Martin promises Lubicon settlement

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Provincial New Democrat leader, Ray Martin, has promised that his party can settle the Lubicon land claims within 100 days.

"I am convinced that a provincial government which approached the problem im a straightforward way and with honest goodwill could reach a settlement with the Lubicon Band within 100 days of taking office. Our party will take such an approach," said Martin after meeting April 29, with Lubicon Chief, Bernard Ominayak.

Martin charged that the provincial government has gone out of its way to make things difficult for this small band, which presently lives without a reserve in Cadotte Lake and Little Buffalo, east of Peace River.

"Basic justice has been denied the Lubicon people for decades. The obstructionist attitude of the Conservatives has made a settlement extraordinarily difficult to achieve," he said.

The Lubicons were not present when the federal surveys prepared Treaty 8 for signing in 1899, and, as has been the case elsewhere, were overlooked for decades. In 1940, the federal government promised them a reserve. By 1953, no reserve had been established, so the provincial government took over the land, also a typical action taken in these cases.

In 1973, the land became very valuable because of the oil beneath it, and a road was put through. Although the Lubicons, along with other northern bands tried to fight this in court, the Lougheed government took away the legal grounds for these claims in 1977. Then, in 1979, the Lougheed government again tried to remove any Native claims from the Lubicon by making Little Buffalo and Cadotte Lake into provincial hamlets and taxing the residents.

Reserve land is exempt from taxes; conveniently, the Lubicons were not recognized as having a reserve.

In 1983 and 1985, the band applied to the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench for an injunction to stop oil exploration on their hunting lands. In 1983, the request was dismissed out of hand, and in 1985, the Court decided that the oil companies would be harmed more by stopping than the band would by maintaining the exploration.

The Lubicon still have neither a treaty nor a reserve.

"Instead of effecting a fair remedy of this oversight, the Tories have displayed the attitude of a victorious power occupying enemy territory, and are using every legislative and legal trick in their books to justify their retention of control of the huge oil and gas reserves lying beneath traditional Lubicon Band lands, says the NDP position paper on Aboriginal people in Alberta.

In the meantime, the traditional way of life of the Lubicon Band has been destroyed and 95% of the people at Little Buffalo now depend on welfare," said Martin.

The New Democrat approach would be the same as its basis for dealing with all Alberta bands. The Lubicon people will receive 128 acres of land per band member.

"A New Democratic government will extend to the Lubicon people rights under provincial jurisdiction, as if a reserve were already established; make compensation for the losses resulting from past Tory action; extend control over local affairs to the Band, and protect Aboriginal hunting, trapping and fishing rights," says the position paper.

According to Native Affairs Minister Milt Pahl, "in the narrow sense of the word, the Band members have no legal interests in the subject lands." Alberta Premier Don Getty as well, has taken a stand against the claim, on the grounds that the land belongs to all Albertans.

Yet, according to the federal government's 1940 promise, the land never was Alberta's to dispense. Alberta has the legal right to any Crown lands released by the federal government, yet that right does not stand when the land is released to the Native people. In the past decades, Alberta has stood in the way of land transference if they wanted that land for tourism or industry. Yet, there seems to be little legal basis for the province's actions.

The Lubicons "don't consider recognition of our Aboriginal land rights to ber any resemblance to the question of whether or not the Alberta provincial government should or shouldn't be 'giving up' Crown lands," said Ominayak. "Our problem with the Alberta government is exactly the reverse; namely, it is trying to steal our land. Land which is not and never has been properly under provincial jurisdiction.

Ominayak said further that any restrictions or conditions which could be put on their claim was between the Lubicons and the federal government.

The World Council of Churches has sided with the Lubicons, saying in 1983 that the provincial government's action could have "genocidal" consequences.