Lubicons preparing for 'action on the ground'

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The Lubicon Lake Indian Band is preparing for direct action "on the ground" to protect its traditional land, says Lubicon advisor Fred Lennarson.

He says the band has no other option because it faces destruction as a society.

He says the Lubicons hope to avoid violence "but when you have morons on the other side someone is liable to get hurt.

"We have to do something. The government is waiting to see if we have any capability left," he says.

Chief Bernard Ominayak would not release details of the plan saying it would jeopardize the band's position.

Daishowa Canada, whose Forest Management Agreement (FMA) lies within the band's land claim, announced it would postpone logging in the area until at least next year. But a subsidiary, Brewster Construction of Red Earth, along with Boucher Brothers Lumber of Nampa, are both scheduled to start logging on the disputed land as soon as the land freezed in mid-November - and that is what has the chief concerned.

"If we allow them to clear-cut, we may as well sign our death certificates," says Ominayak. "We won't let anything happen until our claim is settled."

But Ominayak says he doe not hold out much hope for a negotiated settlement with the current Conservative governments. Negotiations broke down with the federal government in January 1989 and talks with the province broke off in June 1990. When the provincial government and the Lubicons could not agree on a draft settlement, the province suggested the Lubicons support an independent three-person tribunal as proposed by Premier Don Get in 1988. But that attempt failed when the parties disagreed on the members of the tribunal.

Ominayak says the only reason the government suggested arbitration was to prevent the Lubicon from taking action by giving them some hope of a settlement.

He says if both levels of government had the political will to negotiate, "we could have this matter resolved, but the governments aren't going out of their way to understand our position."

Bob Hawkesworth, Alberta New Democrat Native affairs critic, says the government "is in bed with Daishowa and will do what it takes to keep the company satisfied."

The 4,000 square mile Lubicon land claim lies within the pulp mill company's FMA, which puts Daishowa's source of timber at stake.