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Page 4

Editorial

The 200 member Lubicon Lake Band headquartered in Little Buffalo, 100km northeast of Peace River, is engaged in a battle over Aboriginal land entitlement with the provincial and federal governments.

Since 1977 the band has sued both governments for compensation and later filed an injunction against 10 oil companies and the provincial government to halt activity in a 2,300 square-kilometer area of northern Alberta and to stop further permits from being granted in a 30,500 square-kilometer area.

Last year the injunction was rejected by a ruling by Judge Gregory Forsyth of Calgary's Court of Queen's Bench stating that the band has not established that traditional hunting and trapping lifestyles have suffered "irreparable injury" by extensive resource exploration.

Last week the leaders of the Anglican, United Lutheran and Roman catholic churches, stated in their press release, "The litany of injustices makes a mockery of the federal government's words of support for the inclusion of Aboriginal rights in the constitution and for the establishment of Indian self-government."

The press release also pointed out how, since 1942 to 1983, the governments of both levels have used tactics to terminate Aboriginal title in the lubicon area.

The church leaders also condemned the "immoral" government mistreatment of Indians living in the Lubicon area.

Here are the conflicting fact-finding reports: Judge Forsyth who during the three-week court hearing found no evidence of disruptive damage to the traditional hunting and trapping lifestyles and the church leaders who toured the communities on a two-day fact-finding mission claiming that oil exploration is responsible for irreversible damages to the Indians' traditional lifestyles.

Which report do you think the public is going to believe? Forsyth's ruling or the church leaders' fact-finding report?

Or does the public care at all because its just a bunch of Indians getting on the way of progress and using the old tactic of crying foul to gain sympathy and support.

Regardless of which report is accurate in its findings, the truth of the whole matter is that oil companies, provincial and federal governments, and Native political groups are all guilty one way or the other of allowing multinational companies to move in and disrupt lifestyles, traditional or otherwise.

The Lubicon Lake band is fighting for its survival and its future. But their struggle for equality and freedom of choice is being overruled by insensitive governments, namely the provincial government, who pays immediate attention to the demands of the multinational oil companies which help build up the Heritage trust Fund and the same time ignore the pleas of the aboriginals living in semi-isolated or isolated communities.

How much support is the Lubicon Band getting from its own Native political associations? Where's the comprehensive land claims branch of the federal government? Where's the comprehensive land claims branch of the federal government? Most importantly, who really cares about the plights of Lubicon band?