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
May 2, 2006
United Nations-accredited European Non-Governmental Organizations are lobbying United Nations delegates to review Canada’s failure to protect the rights of the Lubicon Lake Indian Nation prior to voting for members of the new United Nations Human Rights Council on May 9.
The Lubicon, an Indigenous nation of 500 people living in northern Alberta, Canada, have never surrendered their rights to their traditional lands. Over the last quarter century, the Lubicon Lake Cree have seen the land on which they depend transformed by logging and large-scale oil and gas extraction. Land rights negotiations between Canada and the Lubicon have been suspended for over two years.
In a letter sent to all UN Permanent Representatives, The International Committee for the Indians of the Americas (INCOMINDIOS) and the Society for Threatened Peoples note that "Canada, in seeking a seat in the UN-Human Rights Council, has pledged ‘to actively pursue the implementation of human rights domestically, including with respect to racism, indigenous people and the protection of children’. Together with our partners, INCOMINDIOS Switzerland is highly concerned about the fact that since 1990 Canada does not respect the aboriginal land rights of the Lubicon people and is thus violating the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights."
Canada has failed to respect two successive United Nations Human Rights Committee decisions regarding the Lubicon Lake Indian Nation.
The letter concludes, "In view of these facts, we would like to humbly ask you to carefully consider the required preconditions of a UN-Member State to qualify for a seat in the UN-Human Rights Council."
A copy of the letter is available here.
It’s important that there be some repercussions for Canada’s continued failure to respect United Nations decisions on the Lubicon Nation. Maybe when Canada is prevented from posturing on its human rights record internationally they will be inclined to actually do something about it at home.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
1. Join the national Lubicon petition campaign. Copies of the petition and downloadable information you can hand out to friends, co-workers and others is available here.
2. forward this email to your friends and colleagues.
3. Write to Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice urging the Government of Canada to meet its international responsibilities and negotiate a settlement with the Lubicon people in good faith (sample letters and addresses to write to are available here.)
fol-request at masses.tao.ca