FEATURES

‘Repression and the
Olympic Games —
Canadian style

By PAUL OGRESKO

The prospect of the 1988 Summer
Olympics being held in Seoul, South

Orea has once more raised the spectre
of the Olympic tradition being sullied in a
bloodbath of repression. But as we near
the Olympic year questions are begin-
Ning to arise about the Winter Olympics
to be held in Calgary, Canada. For, as
People around the world are beginning to
realize, Canada’s internal politics are far
from pure and the organizers and spon-
Sors of the Calgary Winter games are
directly linked to an ongoing genocide in
their own country.

The genocide is being perpetrated
agianst the Lubicon Cree of Northern,
Alberta. The perpetrators are the federal
S0vernment, the provincial government
of Alberta and multi-national oil com-
Panies. The injustice involves a half-
Century of unanswered land claims, bro-
ken promises, outright theft, government

governments agreed in principle and ap-
proved of the land selected. But from
1940 to 1953 no action was taken by Ot-
tawa and ina unilateral move the provin-
cial government brought the area under
its control.

In the two decades that followed de-
velopers began to eye the aboriginal land
of the Lubicon Cree. There was some
drilling and exploration but it was spread
over a wide area. Then came 1973 and
the oil crisis. Suddenly oil prices sky-
rocketed. Explorations by major de-
velopers increased in the Lubicon Lake
area and yielded a high rate of success.
Simultaneously the Lougheed provincial
government constructed an all-weather
road into Lubicon territory.

The impact of the oil companies’ exp-
lorations in the area were immediate and
hard-felt. For the Lubicon Cree who had
lived a traditional, self-supporting life-

ee

The Fulton Inquiry was immediately terminated
by the Department of Indian Affairs. The paper
itself was placed under wraps and has never been

publicly released.

decit and cover-up and finally the pre-
-Meditated destruction of a people.

The story begins at the end of the last
century when Treaty commissioners
travelled through what is now Alberta

and Saskatchewan signing treaties with °

the Cree and Blackfoot nations. In their
haste to meet deadlines and to open up
the west for white settlement they made
a few oversights. One of these
“oversights’’ were the Lubicon Cree of
Northern Alberta.

For the provincial government of Al-
berta and for the federal arm represented
by the Department of Indian. Affairs
(DIA) the fact-the Lubicon had yet to be
taken into treaty or have their aboriginal
lands defined was not deemed a problem
Serious enough to merit attention. All
_ this would change with the discovery of

Oil and gas potential on the lands the
Lubicon called home. ob

From 1939 to 1940 DIA agents visited
the Lubicon Cree and promised them a
reserve. Both the federal and provincial

style of hunting and trapping a world was

shattered.

* ‘Bernard Ominayak, Chief of the Lubi-
con, told the Tribune of the impact the
development had on the community of
457 Cree.

‘*Until a few years ago everyone made
their living from hunting and trapping,
now it’s basically welfare. We've got a
welfare roll of 90 per cent. Now there is
drinking, family break-ups and suicides.
(The oil companies) have come in, de-
stroyed a way of life and all we've got to
look forward to is welfare.”’

Determined to protect their aboriginal
rights the Lubicon Cree have fought -
back with every means at their disposal.
In 1983 the Lubicon filed an application
for an injunction with the Alberta court
to stop development activities pending
settlement of the Lubicon’s aboriginal
land claims.

The plaintiffs were Chief Ominayak
and the members of the Lubicon Lake
band. The ‘‘defendants’’, reading like a

PG ames Sena Shi RE |

While the
Lubicon Cree
would find
little justice in
the court
system in.
Canada they
would find
even less with
the Canadian
and provincial
governments

Bernard Ominayak: “The oil companies have come in, destroyed a way of life and all
we’ve got to look forward to is welfare.”

Financial Post list of Canada’s most pro-
fitable oil companies, included Norcen
Energy Resources Ltd., Dome Petro-
leum Ltd., Shell Canada Resources Ltd.,
Union Oil Company of Canada Ltd.,
Numac Oil & Gas Ltd., Petro-Canada
Exploration Inc., Chevron Standard
Ltd., Petrofina Canada Ltd., Amoco
Canada Petroleum Ltd., and Her
Majesty the Queen in right of the Prov-
ince of Alberta.

The Lubicon application was turned
down. The final judgment would give a

revealing picture of how aboriginal —
people are dealt with by the court system °

in Canada.

Two of the arguments presented by the
court in rejecting the Lubicon applica-
tion were that ‘‘the fact aboriginal and
treaty rights of the aboriginal peoples of
Canada is now a constitutionally en-
shrined right has no practical significance
in the context of protecting such rights
from damage or destruction.’’ And that

~‘while..a.Joss..of .a..way..of life.can. be.

compensated in money damages, loss of

oil company profit cannot. Thus the In- ©

dians will not suffer irreparable harm if
no injunction is granted, but the oil com-
panies would suffer irreparable harm if
an Interim Injunction were granted.”’

By 1982 400 drill sites surrounded the
Lubicon community.

While the Lubicon Cree would find
little justice in the court system in
Canada they would find even less in the
ensuing negotiations with the federal and
provincial governments for recognition
of their aboriginal rights.

While 4200 square miles of territory is
traditional land which the Lubicon have

never surrendered through any treaty the —

Lubicon are claiming only 90 square
miles as a reserve. For the Tory govern-
ment of Alberta it is 90 square miles too
much.

“‘We intend to keep all oil activity out
of that 90 mile area.” Ominayak said.
‘‘The whole traditional area is now filled
with roads, oil rigs, powerlines, pipe-
lines. There seems to be little desire in
reaching a settlement, the focus seems to
be greed and jurisdiction. We are caught
in the middle.”

In 1985 then federal Indian Affairs min-
ister David Crombie appointed David
Fulton, a former Tory cabinet minister,
to investigate the Lubicon land claim.
The conclusions of the Fulton Inquiry
would take the federal Tories by sur-
prize. Fulton wrote. in his report, which
was subsequently obtained under the
Freedom of Information Act, that sub-
stantial revenues were flowing daily from
the Lubicon area while none of it ben-
efited the Cree. The report went on to
state that a way of life was being signi-
ficantly damaged and that compension
and settlement of the Lubicon’s claims
was long overdue.

The Fulton Inquiry was immediately
terminated by the Department of Indian
Affairs. The paper itself was placed
under wraps and has never been publicly
released. Fulton was removed and Roger

_ Cree claimed a membership of 457.who.....,
had lived in the area for generations, —

Tasse was appointed the new federal
negotiator. Tasse brought a new hard-
line into the negotiations.

The position Tasse brought into the
negotiations was that the federal
government was prepared to recognize
as “‘legitimate’’ Indians only those it had
previously recognized prior to the pas-
sage of Bill C-31. (Bill C-31 was a change
to the Indian Act which partially
addressed a historical injustice imple-
mented by the government of Canada.
Previously, Indian women who married
non-Indian men instantly lost their
“‘status’’, in other words were no longer
recognized as Indian. They were forced
to leave the reserve, their children also
lost their status. Meanwhile when an In-
dian man married a non-Indian woman,
that woman instantly became Indian in
the eyes of the Canadian government as
did her children.)

The federal position recognized a band
membership of only 196. The Lubicon

were of aboriginal descent, and had lived
a traditional lifestyle. The size of the
membership is crucial to the negotiations
as it directly determines the size of any
eventual reserve.

Tasse accused the Lubicon Cree of
trying to “‘jack-up’’ their membership
and went on to claim that development
was good for the area because ‘‘all the
destruction allows for new plant
growth.”

In December, 1985 the provincial
government, basing itself on the band

‘membership in 1940, ‘‘offered’’ the

Lubicon a reserve of 25.4 square miles
on the condition all claims against the
province of Alberta were extinguished.
The Lubicon turned the offer down.

In April, 1986, the Lubicon Cree called
for a boycott of the Calgary Winter
Olympics.

In June, 1986, federal negotiations
broke off. They have yet to resume.

Along with the provincial government
of Alberta many of the corporate spon-
sors of the Calgary Games are the same
corporations responsible for the over-
running of Lubicon land.

It seemed more than ironic that in 1986
Frank King, Olympic Organizing Com-
mittee (OCO) Chairman, announced that
the ‘‘flagship”’ of the °88 Olympic Arts
Festival in Calgary would be a $2.6-mil-
lion exhibition at the Glenbow museum
exploring Canadian Indian and Inuit cul-
ture entitled Forget Not My World.
Pledging $1.1-million in support was
Shell Canada whose president, Jack M.
MacLeod, stated, ‘(The show) will give
us a chance to expand our understanding
of Canadian Native heritage ... Shell's
participation is consistent with our
commitment to Canada.”’

Coming next week.

Part 2 — The growing support in Europe
for the Lubicon Cree and the cultural
boycott. The Canadian government's at-
tempts to counter the boycott and the
United Nations condemns Canada.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, AUGUST 12, 1987 e 5

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