Reproduced for your information is new information regarding the continuing struggle of the Lubicon Lake Indian Nation. Large scale oil and gas exploration led to the devastating collapse of the traditional Lubicon hunting, trapping, and gathering economy starting in the early 1980's. For more information on the history of the Lubicons see topics LUBICON HISTORY ONE to EIGHT earlier in this conference. ************************************************************************ Lubicon Lake Indian Nation Little Buffalo Lake, AB 403-629-3945 FAX: 403-629-3939 Mailing address: 3536 - 106 Street Edmonton, AB T6J 1A4 403-436-5652 FAX: 403-437-0719 October 1, 1990 On January 24, 1989, representatives of the Canadian Federal Government effectively terminated Lubicon land negotiations with a surprise "take- it-or-leave-it" settlement offer which they knew in advance couldn't be accepted, because it made no provision for the Lubicon people to replace the shattered Lubicon economy and way of life with a hopefully viable new economy and way of life. Federal representatives then immediately made clear by their actions that they'd never been serious about negotiations in the first place, but had only used the pretence of serious negotiations to set the stage for an all-out Canadian Government effort designed to subvert duly elected Lubicon leadership and discredit the Lubicon cause. The Canadian Government effort to subvert duly elected Lubicon leadership and discredit the Lubicon cause included a massive international disinformation campaign and the sending of Federal Government agents into northern Alberta to try and organize the political overthrow of duly elected Lubicon leadership. The effort to politically overthrow duly elected Lubicon leadership failed on May 31, 1989, when current Lubicon leadership was unanimously re-elected, but on-the-ground efforts by the Canadian Government to subvert Lubicon land rights continued and soon re-surfaced in the form of a new Band created by the Federal Government with supposedly competing rights to the traditional Lubicon territory. During the summer and fall of 1989 Lubicon representatives and representatives of the Alberta Provincial Government made a number of fruitless attempts to try and re-start negotiations between the Lubicon people and the Canadian Federal Government. By early September it was unavoidably clear to both the Lubicons and the Alberta Provincial Government that the Canadian Federal Government had no intention of returning to the negotiating table. On October 28, 1989 -- with no prospects of a negotiated settlement in sight and yet another winter development season about to commence -- Chief Ominayak wrote Canadian Prime Minister "Lyin Brian" Mulroney notifying Mr. Mulroney that the Federally-owned oil company Petro Canada would no longer be allowed to operate in unceded Lubicon territory without first obtaining retroactive operating leases and permits from the Lubicon people, respecting Lubicon wildlife management and environmental protection laws, and arranging to pay the Lubicon people royalties on resources extracted -- both past and future. The Chief gave Petro Canada 30 days to comply and indicated that "Failure to meet any of these conditions will make involved projects subject to removal as unauthorized developments on unceded Lubicon territory". (Although there are many other oil companies operating on unceded Lubicon land under Provincial Government leases and licences, Petro Canada was targeted because of its Federal Government ownership. Broader assertion of jurisdiction, the Lubicon people felt, would only precipitate non- productive confrontation with a Provincial Government which was at this point at least prepared to talk about a negotiated settlement.) On November 23rd, then Federal Indian Affairs Minister Pierre Cadieux responded to the letter which Chief Ominayak had written Prime Minister Mulroney on October 28th. Mr. Cadieux described the Lubicon effort to protect unceded Lubicon resources pending settlement of Lubicon land rights as a "media stunt" which "jeopardized" the Federal Government's so-called "take-it-or-leave-it" offer. On November 24th representatives of Petro Canada advised Chief Ominayak that they would be shutting down Petro Canada wells in the traditional Lubicon area rather than recognize unceded Lubicon jurisdiction. They also told the Chief that they would be so advising other oil companies with whom they hold joint interests in the Lubicon area -- primarily Norcen Energy Resources Ltd. On November 27th representatives of the RCMP advised the Lubicon people that they were setting up a special detachment in the Lubicon area to protect Petro Canada interests in the traditional Lubicon territory. On November 29th Norcen announced that it would be shutting down wells which it owned jointly with Petro Canada rather than recognize unceded Lubicon jurisdiction. In a prepared statement Norcen President Edward Battle said "The compelling reason for the shutdown is the safety of Norcen and service company employees". On June 13, 1990, representatives of Norcen advised the Lubicon people of their intention to re-start the shut-in wells. They claimed they'd earlier been motivated by the hope that shutting-in the wells "would create conditions for negotiations". However, they said, "Minimal progress has been made in negotiations with the Feds... (and)...Norcen has been experiencing a financial loss". Norcen representatives told Chief Ominayak that they'd met with new Federal Indian Affairs Minister Tom Siddon on April 6th and with Alberta Provincial Premier Getty "in mid-April". They said "The Minister (Siddon) told us that keeping the wells shut-in exerted no pressure on the Feds to resume negotiations". They said less about Norcen's meeting with Premier Getty, but implied that they'd received Provincial Government assurances that the Provincial Government would use the RCMP to support the re-starting of Norcen wells. Chief Ominayak advised Norcen representatives that the Lubicon people had tabled a draft settlement agreement with the Province on June 1st. He said that Provincial negotiators had asked for a couple of weeks to study the draft settlement agreement. He noted that the couple of weeks requested by Provincial negotiators would be up in a couple of days. Chief Ominayak said "We're not prepared to consider re-opening the wells at the moment". However, he said, "Provincial Government reaction to the Lubicon draft settlement agreement may affect the Lubicon position". He therefore proposed "a follow-up meeting towards the end of the month after (the Lubicon people) receive the Provincial Government's reaction to (the Lubicon) draft settlement agreement". Norcen PR man Ian Seph responded to the Chief's proposal by making clear that Norcen intended to re-start the shut down wells in the near future with or without Lubicon consent. He said "Maybe in a week the Lubicons will say OK and we can re-start the wells". He said "Maybe in a week the Lubicons say no and we proceed and face confrontation". "If we proceed and face confrontation", he said, "I hope there's an understanding that this isn't something we wanted but were forced into". (What's forcing Norcen into a confrontation with the Lubicon people, according to Norcen officials, are losses of revenue from the shut-in wells totalling less than two million dollars, compared to Norcen's estimated total 1990 sales -- calculated prior to the Iraq/Kuwait crisis -- of over a billion dollars.) On June 19th Provincial Government negotiators asked for another week before meeting to discuss the Lubicon draft settlement agreement. "What's taking so long", they said, "is that we're trying to develop an alternate draft agreement". Lubicon and Provincial Government negotiators then met on June 26th to discuss the Lubicon draft settlement agreement and the "alternate draft agreement" which Provincial negotiators had supposedly been "trying to develop". There was no discussion of the Lubicon draft settlement agreement, however, and no alternate draft agreement was ever produced by Provincial Government negotiators. Instead Provincial Government negotiators simply advised Lubicon negotiators that "The parties are too far apart on the issues and we therefore have to look at some kind of mediation or arbitration of outstanding issues". They asked if the Lubicon people would be prepared to again support the kind of independent three person tribunal proposed by Alberta Premier Don Getty in March of 1988, consisting of one person selected by the Lubicons, one person selected by Canadian Government and a third person selected by the first two. Lubicon negotiators indicated willingness to consider any sincere arbitration proposal but also told Provincial Government negotiators that discussion of an arbitration proposal was clearly a step backward when there was a complete draft settlement agreement on the table. A more productive approach, Lubicon negotiators said, would be for Provincial negotiators to make detailed counter proposals. Making detailed counter proposals, Lubicon negotiators said, would also be more consistent with the agreement made the previous July between Chief Ominayak and Premier Getty to negotiate a draft settlement agreement which both the Province and the Lubicons could support. Moreover, Lubicon negotiators said, the Federal Government would clearly have to be involved in any arbitrated resolution of the issues and Federal representatives had in the past only used discussion of arbitration proposals to buy time and avoid dealing with the issues -- always in the end refusing to agree on necessary arbitration terms and conditions. They reminded Provincial negotiators that the Federal Government had earlier rejected the three person Getty tribunal, proposing instead the selection of "one mutually agreed mediator". They pointed out that Federal officials then used agreement to select "one mutually agreed mediator" to block proposed mediation by systematically rejecting the names of proposed mediators, even including those which Federal negotiators had themselves originally put forward. Under these circumstances, Lubicon negotiators said, the Lubicon people had little choice but to conclude that efforts to achieve a negotiated settlement had now failed, and that the Lubicon people must therefore once again start making preparations to protect vital Lubicon interests on the ground -- at least and/or until full agreement on the details of an arbitration process had been achieved. Provincial Government negotiators asked for another couple of weeks to discuss the possibility of an independent tribunal with Provincial Cabinet and with representatives of the Federal Government. Lubicon negotiators agreed. On July 13th Provincial negotiator John McCarthy phoned Lubicon lawyer James O'Reilly and advised Mr. O'Reilly that Federal officials had "rejected the whole process of arbitration". On July 16th Chief Ominayak met again with Norcen PR man Ian Seph. The Chief advised Mr. Seph of the break-down in negotiations and told him that Norcen would therefore not be allowed to re-start wells owned jointly with Petro Canada --unless of course Norcen and Petro Canada were prepared to recognize and respect Lubicon jurisdiction over unceded Lubicon lands. Mr. Seph again advised Chief Ominayak that Norcen intended to re-start the shut-in wells -- without recognizing Lubicon jurisdiction -- but not until the armed confrontation then taking place between the Mohawks and the Canadian Army in Quebec was over. Mr. Seph said "It would not be a responsible action for us to resume production at this point bearing in mind the current situation in Oka and how it seems to be creating a mood". (What Mr. Seph seemed to be saying was that Norcen didn't want to risk precipitating armed confrontations across the country between aboriginal and non-aboriginal people.) Since the meeting between Mr. Seph and Chief Ominayak on July 16th there've been a couple of additional communications between Federal and Provincial negotiators and Lubicon lawyer James O'Reilly. Federal negotiators are still opposing an independent three person tribunal and are now again proposing "one mutually agreed arbitrator". However there's unfortunately even less reason to believe that they're sincere this time than there was the last time they made exactly the same proposal. On September 26th, the last remaining small group of 53 Mohawks laid down their weapons and were taken into custody by members of the Canadian Army and the Quebec Provincial Police. In an effort to protect unceded Mohawk lands from being made into a golf course, they had withstood an armed assault by 500 Quebec Provincial Police firing fully automatic weapons and throwing concussion grenades. They had been besieged for 78 days by some 1,500 Quebec Provincial Police and over 5,000 members of the regular Canadian Army. During the course of that 78 day siege food and medical supplies had been denied to them, communications had been cut off and countless agreements had been broken by the Canadian Army and both levels of Canadian Government. With the Mohawk Nation at least temporarily suppressed by superior Canadian force of arms, Norcen is expected to try and re-start the shut- in wells on unceded Lubicon land at any time. The Lubicon people are therefore again bracing for confrontation on the ground. * * * * * A more detailed account about the breakdown of negotiations between the Lubicons and the Provincial Government of Alberta will be uploaded in the near future. ************************************************************************ For more information contact web:car by e-mail or in writing Aboriginal Rights Support Group Committee Against Racism P.O. Box 3085, Station B Calgary, Alberta T2M 4L6