The recent decision of the Obama administration to delay the construction of the Keystone pipeline has been the topic of much public debate, and the larger issue of the Alberta tar sands project is, of course, always the subject of controversy. Proponents argue that it is a source of badly-needed jobs in trying economic times. However, opponents point to the environmental costs, the hazards of climate change, and the increasing cost-effectiveness of renewable energies like wind and solar.
More or less lost amid the geopolitical, environmental, and economic debates, however, is the effect that the extraction process is having on First Nations communities who live near the oil deposits. One such community, the Lubicon Cree, have had their economy destroyed, their rights trampled, and their health compromised by oil extraction without any form of compensation from the Canadian government.
[pullquote]The federal government has responded to UN condemnations of its violations of the Lubicon people’s human rights by claiming that the declarations that enshrine them are not legally binding.[/pullquote]
Since the exploitation of their lands in the mid-70s, the Lubicon, who have not signed the rights to their land away in any treaty, have plunged into poverty. Although they were once self-sufficient, their hunting, trapping, and fishing economy has been devastated by the intensive extraction process. The worst oil spill of the last 35 years has contaminated their wetlands. Also, they face the constant hazard of a hydrogen sulfate or “sour gas” processing plant built near their proposed reserve. In 2007, the UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing decried the “appalling living conditions” in Lubicon and the “asphyxiation of livelihoods” resulting from “the destructive impact of oil extraction activities.”
The Lubicon’s community of Little Buffalo is without running water and sanitation. This, combined with the abject poverty resulting from the collapse of their economy, has resulted in outbreaks of tuberculosis and waterborne diseases unheard of elsewhere in Canada. The community suffers inordinate incidences of miscarriage, stillbirth, and other maternal health issues. A high youth suicide rate is one consequence of the despair resulting from the near total lack of opportunity.
The Alberta government’s share of the profits made from exploitation of Lubicon land is over $14 billion. After the Lubicon refused a federal settlement offer, which then-Alberta premier Don Getty described as “deficient in the area of providing economic stability for the future,” the government refused to negotiate further. Talks broke down again in 2003 and have not resumed.
The federal government has responded to UN condemnations of its violations of the Lubicon people’s human rights by claiming that the declarations that enshrine them are not legally binding. In 2009, they argued that the Lubicon Cree’s rights to their ancestral home were “extinguished” by Treaty 8, a land deal signed between Canada and several First Nations in 1899. Leaving aside the fact that the Lubicon Cree were not a party to Treaty 8, a cursory look at the circumstances under which it was signed is rather illuminating.
In his careful study of Treaty 8, Canadian historian Rene Fumoleau describes how a bedraggled population of natives, suffering from starvation as a result of settler incursion and the imposition of parliamentary restrictions on their hunting, agreed to sell their land to the Crown out of desperation. “Some people at Fort Chipewyan, [one of the signatories], firmly believe that their forefathers signed Treaty 8 because they were told that ‘the Queen will never let your children die from hunger,’” Fumoleau notes, adding that “this might well be true.”
The motivation behind the government’s eagerness to work with the natives is also made clear. After rich gold and mineral deposits were discovered in the Athabasca area, Ottawa, “desiring to secure its rights to the greatest portion of the loot … prudently hurried to send a treaty commission to deal with the Indians and to purchase from them a complete surrender of their land rights.” A government agent discussing the treaty process advised: “no time should be lost by the Government in making a treaty with these Indians for their rights over this territory” because “they will be more easily dealt with now than they would be when their country is overrun with prospectors and valuable mines be discovered.”
Although clearly in bad faith, the settlements of 1899 provided significant, albeit unfair, monetary compensation to the native bands whose land was ceded for development. The main reason for the large payments was a fear on the part of the government that the natives, who were adept at guerilla warfare, might forcibly delay the mineral boom if they felt that they were being cheated.
Needless to say, the Lubicon Cree have no such leverage for negotiations today and the government’s stance reflects that fact. If Stephen Harper plans to continue marketing the bitumen extracted from the Lubicon’s land at the expense of their human rights as “ethical oil,” however, he would do well to invest a small part of the profit from that oil in repairing their devastated community — even though no one’s going to make him do it.
