For Immediate release | April 9, 1998
Decision in Daishowa v. Friends of the Lubicon trial to be released
Tuesday April 14th
The decision in the civil suit launched against Friends of the Lubicon by
Daishowa will be released on Tuesday, April 14 . Justice James
MacPherson's judgment will be available after 9 a.m. that day.
The Friends of the Lubicon will hold a media conference that afternoon to
respond to the decision and announce future plans. The conference will
also feature responses from other supporters and legal experts.
The media conference will take place at 2:30pm, Tuesday April 14th at the
media studio, Queen's Park Legislature, Toronto. Copies of the judgment
will be available at the conference.
Daishowa is a transnational paper company that holds the rights to
clear-cut in the entire unceded traditional territory of the Lubicon Lake
Indian Nation in northern Alberta. The Lubicon Cree have been fighting
almost 60 years for a land rights settlement and have seen their society
torn apart by intense resource development over the last twenty years. The
Friends of the Lubicon, a Toronto-based support group, launched a highly
successful boycott of Daishowa products in 1991, asking the company to
refrain from logging until the land title could be settled. In 1995,
Daishowa took the Friends to court, claiming losses which they say have
now reached $14 million and asking the court to outlaw leafletting at
locations which carry Daishowa goods. The Friends counter that the boycott
is a form of political expression which should be protected in Canadian
law.
This decision will have a far-reaching effect on activism and advocacy
across the country. Aboriginal, environmental, consumer, and civil rights
organizations have been watching this case closely for the past three
years, seeing it as a precedent-setting test case for freedom of
expression in Canada. The decision caps off an eight-week trial held in
Toronto last fall.
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