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 November 12, 1992 Enclosed for your information is a copy of a letter to Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney regarding the continuing Lubicon tragedy. * * * * * October 31, 1992, letter from INCOMINDIOS Switzerland to Brian Mulroney Dear Prime Minister: INCOMINDIOS Switzerland is again protesting all the actions your government has taken against the Lubicon Lake Indian Nation as native inhabitants of Canada in recent times. Moreover, INCOMINDIOS Switzerland will not enter into any judgement of all the activities of the Canadian government anymore, especially into the so-called "new offer" delivered by Minister Tom Siddon on July 24th, 1992 to the Lubicon Lake Indian Nation. INCOMINDIOS Switzerland only puts on record that your government obviously is not able to fulfill a promise given to the Lubicon people more than fifty years ago: the promise for a just and fair settlement of the land claim of the Lubicon people. Members of INCOMINDIOS Switzerland visited the Lubicon people last summer, and they attended the hearings of the Lubicon Settlement Commission of Review of August 6th and 7th, 1992. Their report about the living conditions of the Lubicon people is shocking. Obviously, there is the same disaster taking place before our eyes as the Plains Indians in the United States had to face a century ago; government and businessmen deliberately destroy the living base of native people: then by systematic killing of the buffalos, today by clearcutting the woodlands, which are the habitat of animals on which native people as the Lubicon Cree depend. Following these destructive activities, native people are at the mercy of the Canadian government and of multinational corporations of the oil and lumber industry. In addition, INCOMINDIOS Switzerland is asking you urgently to call the attention of all members of your government to the point of keeping up the rules of proper behaviour when it comes to negotiate with native people as well. The style of Minister Tom Siddon in addressing a delegation of Lubicon women during the meeting of September 4th, 1992, makes his cynicism obvious and is unworthy of a representative of a modern, civilized, and democratic country like Canada. INCOMINDIOS Switzerland will continue to support the Lubicon Lake Indian Nation with all its means and according to the resolution of the 8th European Meeting of Native American Groups of July 25th, 1992. In addition to this resolution INCOMINDIOS Switzerland will strengthen the contact with the Lubicon Settlement Commission of Review in order to spread all information delivered by a politically independent institution in Switzerland as well as in other European countries. For the near future, INCOMINDIOS Switzerland supposes that the agreement of Helsinki (Selfdetermination of peoples) will also affect Canada as one of the signatory powers to this treaty. In the view of INCOMINDIOS Switzerland Canada is one of the last colonial countries after the break- up of the Sowjetunion, and therefore INCOMINDIOS Switzerland welcomes all efforts for speeding up the process of de-colonization within the Canadian borders. INCOMINDIOS Switzerland is hoping that in the course of the reorganization of the political structure of Canada the Lubicon Lake Indian Nation also will get a just and fair settlement of its claim, and that it will be possible for your government after more than fifty years of empty promises to improve the living conditions of the Lubicon men, women and children drastically and according to the modern standards of human dignity. Sincerely yours, On behalf of INCOMINDIOS Switzerland Helena M. Nyberg, Prof. Dr. Heinz Lippuner