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Lubicon Cree support - Wed.Aug.9 - all welcome
You are invited to become informed on the situations affecting the
Lubicon Cree First Nation, a small band in northern Alberta. These people
await the fulfillment of federal government promises for a reserve, made
in 1939. Although the Lubicons have never ceded their traditional territory.
the federal and provincial governments have permitted oil and other
resource companies to exploit the natural resources and disastrously
damage the environment in that traditional territory.
The reason for the most recent collapse in land right negotiations is well
summarized in a resolution passed at the recent Assembly of First Nations,
attached below.
Support groups for the Lubicons are working in several parts of Canada,
and we welcome your interest or your assistance in Ottawa -
- actively planning for lobbying, public education or demonstrations;
- taking part in these events when they are scheduled;
- or just by learning of our work.
We can send you more comprehensive background material if you wish
to see it.
Please contact us at:
Mary Foster <mfoster@web.ca> or Katherine Gunn <kgunn@cyberus.ca>
(819) 777-3058 (613)
729-0504
Thank you -
Outaouais Lubicon Solidarity
============
reminder: the next lubicon solidarity meeting is . . . . . . .
wednesday 9 august, 7:00
153 laurier ave. east
there is a lot to discuss and do. suggested agenda:
1. fighting the threatened social assistance change
2. strategy meeting with FOL/Toronto and ALQ/Montreal
3. 26 september reserve building on parliament hill
4. grimshaw day/benefit concert/bruce cockburn
===============
ASSEMBLY OF FIRST NATIONS
21st ANNUAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY JULY 11-13, 2000
OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA
RESOLUTION No. 20/2000
SUBJECT: Lubicon Lake Indian Nation Provision of Services
MOVED BY: Jaret Cardinal, Proxy, Lubicon Lake First Nation
SECONDED BY: Chief Tom Bressette, Chippewas of Kettle & Stoney Point,
Ontario
CARRIED [unanimously]
WHEREAS in 1981, then-Indian Affairs Minister John Munro agreed that the
federal government would reimburse the Lubicon Lake Indian Nation for
provision of certain basic services including social services despite the
lack of settlement of Lubicon land rights and a recognized Lubicon Reserve;
and
WHEREAS in 1991 the Alberta government and the federal Department of Indian
Affairs negotiated a social services funding agreement providing that the
Alberta government will provide social services to Indians "not ordinarily
residing on a Reserve"; and
WHEREAS the Lubicon people were not consulted about this 1991 social
services funding agreement and have never agreed to the Alberta government
providing Lubicon members with social services; and
WHEREAS the 1991 agreement specifically applies to "Treaty Seven and Treaty
Eight Indian First Nations, Tribes, and Bands only" and the Lubicon Lake
Indian Nation is not a signatory or party to either Treaty Seven or Treaty
Eight; and
WHEREAS the Lubicon Lake Indian Nation does not have recognized Reserve
lands to ordinarily reside "on" or "off" of but rather retains aboriginal
land rights over unceded Lubicon Territory and is still trying to negotiate
a settlement of Lubicon land rights with Canadian governments; and
WHEREAS the Alberta government and senior officials of the Alberta Regional
Office of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada are now trying to use the 1991
social services funding agreement to tear Lubicon society apart and subvert
Lubicon land negotiations by effectively telling Lubicon members living
anywhere but Little Buffalo Lake that they must either join another First
Nation or go begging to the Alberta government for subsistence welfare to
feed their families;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Chiefs-in-Assembly at the Annual General
Assembly in Ottawa hereby direct the AFN National Chief and the Alberta
Regional Vice-Chief to intervene with the Minister of Indian Affairs to do
the following:
1. Honour the 1981 agreement to reimburse the Lubicon Lake Indian Nation for
social assistance provided to Lubicon members wherever they reside pending
settlement of Lubicon land rights;
2. Take immediate removal actions against the senior regional office
officials in the Alberta regional office of Indian and Northern Affairs
Canada who are working in concert with the Alberta government to subvert
Lubicon land rights by trying to use the 1991 social services funding
agreement to tear Lubicon society apart; and
3. instruct all of his officials to immediately stop all of their continuing
efforts to subvert Lubicon land rights and, consistent with the federal
government's fiduciary responsibility, do what they can to support
settlement of Lubicon land rights.
FINALLY BE IT RESOLVED that the Chiefs-in-Assembly request that the Minister
of Indian Affairs respond in writing within sixty days or sooner to the
Lubicon Lake Indian Nation, to report on the actions he has taken to address
the above concerns.
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