Maybe all Aboriginal people should be called David

Page 6

Follow me here: David battled Goliath. Aboriginal people in Canada have sure been fighting Goliaths for a very long time and they don't often win. That's why when an entire community can come together to battle any Goliath, they should be recognized for their courage, not silenced as in the case of the Lubicon Cree and their supporters.

The Lubicon have been facing their own Goliath in the form of the pulp and paper giant, Daishowa, the multi-national that set up shop in their back yard.

For years, the small community of 500 people fought another Goliath - the federal government - to gain lands promised to them before the Second World War. In 1988, the Daishowa company bought a license from the province to log land the Lubicon claim as their traditional territory. With the arrival of Daishowa, it's now David versus Goliath, plus his corporate brother.

In 1991, the Lubicon, along with their Toronto-based allies, scored a blow against one of the giants. Friends of the Lubicon successfully urged companies who sold Daishowa products to stop selling or using the products. Forty-seven companies representing 4,300 retailers agreed to boycott the company.

Friends stoned this particular Goliath by using something we hope is, and will remain, available to all Canadians: freedom of expression and speech. But the giant called on another brother to help. This time it was his brother, the judicial system.

Imagine, centuries ago, a judge jumping from the crowd and saying, 'Now David, sling-shots and stones are not allowed in this fight. Goliath, you of course may use anything in your arsenal to do battle.' The judge would have tipped the scales in favor of the big guy, deciding the result of the fight before the battle was waged.

But that's exactly what happened in1995. Daishowa convinced the Ontario Appeals Court that the little people were hurting them. The court obediently banned all boycotting activities. The court stopped a group of citizens from standing up to a corporate bulldozer. It looks to us like the courts stopped freedom of expression.