Ten days ago, the Ontario Court ruled that our boycott of Daishowa products
was not only legal, but "a model of how such activities should be conducted
in a democratic society."
When Justice MacPherson released his judgement, we decided to wait ten days
before re-starting the boycott of Daishowa in order to give Daishowa some
time to put together a clear, public and unequivocal commitment not to cut
or buy wood cut on Lubicon territoryuntil there is a land rights settlement
negotiated with both levels of government and a harvesting agreement
negotiated with the Lubicon which respects their environmental and wildlife
concerns.
That ten days is up.
Last Monday, Daishowa's Tom Cochran asked to meet with us in order to
discuss the matter. On Tuesday, April 21, we met with Daishowa and they
asked us to extend that ten day period to thirty days. However their only
justification for this extension was the vague assurance that they were
"hopeful that there may be a possibility of something happening."
It has been ten years now since the Lubicon people first made it clear that
they would not allow logging on their unceded traditional territories
without a land rights settlement in place. It has been six-and-a-half years
now since the Friends of the Lubicon first expressed to Daishowa that same
request as the raison-d'être of the Daishowa boycott, and that same request
has been repeated ad nauseum by countless letters from Lubicon supporters.
Daishowa knows exactly how to end the boycott.
If their hopes that Daishowa might finally make that commitment are well
founded, then we'll look forward to that announcement. Should the Lubicon
Nation receive such a commitment from Daishowa, the boycott will end
immediately.
But in the absence of any evidence that Daishowa is planning to do anything
other than stall or seek further legal remedies, we will not grant Daishowa
any more than the ten years and ten days they've already had to make the
simple commitment being asked of them. As of today, the boycott is back on.
Last week I also promised that this boycott would be bigger than any
boycott they've faced before. We've come through on that promise. Today, a
well-organized boycott campaign is beginning not just in Ontario, but in
Quebec, Manitoba, the United States, and Europe. And we are especially
pleased to announce that a Lubicon support group is now forming in Japan.
They were scheduled to meet with the company today, in preparation to take
on Daishowa on their home ground.
It's our hope, however, that our boycott will end just as quickly as it's
beginning. Because we hope that Daishowa will finally do the right thing
and make the simple commitment being asked of them. There's no need for any
of this.
Daishowa told us earlier this week they need more time to make that commitment.
Daishowa doesn't need more time. They need more honour, they need more
integrity, and they need more compassion, but they don't need more time.
The boycott is on.
Kevin Thomas
for Friends of the Lubicon