Signs read 'share the blame'

Olympic torch run protested

Petro-Canada got a chance to share the blame for ill treatment of Lubicon Indians as its Olympic Flame advertising bandwagon hit this city Dec. 16.

Waiting for the company's publicity show were a group of protestors demanding justice for the Lubicon band in their fight with the federal and provincial governments, Petro-Canada and other oil companies.

"We're not against the Olympic torch relay," said Lubicon Chief Bernard Ominayak, after the protest, "it's the people behind the relay, like Petro-Canada . . . using it for advertising.

With the assistance of several national Aboriginal groups, particularly the Assembly of First Nations, the Lubicons are organizing a campaign against Petro-Canada torch relay.

"A lot of people have declared their support for our cause," noted Chief Ominayak. "One of the ways they can help is to participate in peaceful demonstrations along the route of the relay."

AFN National Chief Georges Erasmus, who organized the Ottawa rally in support of the Lubicons, also explained that protests against Petro-Canada's corporate advertising campaign were not directed against the Olympics themselves.

"We're not trying to tell Canadians they should be ashamed of the Olympic flame," he said, "what we are doing is protesting against corporate supporters . . . who have made profits at the expense of the Lubicon people."

"There's a lot of hypocrisy when Petro-Canada is exploiting the flame to make profits, while destroying the Lubicon lands and livelihood."

Keith Penner, Liberal Indian Affairs critic in the House of Commons, said that Canada does have something to be ashamed of, however.

"We'd like to think of ourselves as people who believe in human rights and dignity, but we don't have clean hands when we ignore the most basic of human rights, those of the Aboriginal people of this country . . . and the most outrageous example of this injustice is that of the Lubicon."

Penner stated the best way to solve the half-century old problem is to establish negotiations with former Tory cabinet minister E. Davie Fulton as mediator.

Chief Ominayak says he has not even been invited to take part in the present round of manoeuvring by the federal and provincial negotiators.

"It's getting to be a real scary situation," said Ominayak, "we've got a couple of lawyers sitting down in Calgary, deciding our future, without even talking to us."

The protest in Ottawa was preceded by others along the Olympic torch relay from Newfoundland. One of the major protests preceding the one in Ottawa was in Montreal, where residents of the Kahnawake reserve turned out to remind Canadians of the oppression of the Lubicon.

After carrying the torch, Alwyn Morris, who was born at Kahnawake and won a gold medal in the 1984 Summer Olympics, asked that the "reasonable and legitimate claims of Indian people in all parts of Canada, including those of the Lubicon . . . be dealt with fairly, expeditiously by all levels of government."