Saturday, December 17, 2005

Paul Martin: Crossing the Lubicon

A simmering 66-year-old injustice against an Indian Nation known as the Lubicon Lake Nation is being perpetuated in Canada, with the active connivance of Paul Martin. In fact, it is nothing less than a mini-genocide, but, done over time, genocide seems somehow less...like genocide. Nevertheless, here's the definition of the term: "A systematic attempt to annihilate a racial group or nation. The word was first used in 1944." Read on, and judge for yourselves.

Throughout the unfortunate history of the Lubicon, the outlines of classic colonial administration unmistakably emerge. Native people in Canada do not even have the right to determine who is, or is not, "Indian": that is a (white) government responsibility, under the Indian Act. The construct "Indian" is imposed by lawmakers and courts; and "culture" in Supreme Court of Canada decisions such as R. v van der Peet appears to be frozen and reified in pre-contact timelessness, with "central" and "non-central" elements to be decided by the Canadian judiciary, an anthropologically-illiterate position as some lawyers, at least, have grasped. As Calgary law professor Nigel Bankes put it, for example, "aboriginal peoples of Canada have rights so long as they remain in a fossilized or primitive state, but their rights are progressively diminished to the extent that they avail themselves to the benefits and burdens of the twentieth century."

In the process of constructing treaties between the Canadian federal government and the many First Nations inhabiting the land over which the Canadian state claims overall jurisdiction, a number of Native people were and continue to be left out. The Lubicon Lake Nation was one such group. Their history offers us, in capsule form, a recapitulation of the history of colonialism and its effects on indigenous peoples: in three words, occupation, dispossession and decline.

Under the treaty process, aboriginal peoples have been placed historically in the position of having to negotiate to keep a portion of their own lands. But at even a greater disadvantage were those Native groups who were left out of the treaty process altogether. The Lubicon Cree should have been included in Treaty 8, between the federal government and the Cree, Beaver and Chippewyan peoples of northern Alberta and adjacent parts of British Columbia, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories, a treaty negotiated in 1899 in order to open the North for gold prospecting. Like a number of other isolated groups in Northern Alberta, however, the Lubicon were never contacted by Canadian government officials, who for various reasons did not enter the interior north of Lesser Slave Lake where the Lubicon lived.

By 1932, Native people from that territory began asking to have the terms of Treaty Eight applied to them. In 1933, the people of Lubicon Lake sent a petition to Ottawa formally asking for a reserve. In 1939 a federal government official, Napoleon L'Heureux, made the trip to Lubicon Lake, and was greeted by more than a hundred band members. Their leader, Alexis Laboucan, pressed his community's claim for recognition, and with it the provisions and schooling that Treaty Eight guaranteed.

A federal inspector, Pant Schmidt, who had accompanied L'Heureux, was impressed:

I saw a number of small gardens and potato patches all fenced in with rails. I noticed also that they had very good horses. I was very much interested in this band, and found them clean, well dressed, healthy, bright and intelligent; in other words, people who want to live and do well.

It was at this point that the fortunes of the Lubicon Lake band changed dramatically for the worse. There were odd delays in establishing the borders of the reserve, and then an energetic Indian Affairs bureaucrat in Ottawa, Malcolm McCrimmon, came on the scene. While David Laird, the negotiator of Treaty Eight, had defined a Native person simply as "one who lived an Indian way of life," McCrimmon went back to the more restrictive language of the 1876 Indian Act, which defined an "Indian" as a "male person of Indian blood reputed to belong to a particular band…Any child of such person...Any woman who is or was lawfully married to such person."

McCrimmon's agile pen soon deleted 640 people from several bands in the region, unable to prove their Native lineage to his whimsical satisfaction, forcing 124 children out of school with no other schools available to them, driving many off reserves, including an 80-year old man with severe rheumatism and a woman with children whose husband was overseas fighting for Canada in the Second World War, and splitting families, allowing some children Indian status and refusing others. People who were successful proved especially likely to lose their status: McCrimmon apparently couldn't believe that Native people could prosper.

McCrimmon struck off 75 of the Lubicon band's 154 members in 1942, and in 1943 another 26, leaving only 64 people—whereupon he recommended to Ottawa that this number was too small for a reserve.This overtly racist behaviour attracted the ire of many, including Members of Parliament, and two inquiries were held.

The first was a farce: McCrimmon wrote the terms of reference and accompanied the inquiry judge, C.M. McKeen, on his rounds. Nevertheless, the judge filed a favourable report, duly ignored by McCrimmon’s boss, Thomas Crerar, the federal minister of Indian Affairs at the time. This provoked a fresh outcry, and Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent was persuaded to call a formal judicial inquiry in 1944.

It recommended that nearly eight out of nine persons expelled by McCrimmon should be reinstated. At Lubicon Lake, 57 of the 90 names that had been removed were examined: 51 of them were found to have been removed in error.

But it was Thomas Crerar once again who received Macdonald's report, and the minister tasked McCrimmon to implement its findings. Not surprisingly, only 120 people were restored to status, leaving another 600 out in the cold. At Lubicon Lake, only 18 were reinstated: McCrimmon had cut the band in half.

After the war, McCrimmon found himself working for a new minister, who favoured assimilation of Native people "into the general life and economy of the country." A revised Indian Act was passed in 1951, further restricting the definition of "Indian" with racial and gender criteria. McCrimmon became the first Indian Registrar under the new Act. "I was a power unto myself," he later reminisced. His continued activities drew more than one thousand written protests.

But the near-fatal blow to the Lubicon was the discovery of oil in the Edmonton area, the subsequent creation of an oil and gas industry in Alberta, and the province’s desire to begin oil exploration further north. Indian Affairs internal reports began to describe the proposed site of the Lubicon reserve as a barren wasteland, and alternative sites far from oil exploration areas were proposed--but even then without subsurface mineral rights. McCrimmon now claimed that the Lubicon Lake Indians had never been officially established as a band in the first place. Ottawa took no action to obtain reserve land, and Alberta deleted the provisional reserve from its books in late 1953. McCrimmon then proceeded to transfer most of the Lubicon band members to the Whitefish Lake band list. The Lubicon Lake band was now down to 30 members.

More catastrophic events followed. A Lubicon Lake community, Marten River, was bulldozed in 1967 after some dubious manipulations by the Alberta government: by coincidence, two years later, the land next to it became the first producing oil field in Lubicon territory. A lease for a proposed farming co-op on part of the promised reserve land was approved in 1970, but a Métis family slowly took over; Lubicon members were fired and replaced with family members until no Lubicon remained involved.

In 1971, oil drilling took place near Little Buffalo. OPEC’s oil embargo in 1973 intensified drilling: the Lubicon and other groups filed a caveat to protect their interests. The Alberta government opposed this, and was supported in court by the federal government; it eventually passed retroactive legislation in 1977 disallowing such caveats. By 1984 there were more than 400 oil and gas wells operating within a 15-mile radius of Little Buffalo. Permits were issued and reissued without any environmental assessments. Oil workers deliberately wrecked trap lines, and forest fires, some deliberately set, raged uncontrolled.

In 1978, the Lubicon elected Chief Bernard Ominayak, who remains chief today. A man of grim determination, he sat down with Alberta Premier Don Getty in 1988, after a show of force that sealed off Lubicon territory for a short period until the RCMP intervened. The two hammered out a comprehensive deal that came to be known as the "Grimshaw Agreement." All that remained was federal participation, but this foundered primarily upon the matter of compensation: far too little was offered to enable the Lubicon to become self-sufficient (which the Lubicon had planned for in detail) rather than perpetually dependent. Ottawa's take-it-or-leave-it offer was rejected.

In 1979, trapping yielded $5000 per Lubicon family; by the mid-eighties, this had dwindled to virtually nothing. Moose killed for food dropped from 219 in 1979 to 19 in 1983: Indian Affairs in Ottawa claimed that land clearing by oil and gas companies was good for the moose population. From 1980-1984, the number of Lubicon on welfare increased, according to the band, from 10% to 90%. Although this figure is contested by federal government officials, band records indicate that in fact 95% of the band was receiving social assistance in the early 1990s.

By 1982, $8 billion worth of oil and gas revenue had been pumped out of Lubicon territory, without a cent going to the Lubicon. Lubicon request for an injunction against further oil and gas exploration was dismissed with costs in 1983 by a judge who had formerly been an oil company employee. An appeals court upheld the verdict, and the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear the case. The Alberta ombudsman, Randall Ivany, looked into complaints of despoliation and cultural genocide in 1984, and found no merit in them. (He was later revealed to have believed in conspiracy theories such as the alleged "funding" of the Lubicon by the radical American Indian Movement; after his death, he was revealed to have been a common embezzler.)

By 1985 the Alberta Indian affairs minister, Milt Pahl, was calling the Lubicon "squatters," and claiming that only 9 genuine Lubicon existed. And, as if untrammeled oil and gas exploration hadn't been enough, the Alberta government sold logging rights in Lubicon territory to the giant Japanese paper manufacturer, Daishowa, in 1988.

The Lubicon and their supporters became active on the ground. A world-wide boycott of the Calgary Winter Games in 1988, and of the Calgary Glenbow Museum's exhibition of Native artifacts was mounted, garnering considerable adverse publicity for Canada. Since then, with growing national and international support, Chief Ominayak has been continually fighting for his people. A coalition called Friends of the Lubicon mounted a successful boycott of Daishowa.

Meanwhile, tuberculosis was ravaging the Lubicon population—of 358 people screened at Little Buffalo in 1987, 47 had active TB and many more were infected. 107 people in all received treatment, nearly a third of those tested. In 1985-86, 19 out of 21 pregnancies resulted in stillbirths and miscarriages.

There was, and continues to be, a formidable array of powerful interests inimical to the Lubicon. But matters are far more complex. The state is not a monolith. Even within the Canadian and Alberta governments, sympathetic and supportive voices had been raised: from Liberal MPs during the McCrimmon years to Conservative Indian Affairs minister David Crombie, who appointed E. Davy Fulton in 1985 to inquire into the situation. The latter noted the destruction of the environment, and commented that the Lubicon were being literally "bulldozed...into another lifestyle." But Fulton's sympathetic report was never acted on.

The NDP opposition in Alberta set up a citizens' panel in 1993, the "Lubicon Settlement Commission of Review." Its Final Report contains twelve recommendations But nothing came of it either.

Successive federal governments have intervened shamelessly to break the Lubicon resolve. Using its power to create Indian bands under the Indian Act, the Liberal government under Prime Minister Jean Chrétien invented two other bands, hoping to lure away Lubicon; the members of one band, the "Woodland Cree," had been promised $1000 each if they voted for a federal offer of a pitifully inadequate reserve, but they later found out that this would be deducted from their welfare payments.

This brings us almost to the present day, and Paul Martin's shameful continuation of this miserable tradition. He promised to start negotiations with the Lubicon by the end of March 2004, but this never took place, and federal officials claim that they have been given no mandate to negotiate. It's been bad faith all the way with Mr. Dithers.

Amnesty International has denounced Canada for its treatment of the Lubicon; and the UN Committee on Human Rights, which heard the Lubicon complaint and found against Canada in 1990, repeated its concerns only last month.

Decency demands that we make Martin and his Liberal "team" accountable for this outrage during the current campaign campaign. But we ought to be even-handed about it. We should embarrass the Conservatives, whose own record has been nothing to be proud of on aboriginal affairs, and we should force the NDP to put this issue on the front burner. The survival of the Lubicon--those who are left--depends upon it. Let's stand up for them before it's too late.

49 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very good blog! Do you have any hints for aspiring writers?
I'm hoping to start my own site soon but I'm a little
lost on everything. Would you advise starting with a free platform like Wordpress
or go for a paid option? There are so many options out there that I'm completely overwhelmed .. Any suggestions? Many thanks!

Here is my blog ... driveway austin

Anonymous said...

Hey there! I know this is kinda off topic but I was wondering if you knew where I could
locate a captcha plugin for my comment form?
I'm using the same blog platform as yours and I'm having trouble finding
one? Thanks a lot!

Visit my web page :: proscribe

Anonymous said...

Whoa! This blog looks exactly like my old one!

It's on a entirely different topic but it has pretty much the same layout and design. Wonderful choice of colors!

my web-site :: driveway

Anonymous said...

Yesterday, while I was at work, my sister stole my apple
ipad and tested to see if it can survive a
twenty five foot drop, just so she can be a youtube sensation.
My iPad is now destroyed and she has 83 views. I know this is totally off topic but I had
to share it with someone!

Feel free to surf to my web-site - concrete concrete

Anonymous said...

First of all I would like to say terrific blog!

I had a quick question which I'd like to ask if you don't
mind. I was curious to know how you center yourself and clear your mind before writing.
I've had difficulty clearing my mind in getting my ideas out. I truly do enjoy writing however it just seems like the first 10 to 15 minutes are lost simply just trying to figure out how to begin. Any recommendations or tips? Thanks!

My blog post - folije

Anonymous said...

Good post however , I was wanting to know if you could write a
litte more on this subject? I'd be very thankful if you could elaborate a little bit more. Cheers!

my website trees

Anonymous said...

Hey admin, I just wanted to give you a brief heads up that your Website
url: http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=13775438&postID=113483652459917028
is being flagged as a potentially harmful web
page in my web browser firefox. I'd highly recommend having someone look into it. You could very well lose a lot of visitors due to this issue. Best of Luck.

my website: folija

Anonymous said...

Gday! I hope you do not mind but I decided to post your weblog:
http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=13775438&postID=113483652459917028 to my on-line
directory website. I used, "Blogger: Dawg's Blawg" as your site headline.
I hope this is acceptable with you. However, if you'd like me to change the title or remove it completely, e-mail me at armandoprichard@inbox.com. Many thanks.

Also visit my web page ... Pvc

Anonymous said...

Hello, I think your blog might be having browser compatibility
issues. When I look at your blog in Chrome, it looks
fine but when opening in Internet Explorer, it has some overlapping.

I just wanted to give you a quick heads up!
Other then that, very good blog!

Also visit my site; help

Anonymous said...

I am in fact delighted to read this webpage posts which contains lots of valuable data, thanks for providing such statistics.


Here is my website ... Wealthwayonline.Com

Anonymous said...

I read this piece of writing fully concerning the difference of
most recent and preceding technologies, it's awesome article.

Also visit my weblog: Air Max

Anonymous said...

What's up Dear, are you in fact visiting this website regularly, if so then you will absolutely get nice knowledge.

Feel free to visit my blog post :: NFL Jerseys Wholesale

Anonymous said...

You ought to be a part of a contest for one of the highest quality websites on the
net. I will recommend this website!

My web page; Abercrombie Paris

Anonymous said...

Great post. I used to be checking continuously this weblog and I'm inspired! Very helpful information particularly the last part :) I care for such info much. I was seeking this particular information for a long time. Thanks and best of luck.

Here is my web site ... Air Max

Anonymous said...

Hey! Do you use Twitter? I'd like to follow you if that would be okay. I'm definitely
enjoying your blog and look forward to new updates.

Here is my weblog :: http://www.abercrombieandfitchbe.com/

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the marvelous posting! I definitely enjoyed
reading it, you could be a great author. I will make certain to bookmark your blog and will
come back down the road. I want to encourage one to continue your great job, have a nice weekend!


my web-site ... Louis Vuitton Handbags Outlet

Anonymous said...

Everyone loves what you guys are up too. This sort of clever work and
exposure! Keep up the fantastic works guys I've incorporated you guys to my blogroll.

Here is my website - Abercrombie Brussel

Anonymous said...

I always used to read post in news papers but now as I am a user of internet
therefore from now I am using net for articles,
thanks to web.

Here is my blog; Cheap Jerseys

Anonymous said...

Nice blog here! Also your web site loads up very fast!
What host are you using? Can I get your affiliate link to your host?
I wish my site loaded up as fast as yours lol

Check out my web-site - Kris Letang Jersey

Anonymous said...

I think that what you published made a lot of sense.
However, consider this, suppose you were to create a killer headline?
I mean, I don't wish to tell you how to run your blog, but suppose you added something that makes people want more? I mean Untitled is a little vanilla. You ought to look at Yahoo's front page
and watch how they create news titles to grab viewers interested.
You might try adding a video or a related picture or two
to grab people interested about what you've written. In my opinion, it could bring your blog a little livelier.

Look at my page ... Evgeni Malkin Black Jersey

Anonymous said...

It's a shame you don't have a donate button! I'd definitely donate to this brilliant blog! I guess for now i'll settle for
book-marking and adding your RSS feed to my Google account.
I look forward to brand new updates and will talk about this site with my Facebook
group. Chat soon!

my web-site ... wealthwayonline.com

Anonymous said...

Hi there! I'm at work surfing around your blog from my new iphone 3gs! Just wanted to say I love reading through your blog and look forward to all your posts! Carry on the superb work!

Also visit my web page: Converse Pas Cher

Anonymous said...

Do you mind if I quote a couple of your articles as long as I provide
credit and sources back to your blog? My website is in
the very same area of interest as yours and my
visitors would really benefit from some of the information
you present here. Please let me know if this ok with you. Cheers!


My page - spirilog.de

Anonymous said...

It is in point of fact a great and helpful piece of info.
I am happy that you simply shared this helpful information with
us. Please keep us informed like this. Thanks for sharing.


Review my site Cheap Jerseys

Anonymous said...

Hi! This is my first visit to your blog! We are a group of volunteers and starting a new initiative in
a community in the same niche. Your blog provided us useful information to work on.
You have done a wonderful job!

my blog post; Cheap Nike Jerseys

Anonymous said...

Thanks very interesting blog!

Here is my blog: Abercrombie France

Anonymous said...

I love what you guys are usually up too. This sort of clever work and reporting!
Keep up the excellent works guys I've included you guys to my blogroll.

Here is my weblog - Gucci Scarpe

Anonymous said...

Your way of describing the whole thing in this article is in fact pleasant, every
one be able to effortlessly know it, Thanks a lot.

Also visit my site - ribbons on pointe shoes

Anonymous said...

Why people still make use of to read news papers when in this technological world the whole
thing is available on net?

My blog post; Wholesale Jerseys

Anonymous said...

Appreciate the recommendation. Will try it out.

Check out my web blog :: louis vuitton Outlet

Anonymous said...

I have been browsing online more than three hours nowadays, yet I by no means found any attention-grabbing article like yours.
It is lovely value sufficient for me. In my view, if all
webmasters and bloggers made excellent content as you probably did, the
net might be much more helpful than ever before.


Also visit my page: Abercrombie & Fitch

Anonymous said...

This website truly has all the info I needed concerning this subject and didn't know who to ask.

Visit my webpage - Air Jordan Pas Cher

Anonymous said...

Way cool! Some extremely valid points! I appreciate you writing this
write-up and also the rest of the site is also really good.


Here is my web site - www.tedxyse.com

Anonymous said...

When I initially commented I clicked the "Notify me when new comments are added"
checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get three
emails with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove
me from that service? Many thanks!

my webpage http://slc-wireless.com/

Anonymous said...

Hi there, I found your web site by means of
Google even as searching for a related topic, your site came up, it appears good.
I have bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.
Hello there, just become aware of your weblog through Google, and found
that it's truly informative. I'm going to be
careful for brussels. I will appreciate in the event you proceed this
in future. Many people will likely be benefited from your writing.
Cheers!

My page ... Solde Air Jordan

Anonymous said...

Incredible points. Solid arguments. Keep up the amazing effort.


My homepage; Michael Kors Canada

Anonymous said...

Have you ever considered about adding a little bit more than just your articles?
I mean, what you say is fundamental and all. However think of if you added some great graphics
or video clips to give your posts more, "pop"! Your content is
excellent but with images and videos, this blog could definitely be
one of the best in its niche. Superb blog!

Also visit my blog post: stump grinding

Anonymous said...

I'm impressed, I must say. Rarely do I come across a blog that's
equally educative and interesting, and without a doubt,
you've hit the nail on the head. The issue is something that not enough folks are speaking intelligently about. Now i'm very happy I came across
this in my hunt for something regarding this.

Feel free to visit my blog: Nike Air Max

Anonymous said...

Do you have any video of that? I'd care to find out some additional information.

Review my blog Www.Wsmisports.Com

Anonymous said...

Please let me know if you're looking for a writer for your blog. You have some really good posts and I feel I would be a good asset. If you ever want to take some of the load off, I'd absolutely love to write
some articles for your blog in exchange for a link back to mine.
Please shoot me an e-mail if interested. Thanks!



Here is my web-site: luggage wars

Anonymous said...

Very nice write-up. I definitely love this website.
Continue the good work!

Visit my website Sac Louis Vuitton

Anonymous said...

I have read so many articles or reviews concerning the blogger lovers however this paragraph
is really a fastidious article, keep it up.


Feel free to visit my web-site :: Cheap Jerseys

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure where you are getting your information, but good topic. I needs to spend some time learning much more or understanding more. Thanks for wonderful information I was looking for this info for my mission.

Here is my site ... adfly

Anonymous said...

It's great that you are getting ideas from this post as well as from our dialogue made here.

Feel free to visit my homepage: More Info

Anonymous said...

An outstanding share! I've just forwarded this onto a colleague who has been conducting a little research on this. And he in fact bought me lunch simply because I stumbled upon it for him... lol. So let me reword this.... Thanks for the meal!! But yeah, thanks for spending time to talk about this issue here on your blog.

Also visit my web-site ... Mulberry Outlet UK

Anonymous said...

Hi, i think that i noticed you visited my web site thus i came to go
back the want?.I am attempting to in finding issues to
improve my site!I guess its ok to make use of a few of your concepts!

!

Look at my website Air Max Sale

Anonymous said...

I love reading a post that can make men and women think.
Also, many thanks for allowing me to comment!


Stop by my weblog - Air Max

Anonymous said...

What's up, I check your new stuff like every week. Your story-telling style is witty, keep up the good work!

Visit my webpage ... Nike ID

Anonymous said...

Hmm it seems like your website ate my first comment (it was extremely long) so I guess I'll just sum it up what I wrote and say, I'm thoroughly enjoying your blog.

I too am an aspiring blog writer but I'm still new to everything. Do you have any recommendations for inexperienced blog writers? I'd
really appreciate it.

Feel free to visit my homepage ... resources