e-mail: fol (at) tao (dot) ca
Friends of the Lubicon (Toronto)
Address as of Dec 12, 2000:
PO BOX 444 STN D,
ETOBICOKE ON M9A 4X4
tel: (416) 763-7500
August 27, 2000
Attached are two articles which appeared in today's Edmonton Journal regarding the attempt by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada Regional Office officials to cut social assistance funding for some Lubicon families.
The first is a wire story confirming that while INAC "reviews" its plan to cut social assistance funding for some Lubicon families, it will maintain the status quo and keep funding intact. It does not say what will happen when the department is finished its "review".
The second article relates to a full-page newspaper advertisement placed by some Lubicon supporters in yesterday's Kenora Daily Miner and News. The Daily Miner and News serves one of the major centres in the electoral riding of the current Minister of Indian Affairs, Robert Nault.
The text of that ad also follows. As the text makes clear, the ad is intended to solicit support from Mr. Nault's constituents and does not "attack" Mr. Nault. On the contrary it demonstrates Lubicon supporters hopes that Mr. Nault will step in and prevent senior Regional Office bureaucrats from undermining a Lubicon settlement.
It's notable that the quote attributed to Chief Ominayak at the end of the article is also edited to remove mention of Regional Office bureaucrats, making it fit better with the spin that Lubicon supporters are blaming the Minister for this situation. Pulled from a June 18th letter to Mr. Nault which squarely places responsibility for this situation on senior Regional Office officials working in conjunction with the Alberta government, Chief Ominayak's quote in fact reads "This mean, despicable move being fronted by Mr. Robb is designed and intended to use subsistence welfare to help the Alberta government tear Lubicon society apart and consequently impact Lubicon land rights under negotiation with your government." Mr. Robb is the Alberta Regional Director General for INAC. (The full text of Chief Ominayak's letter and all subsequent correspondence is available on the Friends of the Lubicon web site at www.tao.ca/~fol).
The Edmonton Journal article is correct, however, in reporting that if negotiations to settle Lubicon land rights remain suspended come election time, Canadians will interpret that as a failure of the Liberal government to live up to its long-standing promise of a speedy resolution to Lubicon land rights.
Attachment #1:
Sunday 27 August 2000
Edmonton Journal
(CP) A controversial decision by Ottawa to withdraw social assistance funding from some Lubicon Lake families has been reversed pending a federal review.
Barrie Robb, a regional director with Indian Affairs, has advised Lubicon Chief Bernard Ominayak by letter that funding to 20 families living outside the community will continue while the department's minister, Robert Nault, reviews the decision.
"Until the review is complete and we have had the opportunity to discuss proposed resolutions with you and the minister, we are prepared to maintain the status quo," he wrote.
Robb gave the band notice in May that beginning in September his department would no longer reimburse it for social assistance it provides to families who no longer reside at the overcrowded and underdeveloped Little Buffalo site.
The minister has so far received nearly 100 letters condemning the department's decision to withdraw from the 20-year-old agreement two years into the latest round of negotiations on the 60-year-old land claim.
Ominayak suspended the band's on-again, off-again land-claim negotiations on June 21 as a result of the decision.
He accused Ottawa of attempting to tear Lubicon society apart and subvert its land rights.
But he said this week that if Ottawa starts honouring its past agreements, the parties might be able to settle the long-standing dispute.
Glenn Luff, an Indian Affairs Department spokesperson, said the department wants land claim negotiations to resume and has "held out the olive branch."
Attachment #2:
August 27, 2000
Edmonton Journal
Norm Ovenden
Journal Ottawa Bureau
OTTAWA
Supporters of the deadlocked Lubicon Lake land claim in Alberta hope to pressure Indian Affairs Minister Bob Nault by launching attacks against him in his northern Ontario riding.
A full-page advertisement Saturday in the largest paper in Nault's constituency condemns the federal government for tactics that it claims have shut down talks on the 61-year-old Lubicon Lake Indian Nation's efforts to establish a reserve about 450 km north of Edmonton.
The $1,000 ad in Kenora's Daily Miner and News is the start of a vigorous multi-media campaign against Nault in Kenora-Rainy River riding, Mary Foster, of Outaouais Lubicon Solidarity said from her home in Hull, Que.
"We are going to make the lack of a Lubicon settlement - something Jean Chretien promised to prioritize over seven years ago - an election issue," Foster said.
The plight of the impoverished Lubicon Cree, which has drawn international scrutiny, will be publicized for Nault's constituents on local radio and in other newspapers in the riding, which has a high concentration of aboriginals.
Special attention will be paid to polling districts in which Nault is the most vulnerable, said Kevin Thomas, of the Toronto-based Friends of the Lubicon.
Nault won his seat in 1997 with less than 42 per cent of the votes cast.
A national letter-writing campaign aimed at Nault has also been initiated emphasizing human rights concerns.
At its July annual convention, the Assembly of First Nations unanimously endorsed a resolution calling on Nault to honour a 1980 agreement in which Ottawa consented to reimburse the Lubicon for social assistance costs pending a land rights deal.
The latest round of talks broke off in June after the band was told that it will no longer be compensated for welfare payments given to members not living in the main Lubicon community at Little Buffalo.
Band leaders say Nault is resorting to a divide-and-conquer strategy.
"This mean, despicable move … is designed and intended to use subsistence welfare to help the Alberta government tear Lubicon society apart," Chief Bernard Ominayak wrote in a letter to Nault.
Attachment #3:
Text of 8/26/00 ad in Kenora Daily Miner and News
"Mr. Nault, the Lubicon people need a settlement.
"Don't let your bureaucrats undermine one.
"The Lubicon Lake Indian Nation of northern Alberta wants to negotiate a land rights settlement which will give its people a future. Although they were promised a reserve in 1939, the federal government has failed to honour that promise. The Lubicon people live in substandard housing with no running water and have faced devastating social and health problems - including a major tuberculosis epidemic - as a result. Their self-sufficient hunting and trapping economy was decimated by massive oil and gas exploration in their territory in the early 1980s, forcing many proud Lubicon families to turn to social assistance just to survive. Meanwhile oil and gas companies have made off with over $10 billion in revenues from Lubicon territory.
"Now the Alberta office of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada is telling the Lubicons that a new policy requires it to cut off social assistance funding for Lubicon members who live "off-reserve" - even though everyone knows the Lubicons still do not have a reserve to live "on" or "off". The Lubicon people are asking the Minister of Indian Affairs, Robert Nault, to put a stop to this arbitrary and destructive move until Lubicon land rights can be settled.
"Please join the Assembly of First Nations, the Canadian Labour Congress, Canadian churches and many others who are asking Indian Affairs Minister Robert Nault to ensure that the federal government honours its agreement to provide social assistance funding for Lubicon families wherever they reside until they can negotiate a land rights settlement which provides the Lubicon with reserve lands, housing, running water, and jobs.
"Canadians want to see a negotiated settlement, not more game playing.
"For more information, please visit the Friends of the Lubicon web site at www.tao.ca/~fol or, to write directly to the Minister of Indian Affairs, Robert Nault, visit this web site: www.tao.ca/~fol/nault.htm
"Or call Robert Nault's constituency office in Kenora, toll-free at 1-800-465-7226 or locally at 807-223-5505. Tell him you support the Lubicon people and that you want him to continue social assistance funding and negotiate a fair settlement for the Lubicon people.
"This ad was sponsored by: Friends of the Lubicon, Outaouais Lubicon Solidarity, Amitié Lubicons-Québec, National Union of Public and General Employees, Aboriginal Rights Coalition"
fol-request at masses.tao.ca