Lubicon fight proposed TransCanada pipeline
© Indian Country Today April 04, 2008. All Rights Reserved
April 04, 2008
by: Kate Harries
TORONTO - The Lubicon Lake Indian Nation in northern Alberta is
gearing up to fight a proposed jumbo pipeline that would carry natural
gas from the Mackenzie Valley in the west to the oil sands
developments to the east.
The $983 million proposal follows a history of industrial development
across the unceded Lubicon territory that has left the 500-member Cree
nation impoverished, poisoned and disregarded by Canada and Alberta -
despite criticism about violations of their rights from two United
Nations committees.
''It's a devastating situation where there is all kinds of activity
around our traditional hunting and trapping areas,'' Lubicon Chief
Bernard Ominayak said when he traveled to Geneva two years ago. ''It's
polluting most of our waters - we have to haul our own water and we
can't eat the fish any more.''
TransCanada Pipelines filed an application last November for the 185-
mile pipeline, stating that it had consulted extensively regarding the
pipeline route with stakeholders, including affected First Nations,
and received no objections.
That prompted an indignant denial from the Lubicon.
TransCanada representatives never provided answers to repeated
questions about construction, operations, safety issues and mitigation
measures, and ignored a request that the company recognize Lubicon
jurisdiction before applying to the provincial regulatory board, said
Lubicon lawyer Fred Lennarson.
''TransCanada's so-called 'engagement program' is clearly not a
sincere effort to inform the Lubicon people about the project,''
Lennarson wrote in a letter to company lawyer Line Lacasse in January.
Lacasse, in an earlier letter, said TransCanada must meet its project
timelines, and could not wait for a Lubicon decision.
''The response of the Lubicon people is that they are the aboriginal
owners of the land that TransCanada wishes to violate with this huge
pipeline, and TransCanada can either deal with Lubicon concerns prior
to proceeding with provincial project approvals or find some alternate
route,'' Lennarson replied.
While Shell, Suncor and Imperial Oil are lining up in favor of the
pipeline, Lubicon supporters are writing to the Alberta Utilities
Commission in objection to TransCanada's tactics.
A commission spokesman said the Lubicon will have to demonstrate ''a
potential direct and adverse effect'' in order to be allowed to
participate at an upcoming hearing.
Some supporters are targeting the company's bottom line and warning of
shareholder dissatisfaction that will be raised at the company's
annual general meeting in Calgary April 25.
KAIROS, a Canadian church group, has written to board chair S. Barry
Jackson to express deep concern on behalf of several religious
institutions that hold TransCanada shares.
''We are disturbed by the company's decision to proceed with an
application to the AUC for approval of the NCC project as is, without
having concluded discussions with the Lubicon Nation,'' wrote KAIROS
executive director Mary Corkery.
''Management's handling of this situation may constitute an
undisclosed and poorly managed risk to our investments,'' Corkery
stated, adding that ''this situation constitutes an unacceptable
response to a serious, internationally recognized human rights issue.''
Company spokesman Cecily Dobson said in an e-mail that TransCanada
respects the Lubicons' assertion of traditional and cultural use of
the land.
Because of an oversight by Crown officials, the Lubicon were left out
when Treaty 8 was negotiated in 1899. The lack of a treaty means they
retain unextinguished aboriginal title to their territory, estimated
at 62,000 square miles.
Oil and gas companies have overrun the territory, purchasing leases
from Alberta at will. Development has poisoned the lakes and decimated
the wildlife, destroying traditional life and culture. The Lubicons'
water sources have been contaminated by resource extraction and the
people suffer a multitude of medical problems, including tuberculosis,
asthma, skin rashes, cancer and stillbirths.
Indian Affairs spokesman Glenn Luff said the territory is provincial
Crown land and while court decisions mandate consultation, there's no
obligation on the federal government to intervene.
''Mr. Luff can call it 'Crown land' all he wants; but the problem for
Mr. Luff is that under Canadian law, the land is only surrendered by
negotiating a treaty with the aboriginal owners, and there's no treaty
with the Lubicons,'' retorted Kevin Thomas of the Friends of the
Lubicon group.
The U.N. Human Rights Committee has twice found Canada in violation of
an international treaty on civil and political rights. It called on
Canada to ensure adequate consultation before licensing economic
exploitation of the land, and to ensure that logging and large-scale
oil and gas extraction do not jeopardize the nation's culture and way
of life, in violation of their human and aboriginal land rights.
In 2006, the U.N. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
reiterated the Human Rights Committee's findings and urged Canada to
resume negotiations with the Lubicon, a call that was echoed by a U.N.
official who visited the Lubicon community of Little Buffalo last year.
The Lubicon are still waiting, after talks broke down in 2003 when
federal representatives said they had no mandate to negotiate with
Lubicon self-government. Recently, Canada proposed to send an envoy to
conduct preliminary talks, but the Lubicon rejected the idea, Luff said.
That's not true, Thomas said, adding that ''what the Lubicons would
like to see is a federal envoy who is willing to work with the
Lubicons to sort out how - not if - a settlement can be achieved.''
