Daishowa drops appeal

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A lengthy chapter in the story of the Lubicon Lake Indian Nation's battle to have their traditional territory recognized has come to an end, although the final chapter remains unwritten.

On May 4, forestry giant Daishowa dropped its appeal of a 1998 Ontario Court decision that ruled that organizing peaceful consumer boycotts was a right protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The 1998 decision was made in connection with a boycott organized against Daishowa by the Friends of the Lubicon, a non-profit organization formed to assist the

The boycott began in 1991 after the Alberta government granted Daishowa a permit to log on land within the Lubicon claim area, and ended in 1998 when Daishowa made a commitment not to log an area of 4,000 square miles - a portion of the lands claimed by the Lubicon as traditional hunting and trapping territory - until the Lubicon land claim is settled.

Following Daishowa's decision to drop its appeal, Friends of the Lubicon also dropped their cross-appeal after reaching an out-of-court settlement.

Ed Bianchi is with Friends of the Lubicon, and was one of the three main defendants in the legal action. In an interview following the May 4 announcement, Bianchi explained what is required of both parties under the settlement agreement.

"It says that, as long as Daishowa keeps its commitment not to log or buy wood from Lubicon territory, then the Friends of the Lubicon won't initiate any kind of boycott activity. By the same token, as long as the Friends don't boycott or engage in any kind of boycott activities against Daishowa, unless Daishowa breaks their commitment, then Daishowa won't pursue any legal action," he said.

"There is also in the settlement agreement a requirement that the Friends of the Lubicon notify other groups of this agreement . . . requesting respectfully that other groups cease boycott activities, if conditions are tied to the fact that there is to be no logging on Lubicon territory until the Lubicon Natives reach a land rights settlement... as long as Daishowa drops all its legal action against Friends of the Lubicon."

Bianchi said he knows of one group that continues to boycott Daishowa, the Amitie Lubicons-Quebec (ALQ) in Montreal.

"They had two conditions for Daishowa, one of which involved logging on Lubicon land. The other one involved dropping the lawsuit against Friends of the Lubicon. Now that we've notified ALQ that Daishowa has in fact met both of those condition, we expect them, then, to announce that their boycott is off, because that's always been their position since their boycott started.

"The other part of that agreement is, if in fact other groups do spring up with an intention to boycott Daishowa, specifically about these two conditions, these two terms, then we are obliged by the agreement to notify them in writing and to inform them about the fact that the Lubicon are satisfied with Daishowa's commitment that they're not going to log, and Friends of the Lubicon are satisfied with Daishowa's commitment that they're not going to take us to court," Bianchi said.

"There's two points I think we need to underline here. One is that by avoiding appeal, what we have done is preserve the ruling that came down in April '98 by Justice MacPherson and the Ontario Court, and that is something that is very important, because it is a ruling which . . . is a very positive ruling in terms of strengthening the rights of individual citizens and consumers to inform other individual citizens about the activities of corporations and businesses. . . . And it's a very strong, good law, which basically strengthens the rights of people in Canada to inform other people about corporations and what corporations are doing," Bianchi said.

"The other point, which we're hoping has a ripple effect, is that if Daishowa can reach an agreement with the Friends of the Lubicon, but most importantly, with the Lubicon Nation, we hope that this will serve as n example to the federal government that it is, in fact, possible to reach a negotiated settlement, and that this will somehow positively impact on Lubicon negotiations. ."

Negotiations between the Lubicon Nation and the federal government are ongoing. The two parties met in early May, and are scheduled to meet again the first week of June.