit by Daishowa which attempted to take away their right to conduct that consumer boycott in Canada. For the last four and a half years the Friends of the Lubicon have been fighting a bitter legal battle with Daishowa defending that right, which culminated in a lengthy 28-day trial in the fall of 1997.

The Daishowa v. Friends of the Lubicon verdict was delivered in April 1998 by Justice MacPherson, who confirmed that the Friends could continue their boycott of Daishowa products.

Daishowa, of course, immediately launched an appeal of the decision. When he launched the appeal in May 1998, Daishowa’s lawyer Peter Jervis told the Friends that "our clients trust that Friends of the Lubicon will not perceive the delivery of the Notice of Appeal as any change in the position of Daishowa Inc. that a negotiated resolution between Daishowa Inc. and Friends of the Lubicon is in the best interests of all parties and will continue to be pursued." They added, "Our clients have also instructed us to advise you of their strong desire to continue to pursue the prospect of a negotiated resolution of this matter."

Shortly thereafter, just such a negotiated resolution was arrived at when Daishowa finally agreed not to cut or buy wood cut on unceded Lubicon Lake Indian Nation territories until a land rights settlement was reached between the Lubicons and both levels of government.

Having gained the written commitment from Daishowa they had been seeking all along, the Lubicon Lake Indian Nation called off the successful boycott of Daishowa products in June of 1998.

However, having achieved just such a negotiated resolution, Daishowa did not abandon the appeal. Daishowa executives announced last fall that they intended to continue with the legal action.

In February of this year the Friends of the Lubicon filed a motion in the Ontario Court asking the Court to dismiss Daishowa’s appeal of the ruling which allowed them to continue their consumer boycott of Daishowa products. The reason the appeal should be dismissed, the Friends argued, was that Daishowa had since made a commitment not to cut or buy wood cut in Lubicon territory until a land rights settlement is reached between the Lubicons and both levels of government and a harvesting agreement negotiated with the Lubicon which respects their wildlife and environmental concerns.

As a result, Daishowa’s legal action is seeking to shut down a boycott which no longer exists.

The Friends asked the Court to hear a motion to dismiss the case as no longer having any basis to continue.

The Court still hasn’t set a date to hear the Friends’ motion to dismiss.

Since the Friends filed the motion back in February, there have been ominous new developments on Lubicon lands.

On February 23rd, 1999, the Alberta provincial government announced that significant portions of Daishowa’s former Forest Management Area would be re-allocated to other parties. Parts of the lands being re-allocated included Lubicon traditional territories.

The person in charge of the matter for the province is Andy Masiuk. Masiuk was a member of the Province’s negotiating team in earlier rounds of Lubicon negotiations and has a history on the Lubicon file going back to the retroactive caveat legislation of the mid 1970s. He’s part of the coterie of Provincial bureaucrats that’s been directing the Province’s strategy on Lubicon matters since the 1980s. Masiuk was also keeping Daishowa informed of Lubicon internet postings during the Daishowa boycott. Masiuk knows full well that the areas they were putting up for grabs included Lubicon traditional territory. And he knew full well that the Lubicons oppose the clear-cut logging of their traditional territory (which of course begs the question of why Provincial operatives would be provoking a confrontation over logging when the Province is getting set to join ongoing Lubicon land rights negotiations).

Shortly after the call for expressions of interest in logging these areas went out, a group of Indian Bands from the region including the government-created Woodland Cree Band, the Loon River Band, and the Whitefish Band -- along with Daishowa Marubeni International (DMI) -- applied for the rights to log in the areas put back on the auction block after Daishowa traded them for less controversial lands. The joint proposal indicated that the Bands would do the logging and sell the wood to Daishowa.

Asked by a reporter whether Daishowa was, in fact, breaking its written promise not to buy wood cut in Lubicon territory, DMI General Manager Wayne Thorp said that "Our commitment was to stay out. We would not purchase, or do any harvesting on our own, in the area of concern, until there was resolution with the Lubicon. And our commitment stands."

On May 28, DMI announced that it had signed a major five-year timber logging contract with Kee Tas Kee Now Logging Ltd. -- the joint venture involving the Woodland, Loon and Whitefish Bands. Their contract stipulates that they log a minimum of 100,000 cubic metres of wood per year. Daishowa will then process the wood at their Peace River pulp mill. Given that new logging rights have not yet been granted in the areas which overlap the Lubicon traditional territory, for now the area they are currently set to log is "north-east of the Peace River," according to a DMI press release, and north east of the Lubicon "area of concern" according to DMI Communications Manager Ewa Ardiel.

Whether the new logging consortium will soon be granted rights to log within the Lubicon traditional territory is not yet clear. What happens to Daishowa’s commitment not to buy wood cut in Lubicon territory should their new partners move in to clear-cut unceded Lubicon territory is also unclear.

Hot on the heels of that announcement, Daishowa served the Friends with a "factum" in the afternoon of June 1 indicating that they are ready to go to court on their appeal of MacPherson’s ruling declaring the Daishowa boycott legal.

Daishowa is once again trying to outlaw any consumer boycott of their products.

Until the Court grants a hearing on the Friends’ motion to dismiss Daishowa’s appeal, it looks like we’re heading back into another round of legal skirmishes with Daishowa over the right to conduct a consumer boycott in Canada.

Yet the Friends have been clear that they will not resume the boycott of Daishowa products as long as Daishowa keeps their promise to the Lubicons not to cut or buy wood cut on Lubicon traditional territory until a land rights settlement is reached with both levels of government and a harvesting agreement negotiated which respects Lubicon wildlife and environmental concerns.

If Daishowa is indeed honouring its word -- and its written promises -- why are they yet again seeking to tie up Lubicon supporters in Court and attempting to outlaw even the possibility of a renewed Daishowa boycott?

Daishowa tried to enjoin the Lubicon boycott of their products in the first place because the boycott effectively focused public attention on what Daishowa was planning to do in northern Alberta. This renewed effort to silence public debate on the issue begs the question of what it is that Daishowa is planning that they don’t want people to know about.

Daishowa needs to hear that ongoing bullying of the Lubicon and their supporters who are not even boycotting Daishowa is unacceptable. Lubicon supporters are encouraged to write to Daishowa and let them know that this must stop.

Daishowa should also be told that people are watching them to ensure that they keep the promise they made not to cut or buy wood cut on Lubicon traditional territory until a land rights settlement is reached with both levels of government and a harvesting agreement negotiated which respects Lubicon wildlife and environmental concerns.

And they need to be told that if they try to use aboriginal people to break their promise to stay off Lubicon lands it will be seen the world over as exactly what it is -- a cynical, divide-and-conquer maneuver designed to make profits for Daishowa at everyone else’s expense.

Lastly, the Alberta Provincial government needs to be told to stop taking actions designed to provoke confrontation and stop attempts to undermine ongoing Lubicon negotiations. Offering logging rights to areas they know are part of Lubicon traditional territory on one hand while simultaneously expressing publicly their wish to join Lubicon negotiations on the other undermines their credibility and calls into question their sincerity. Premier Ralph Klein should be asked whether he is at all serious about resolving the Lubicon issue.

The addresses to write to are:

President, Daishowa Paper Manufacturing Co. Ltd.,
Asahi-Tokai Building, |
2-6-1 Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku,
Tokyo 100, Japan

Daishowa Paper wholly owns Daishowa Inc. who are suing the Friends) & half owns Daishowa-Marubeni International (the pulp and logging company).

cc: Tokiro Kawamura, President, Daishowa-Marubeni International,
Suite 1700
1095 West Pender Street
Vancouver, BC V6E 2M6
Fax: 604-684-0512

Premier Ralph Klein
Alberta Provincial Legislature,
Edmonton, AB, T5K 2B6
Canada