Lubicon Nation's presentation to the UN

Friends of the Lubicon PO Box 444 Stn D, Etobicoke ON M9A 4X4 Tel: (416) 763-7500 Email: fol (at) tao (dot) ca www.lubicon.ca

October 26, 2005

On October 17, 2005, a delegation from the Lubicon Lake Indian Nation addressed the 85^th session of the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) in Geneva.

It has been fifteen years since the UNHRC concluded "historical inequities" and "more recent developments" have endangered the way of life and the culture of the Lubicon Nation. The Committee ruled that "so long as they continue" these threats are a violation of the Lubicons' fundamental human rights.

At the time, the Canadian government assured the Human Rights Committee that it was seeking a land rights settlement with the Lubicons -- a settlement that is needed to provide adequate housing with running water, support economic development and restore self-sufficiency to the Lubicon people.

Fifteen years later, there is no settlement agreement and no negotiations towards a settlement agreement.

Lubicon Councilor Alphonse Ominayak spoke to the UNHRC in Geneva. He said, "Canada lied to the UN Human Rights Committee about the contents of the so-called "take-it-or-leave-it" settlement offer they gave to the Lubicon people in January of 1989."

He said, "Canada lied to the Canadian people about the decision of the decision made by the UN Human Rights Committee in 1990 finding Canada in violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights over Canadian treatment of the Lubicon people."

He said, "Canada has not engaged in any good faith negotiations sincerely intended to achieve settlement of Lubicon land rights since the 1990 Committee decision and in fact both levels of Canadian government have continued to aggressively try and tear Lubicon society to shreds in order to steal valuable Lubicon lands and resources."

Ominayak said, "There have been no negotiations at all of any kind between Canada and the Lubicon people since the end of 2003 when Canadian representatives took the position that they had no mandate to negotiate long-standing Lubicon settlement issues including self-government and financial compensation."

The Lubicon people asked the Committee, at minimum, for two things;

(A longer address was prepared and not delivered due to time limitations. The full address is available here. )

In the afternoon of the 17^th, Canadian federal government representatives read aloud a lengthy response to a broad list of issues being addressed by the Committee. In response to the Committee’s initial question about the Government’s position on Lubicon land rights, federal representatives told the Committee that Lubicon negotiations were at an impasse. They said that the last formal negotiations took place in November 2003. They said that the Lubicons "assert" that Canada’s mandate "is not sufficient" to resolve outstanding issues. They said that the Minister of Indian Affairs wrote to Chief Ominayak on June 23, 2005, offering to continue negotiations on items other than the two key outstanding issues, self-government and financial compensation. They said that offer "was rejected by Chief Ominayak."

The next day federal representatives claimed the Government of Canada has "a full mandate" for negotiation of a settlement including the authority to negotiate a guarantee of land under Treaty 8, as well as compensation for loss of lands promised in 1939. They said this mandate includes the authority to negotiate construction of a community. They said that in the 2003 round of negotiations agreement was reached between the governments of Canada and Alberta and the Lubicon on membership and beneficiaries, on land quantum, and on all details related to the construction of the community. They said there had been talks on ways to enable the Lubicon to be self-sufficient and claimed that the government’s compensation offer was "fair" and "in line with other Treaty 8 signatories."

(This is another way of saying that the federal government’s offer on compensation is, in fact, a take-it-or-leave-it offer -- something the federal government is at pains to deny. Arguing that the federal government’s offer on financial compensation is still negotiable but that federal negotiators don’t have a mandate to negotiate any further is of course the kind of forked-tongue nonsense Lubicon supporters have come to expect from federal government representatives.)

With regard to self-government, federal representatives said the Government of Canada does not negotiate the specific recognition of self-government but added that a "policy renewal exercise" currently underway will "include the potential for specific recognition of self-government."

("Specific recognition" of self-government means recognizing that the Lubicon people have the right to govern themselves, rather than recognizing only that "aboriginal people" in general have a right to govern themselves. Recognizing only that "aboriginal people" in general have the right to self-government -- but not that any specific aboriginal people have the right -- is one of the tricky legalistic ways the federal government deliberately subverts the Constitutionally-affirmed aboriginal right to self-government so that no specific aboriginal people can exercise self-government in practice without the federal government’s prior approval.)

(For more information on these issues and a full explanation of why negotiations are at an impasse, please see here.

Following Canada’s "answers" Human Rights Committee members asked questions.

Mr. Edwin Johnson Lopez (Ecuador) asked the government about its "point of view on Chief Ominayak’s motivations" for rejecting the government offer to restart negotiations.

Ms. Ruth Wedgwood (USA) said she was puzzled by Canada’s position on the stalemate in negotiations with the Lubicon and asked why the Government of Canada was unable or unwilling to negotiate compensation and self-government before negotiating the land claim? She asked why the land claim had to stand alone. She asked "Why does it have to be resolved first?"

Canada did not answer at the hearing. Instead, they promised further written answers to these questions.

Lubicon supporters are encouraged to send letters to the Government of Canada urging them to send a negotiator to the table with a mandate to negotiate a full and final settlement of Lubicon land rights in good faith. A sample letter is attached below. Supporters are also encouraged to write to the United Nations Human Rights Committee urging them to support a Lubicon settlement. A sample letter is attached below.

A copy of the Lubicon submission to the United Nations Human Rights Committee is available here.

A CBC Newsworld broadcast on the issue is attached below. Further media coverage is available here and here

CBC Newsworld
October 17, 2005

Canada Now
7:45PM

David Gray, Host: Some Aboriginal Albertans are asking for international help to settle a land claim. Members of the Lubicon Lake First Nation took their fight to the United Nations in Geneva today. They’re asking the United Nations Human Rights Committee to find Canada in violation of the band’s rights. The disputed land is in the Peace River area, 300 kilometers north of Edmonton. The band claims it has the rights to 10,000 square kilometers of land. The region is rich in oil and gas revenues. The Lubicon Cree made an official land claim for the area back in the seventies, and this is the second time the UN Human Rights Committee has tackled the issue. Fifteen years ago, it ruled Canada should reach a deal with the Lubicon. Kevin Thomas negotiates on behalf of the Lubicon Cree. He joins me tonight from Ottawa. Mr. Thomas, you’ve been involved in this for about twenty years. Let’s face it, this has a long history. But bring us up to date on today. What happened today in Geneva?

Kevin Thomas: Today the Lubicon people presented their case to the United Nations Human Rights Committee. Canada was also present today, and they presented their answer to the Lubicon position, which is simply that they don’t have a mandate to negotiate. Period, end. So for two years now, since Paul Martin came to power, there have been no negotiations with the Lubicon people, and there’s no real answer as to why.

Gray: So what am I missing? Why doesn’t the Government of Canada have a mandate to negotiate?

Thomas: Well, "what am I missing" is exactly the question. They say this is a "top priority" for them, it’s something they have to get done, they recognize it’s been fifteen years since the United Nations Human Rights Committee cited them for violations, Amnesty International is citing them every year for violating the Lubicon people’s rights, and yet they haven’t given their negotiators a mandate to deal with the outstanding issues.

Gray: But back in 1990, unless I’m wrong, the opposition Liberals promised to settle the land claim. That, I guess, never came to pass. In the meantime, what’s the situation for the Lubicon?

Thomas: The Lubicon people all during this time have had to see their lands torn apart by oil and gas companies, forestry companies. They’ve seen their children grow up without running water, in overcrowded housing, without job opportunities, growing up on welfare. What we’re concerned about here is that the Liberal government is allowing this to proceed, to continue on without a settlement, so that yet another generation gets condemned to that kind of life. That’s just not good enough.

Gray: How many people are we talking about here?

Thomas: There are about 500 Lubicons.

Gray: How many at the beginning of the dispute? Has that number stayed fairly constant?

Thomas: It’s pretty constant. You have births, you have deaths, it varies over time, but we’re looking at around 500 people.

Gray: We say that this has a long history, let’s go a little deeper if we can here. As I understand it, the Lubicon people were overlooked in the treaty signings back at the turn of the century, we’re talking Treaty Number 8 here, aren’t we? How did we get here?

Thomas: They were overlooked in 1899 when Treaty 8 was signed. Legally Canada is obliged to sign a treaty before it takes ownership of any lands there, so in 1939 they did promise to bring them into Treaty and create a reserve for the Lubicon people, but they just never did it. So when the oil and gas activity moved in, in the 1970s, the Lubicon people went back to the government and said "it’s about time we settled this". It’s been a long, drawn-out fight ever since. As you said earlier, we had to go to the United Nations in 1990, and we’ve had to go back today, which is really shameful — that we’ve had to go back fifteen years later just to get Canada to live up to its simple obligations.

Gray: You use the word "shameful". Looking at the list of groups that have taken on the Lubicon cause, the coalition of churches, Amnesty International, now the United Nations and before the United Nations, what kind of an impact does this have on Canada’s international reputation? Which, at least as it’s exported, generally tries to be pretty good.

Thomas: The Lubicon people are also going on a tour around Central Europe to talk to Europeans about this. Frankly, Canada’s reputation isn’t very good on this issue. People know the history and they know that Canada has failed to live up to its obligations time and time again. They’ve promised time and time again to resolve it, it’s a "top priority", the current Prime Minister has called it a "top priority" and yet he hasn’t sent a negotiator with a mandate to the table in two years.

Gray: So what’s the next step?

Thomas: I think the next step is that we’ve got to turn up the heat. That is, if the United Nations doesn’t pressure them to settle, Canadians have got to pressure the government to get to the table — and that means more protests, more letters, more public pressure of any kind to try to get them to negotiate in good faith.

Gray: Alright. Kevin Thomas, thank you very much for taking the time to join us. I appreciate it.

Thomas: Thank you.

[YOUR ADDRESS]

[DATE]

The Rt.Hon. Paul Martin
Prime Minister of Canada
Government of Canada
Ottawa, ON
Canada K1A 0A6

Dear Sir,

For anybody to have to live under the conditions the Lubicon people face is a tragedy. For the Lubicons to face these conditions in one of the richest areas of one of the richest countries of the world is appalling. For these conditions to have been deliberately imposed on the Lubicon people by the government of a country that holds itself out to the world as a human rights model for others is an affront to all decent people.

We support the urgent request of the Lubicon people that the government of Canada

Sincerely Yours

[YOUR NAME]

[YOUR ADDRESS]

[DATE]

Dr. Ruth Wedgwood
c/o Human Rights Committee
United Nations Office at Geneva
1211 Geneve
Switzerland

Fax +41 22 917-9022

Dear Dr. Wedgwood,

For anybody to have to live under the conditions the Lubicon people face is a tragedy. For the Lubicons to face these conditions in one of the richest areas of one of the richest countries of the world is appalling. For these conditions to have been deliberately imposed on the Lubicon people by the government of a country that holds itself out to the world as a human rights model for others is an affront to all decent people. For the international community to allow this situation to continue is a disgrace.

I support the urgent request of the Lubicon people that the UN Human Rights Committtee

- publicly reaffirm the 1990 decision holding Canada in violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

- do everything in the power of the United Nations to compel the government of Canada to negotiate a fair and just settlement of unceded Lubicon aboriginal land rights with the Lubicon people starting with:

Sincerely yours

[YOUR NAME]

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