[R-G] Lubicon fight proposed TransCanada pipeline

[Anthony Fenton]

Lubicon fight proposed TransCanada pipeline
© Indian Country Today April 04, 2008. All Rights Reserved
April 04, 2008
by: Kate Harries
TORONTO - The Lubicon Lake Indian Nation in northern Alberta is  
gearing up to fight a proposed jumbo pipeline that would carry natural  
gas from the Mackenzie Valley in the west to the oil sands  
developments to the east.

The $983 million proposal follows a history of industrial development  
across the unceded Lubicon territory that has left the 500-member Cree  
nation impoverished, poisoned and disregarded by Canada and Alberta -  
despite criticism about violations of their rights from two United  
Nations committees.

''It's a devastating situation where there is all kinds of activity  
around our traditional hunting and trapping areas,'' Lubicon Chief  
Bernard Ominayak said when he traveled to Geneva two years ago. ''It's  
polluting most of our waters - we have to haul our own water and we  
can't eat the fish any more.''

TransCanada Pipelines filed an application last November for the 185- 
mile pipeline, stating that it had consulted extensively regarding the  
pipeline route with stakeholders, including affected First Nations,  
and received no objections.

That prompted an indignant denial from the Lubicon.

TransCanada representatives never provided answers to repeated  
questions about construction, operations, safety issues and mitigation  
measures, and ignored a request that the company recognize Lubicon  
jurisdiction before applying to the provincial regulatory board, said  
Lubicon lawyer Fred Lennarson.
''TransCanada's so-called 'engagement program' is clearly not a  
sincere effort to inform the Lubicon people about the project,''  
Lennarson wrote in a letter to company lawyer Line Lacasse in January.

Lacasse, in an earlier letter, said TransCanada must meet its project  
timelines, and could not wait for a Lubicon decision.

''The response of the Lubicon people is that they are the aboriginal  
owners of the land that TransCanada wishes to violate with this huge  
pipeline, and TransCanada can either deal with Lubicon concerns prior  
to proceeding with provincial project approvals or find some alternate  
route,'' Lennarson replied.

While Shell, Suncor and Imperial Oil are lining up in favor of the  
pipeline, Lubicon supporters are writing to the Alberta Utilities  
Commission in objection to TransCanada's tactics.

A commission spokesman said the Lubicon will have to demonstrate ''a  
potential direct and adverse effect'' in order to be allowed to  
participate at an upcoming hearing.

Some supporters are targeting the company's bottom line and warning of  
shareholder dissatisfaction that will be raised at the company's  
annual general meeting in Calgary April 25.

KAIROS, a Canadian church group, has written to board chair S. Barry  
Jackson to express deep concern on behalf of several religious  
institutions that hold TransCanada shares.

''We are disturbed by the company's decision to proceed with an  
application to the AUC for approval of the NCC project as is, without  
having concluded discussions with the Lubicon Nation,'' wrote KAIROS  
executive director Mary Corkery.

''Management's handling of this situation may constitute an  
undisclosed and poorly managed risk to our investments,'' Corkery  
stated, adding that ''this situation constitutes an unacceptable  
response to a serious, internationally recognized human rights issue.''

Company spokesman Cecily Dobson said in an e-mail that TransCanada  
respects the Lubicons' assertion of traditional and cultural use of  
the land.

Because of an oversight by Crown officials, the Lubicon were left out  
when Treaty 8 was negotiated in 1899. The lack of a treaty means they  
retain unextinguished aboriginal title to their territory, estimated  
at 62,000 square miles.

Oil and gas companies have overrun the territory, purchasing leases  
from Alberta at will. Development has poisoned the lakes and decimated  
the wildlife, destroying traditional life and culture. The Lubicons'  
water sources have been contaminated by resource extraction and the  
people suffer a multitude of medical problems, including tuberculosis,  
asthma, skin rashes, cancer and stillbirths.

Indian Affairs spokesman Glenn Luff said the territory is provincial  
Crown land and while court decisions mandate consultation, there's no  
obligation on the federal government to intervene.

''Mr. Luff can call it 'Crown land' all he wants; but the problem for  
Mr. Luff is that under Canadian law, the land is only surrendered by  
negotiating a treaty with the aboriginal owners, and there's no treaty  
with the Lubicons,'' retorted Kevin Thomas of the Friends of the  
Lubicon group.

The U.N. Human Rights Committee has twice found Canada in violation of  
an international treaty on civil and political rights. It called on  
Canada to ensure adequate consultation before licensing economic  
exploitation of the land, and to ensure that logging and large-scale  
oil and gas extraction do not jeopardize the nation's culture and way  
of life, in violation of their human and aboriginal land rights.

In 2006, the U.N. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights  
reiterated the Human Rights Committee's findings and urged Canada to  
resume negotiations with the Lubicon, a call that was echoed by a U.N.  
official who visited the Lubicon community of Little Buffalo last year.

The Lubicon are still waiting, after talks broke down in 2003 when  
federal representatives said they had no mandate to negotiate with  
Lubicon self-government. Recently, Canada proposed to send an envoy to  
conduct preliminary talks, but the Lubicon rejected the idea, Luff said.

That's not true, Thomas said, adding that ''what the Lubicons would  
like to see is a federal envoy who is willing to work with the  
Lubicons to sort out how - not if - a settlement can be achieved.''