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| The Lubicon Cree:
the long struggle
for a settlement

By PAUL OGRESKO

The Lubicon Cree are a people under
siege. Their 40-year battle for a land base
continues with no end in sight. For the
Lubicon Cree it is a race against time. Oil
exploration and drilling have decimated
the Lubicon’s territory — destroying wild-
life and bringing on a multitude of social
problems.

Bernard Ominayak, chief of the north-
ern Alberta band, has travelled around the
world to raise support for the band’s
struggle. He is a soft-spoken man and one
senses he would be much more at east ona
trapline than at political rallies and press
conferences. But for the Lubicon Cree,
survival hinges on how much public sup-
port they can win. It is a battle in which
they cannot stand alone.

“Once you’ve destroyed the environ-
ments the oil companies have done to our
traditional area, it takes a long time, if
ever, to recover.” Ominayak told the
Tribune.

“The longer it takes to reach a solution
the harder it is for our people to come back
and regain the self-sufficiency we once
had.”

While the 457-member community is
still recovering from last fall’s tuberculosis
epidemic, other social problems are
mounting. Seismic exploration by Shell
Canada, Petrocan and a host of other oil
companies has scared away the wildlife

while destroying the traditional hunting .

and trapping livelihood. Average income
for a Lubicon trapper before the oil com-
panies moved in was $8,000 to $10,000
dollars a year — it has now dropped to an

average of $400. Welfare is at 90 per cent
while alcohol abuse is increasing among
young people. The band recently expe-
rienced its first suicide.

The federal government has given no
sign it intends to settle with the Lubicon.
Recent events, according to band advisor
Fred: Lennarson, show that the federal
government is more concerned with
appeasing the Getty government of
Alberta than finding a solution to the
long-standing claim.

On Jan. 18, federal negotiator Brian
Malone delivered a letter to Ominayak
from federal Indian Affairs Minister Bill
McKnight. The letter was in fact an ultim-
atum form the federal government —
either sit down in a tripartite meeting with
the provincial and federal governments or
have a “settlement” imposed. McKnight
went on to warn that if he did not receive a
“positive response” from Ominayak by
Jan. 29, he would ‘“‘assume that the nego-
tiation process has been exhausted” and
the two levels of government would reach
a settlement without the Lubicon’s partic-
ipation. At press time, that deadline had
passed without any federal action.

The Lubicon Cree was caught in a
squeeze between the Mulroney and Getty
governments. But calling the real shots are
Shell Canada and Petrocan who are
pumping over a million dollars in profit

out.of Lubicon land each day..The Getty _

government has shown little interest in
stepping on the toes of oil companies who
are among the Tory government’s major
political backers as well as being the prin-

” strengthened

ciple sponsors of the Calgary Olympic
games.

The insistence of McKnight that the
Getty government be a participants in the
Lubicon negotiations sets a precedent in
Native-government relations in Canada.
Historically, Native land claims have been
a federal responsibility, but with the
Meech Lake Accord, the Lubicon Cree
have an additional hurdle in front of them.

“The federal government doesn’t have
the backbone to deal with. the Alberta
government,” Ominayak charged, “They
are basically following the provincial posi-
tion which has been to stonewall any pro-
cess that will lead to serious negotiations.”

At stake is the size of reserve the
Lubicon will receive. Though traditional,
unceded Lubicon territory amounts to
10,000 square kilometres of land, the band
is claiming only a 230-square kilometre
reserve for its 457 members. Both the fed-
eral and provincial governments have
questioned the size of the band — insist-
ing there are less than half the band
members the Lubicon Cree claims.

Ominayak countered that the Getty
government has no business in negotiating
the size of Indian bands, that the commun-
ity knows who is a band member and that
the recent removal of a discriminatory
clause in the Indian Act (Bill C-31) has
the Lubicon’s case.
McKnight’s letter warns that the federal
government. will. proceed with court
actions to determine the band’s member-

Lubicon chief Bernard Ominayak (I) with members of the band.

ship with or without Lubicon participa-
tion.

While the stonewalling and ultimatums
continue from both levels of government
the Lubicon Cree insist that negotiations
cannot begin until former justice minister
Davie Fulton is involved as a mediator. In
1985, Fulton was appointed by then
Indian Affairs minister David Crombie to
investigate the legitimacy of the Lubicon
claim. Fulton’s inquiry concluded that
substantial revenue was flowing daily
from Lubicon land while none of it benef-
itted the Cree. The report went on to con-
clude that a way of life was being
destroyed and that compensation was
long overdue.

The Fulton Inquiry was immediately
terminated by Indian Affairs while Fulton
himself was removed as federal negotiator.
Talks have not progressed since then.

As the Olympic Games approach,
Lubicon support groups are planning
demonstrations and information booths
while Ominayak has travelled the country
to raise awareness of the Lubicon’s strug-
gle. He appeared tired as the interview
drew to a close but there was a determina-
tion in his voice as he concluded.

“The Canadian government always
claims to play a leading role when it comes
to violations of human rights but only so

- long.as it’s in another part of thesworld.
Here we are, having the same problems
these other countries are having, and
they’re not prepared to deal with us.”

Canada-USA: Problems and Contra-
dictions in North American Integration
is must reading for those concerned with
Canada’s future. Just off the press, this
new work by Soviet political economist
Andrei Borodayvesky is more than an
in-depth examination of Canada-U.S.
economic relations — it is. specifically
about the tendency towards complete
integration of the Canadian economy
with that of the U.S: Herein lies the uni-
queness of the book.

Almost all previous studies, the publi-
cation points out, have concentrated on
“showing the scale and principle forms
of U.S. capital's penetration of Canada,
revealing the extent to which the latter’s
economy is subservient to foreign mono-
polies, and showing the influence of U.S.
investments on the structure and growth
rates of Canadian industry, on the rise of
national monopoly capital and so on.”

Soviet author Borodayevsky’s latest
effort looks at the mutual integration of
the economies of Canada and the U.S.
This examination goes well beyond trade
and investment, but incorporates all
aspects of economic life.

Using Marxist methodology, the
author acknowledges the - tendency
towards international capitalist integra-
tion, in particular, regional integration.
While the European experience has been
well canvassed, little has been done on
North America.

: Labour in

As opposed to Europe where “joint
legislative and regulating activities by the
states concerned were the initial point
and still remain an inalienable part of the
integration system, in North America,
where perhaps even greater mutual pene-
tration and interlocking of the national
economies of two major industrially
developed capitalist countries has been
achieved ..., the integration-oriented
initiative comes from private business.”

The author traces the role of the Can-
adian state to the time of Mulroney's
trade deal. Canada,he writes, has often
tried to stifle private “initiative” and con-
trol the integration process, but it has
proceeded largely spontaneously. Sucha
conclusion gives fresh insights into the
sudden’ massive shift of Canadian big
business towards free trade, and contin-
entalism.

In covering the international division

action

of labour particularly between Canada
and the United States, Borodayevsky
details Canada’s underdeveloped and
distorted economy. Our excessive re-
liance on raw material export leaves us
more vulnerable to international market
forces, and results in minimal tax
revenues and only “marginal employ-
ment growth.” On the other hand, Can-
adian big business, as juniors to U.S.
transnational corporations and in many
cases merged with them, have concen-
trated vast wealth. Canadian big busi-
ness is the largest direct, foreign investor
in the U.S. economy.

The writer states that under current
conditions, *‘a manufacturing enterprise
of the modern optimal scale cannot
appear in Canada in principle unless it is
oriented from the very outset to export
markets.” Such a conclusion bears con-
siderable study, particularly by those

_ A searching new study of Canada-U.S. ties

who are dedicated to finding an alterna-
tive to Mulroney’s trade deal, or to the
continued loss of Canadian sovereignty.

The author draws another major con-
clusion by asserting that Canada’s “inte-
gration with the United States has
regionalized the Canadian economy and
led to the strengthening of vertical and
the weakening of horizontal ties.”” Inte-
gration stimulates separatist tendencies
in Canada “objectively contradicting the
country’s national interests”, according
to the author.

While Canada-USA ... is not your
everyday weekend reading it is easy to
understand, without, in the least, sacrific-
ing scholarly research. There are ample
footnotes for those who wish either to
dig deeper or to challenge the author's
sources. All of his conclusions are
worthy of a serious scrutiny.

In fact. as the author says’ “Deep
going division of labour in the North
American economy and the growing
intertwining of the two countries’ repro-
duction processes is the reality every
serious economist must acknowledge in
pondering over the choice of a national
economic course.”

Canada-USA: Problems and Contra-
dictions in North American Economic
Integration. Andrei D. Borodayevsky.
Paper 261 pp. $8.95. Available at Peo-
ple’s Co-op Boosktore.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 10, 1988 e 7