In a message on 02-29-92, Fred Towner posted a reply letter from Dick Fowler,
Solicitor General and Minister Responsible for Native Affairs (Alberta).

In his reply Mr. Fowler makes at least one comment that needs clarification
and comments.

He says, that "no logging of any kind has been authorized on the approximately
60,000 acres within the proposed Lubicon Reserves."

The proposed Lubicon reserves form but very tiny islands in the vast woodlands
of traditional Lubicon lands. Since the Lubicons have never signed treaty, and
have never ceded or lost their traditional lands in any legally or
historically recognized way it is not for the federal or provincial
governments to lease those Lubicon lands to companies to extract Lubicon
resources against the will of the Lubicon people. 

Mr. Fowler is playing fast and loose in his attempt to make concerned people
believe that the Province of Alberta and Daishowa are acting properly with
regards to Lubicon land rights. The opposite is the case. Companies like
Daishowa are stealing Lubicon resources with the complicity and encouragement
of the greedy and ethically bankrupt governments of Alberta and Canada. 

This unethical behaviour by governments and resource-extracting companies has,
over the last ten years, led to a complete breakdown of this aboriginal
society by destroying its self-sufficiency and by devastating its social
structure.

Mr. Fowler is but one of many politicians trying to put a nice face on some
very ugly reality.