Canadian Mennonite
Volume 12, No. 23
Nov. 24, 2008


God at Work in the World

Pipeline pressure

Lubicon Cree seek help in fighting government inaction, public apathy

By Donita Wiebe-Neufeld

Alberta Correspondent

Lubicon Lake First Nation, Alta.

Band councillor Dwight Gladue’s voice trembles with undercurrents of grief as he describes what has happened to his vibrant community of Lubicon Lake First Nation in northern Alberta since the oil and gas industry came 30 years ago. According to him, before 1978 the community was healthy and self-sufficient. But now industrial damage has polluted the environment, driven off wildlife, destroyed livelihoods and increased disease. Over 90 percent of the community requires social assistance.

To this day Gladue laments the lack of awareness of many Albertans to Lubicon Lake’s plight: “People don’t understand how bad the situation continues to be. No matter how we try to fight these oil and gas companies, we’re always perceived . . . as very hard to get along with and self-serving.”

On Oct. 10, the Alberta Utilities Commission approved an application by Nova Gas Transmissions, a TransCanada Corporation subsidiary, to construct a major gas pipeline through highly contested land. Like other projects in the past, the Lubicon people did not give approval to this one either.

Craig Benjamin of Amnesty International visited Lubicon Lake in October. “It’s really astounding,” he says. “You hear the noise almost constantly. You smell it. Everywhere you turn there are trees felled, these big wide roads have been cut, there are warnings for oil and gas pipelines and hydrogen sulphide. . . . How is it possible that someone could go out hunting when you are essentially in an industrial landscape?”

An Amnesty International report entitled “Land and Way of Life Under Threat: The Lubicon Cree in Canada,” was released last month. It estimates that, in 30 years, more than 56 square kilometres of land has been cleared, 2,200 kilometres of road built and 2,000 oil and gas wells drilled in traditional Lubicon territory, producing resources worth more than $14 billion for everyone but the Lubicon.

Although the Lubicon and some of the oil and gas companies have worked together—an article in the Oct. 27 Edmonton Vue Weekly reports that “TransCanada . . . says it has already had a series of meetings with the Lubicon . . .” on this most recent project—agreements with governments are elusive, with jurisdiction frequently lost between provincial and federal bodies.

Both levels of government are aware of the history, but despite many negotiations and promises, there is no settlement, according to Ed Bianchi of Kairos, a Canadian church-based social justice group with ties to Mennonite Central Committee.

The Lubicon have strong legal claims to their territory, Amnesty International and Kairos believe. Overlooked by an 1899 treaty, they never signed away land rights. Forty years later, a promised reserve was never formalized. In the late 1970s, court proceedings relating to Lubicon claims were stayed while Alberta retroactively changed its laws; when the case was reopened, it was dismissed. In 1988, an agreement called the Grimshaw Accord was reached; however, the province did not follow through on it.

The same Vue Weekly story also reported that, “both opposition parties [in the Alberta legislature] called on the government to suspend construction of the pipeline, but Minister of Aboriginal Relations Gene Zwozdesky rejected such calls, saying it is a federal responsibility to negotiate with the Lubicon.”

Gladue has a clear sense of why the governments are reluctant to settle. “Because there is a tremendous amount of resource here,” he suggests.

At this point, the Lubicon are relying on organizations like Kairos and Amnesty International to get their message out.

“We’ve told our stories over and over year after year, and people would rather believe, in their own minds, what the government puts out,” Gladue charges. “[W]e need people out there to be a voice as to what’s happening to [our] entire community . . . a voice to both levels of government [who] just carry on, business as usual.”

Take and eat

Conference focuses on food issues from various Christian perspectives

By Evelyn Rempel Petkau

Manitoba Correspondent

Otterburne, Man.

Cathy Campbell, rector of St. Matthews Anglican Church in Winnipeg, and Len Penner, president of Cargill, a large agribusiness, discuss food issues at the recent “Take and Eat” conference at Providence College and Seminary, Otterburne, Man.

Sometimes the best conversations and discussions take place around the dinner table. The recent “Take and Eat” conference hosted by Providence College brought much food for thought to the table, as representatives from large agribusinesses, a community gardener, a neighbourhood bakery owner and a family farmer—all of them Christians—reflected a diversity of experience and perspective.

From genetically modified organisms to organic farming, from the family farm to agribusiness, from the local marketplace to the global economy, controversy was a significant ingredient in the two-day discussion.

“The biggest challenge in producing food is our relationship with people,” said Don Kroeker, vice-chair of Kroeker Farms, explaining that people love their neighbour when they help supply those who are hungry with food.

But Will Braun, editor of Geez magazine and a Canadian Mennonite columnist, questioned this rationale. “What does love your neighbour mean,” he asked, when “the existence of large companies like Kroeker’s drives land prices up and makes it very difficult for small farmers—for me—to get a start?”

Jan McIntyre of Clearwater, Man., chairs the Manitoba Farm and Rural Stress Line Advisory Committee, and, together with her husband, farms 690 hectares. She is concerned about the direction farming is going. “It seems our current food system operates on the understanding that bigger is better,” she said. “High inputs, high financial risks, cut-throat environment—the pressure on individual farmers is intense. Water, soil, wildlife, people, communities seem to be a lesser part of the equation.”

“The production of food in an environmentally responsible way is one of the things I am confronted with at least on a weekly basis,” said Len Penner, president of agribusiness Cargill Ltd. “The growing population is the challenge. By 2050, we need to look at doubling what we have. We need to figure out how to produce twice as much food in 40 years.”

While the No. 1 health concern in North America is obesity, close to one billion people in other parts of the world go to bed hungry every night, Penner pointed out. “Canada is a significant player in providing food to the world. We have been blessed with some of the most productive land. How do we, in a truly responsible, sustainable, environmentally friendly way, feed the world?” he asked.

“The past year has seen a global food crisis with food riots erupting in some parts of the world and yet Cargill, one of the three largest grain trading companies in the world, saw their profits increase at the same time,” challenged participant Paul Hagerman, asking, “How does a company like Cargill look at their influence, increasing hunger, increasing prices? How does that sit with a company that professes to be concerned about hunger?”

At the other end of the business spectrum, Winnipeg’s Tall Grass Prairie Bakery began in 1990 as the Grain of Wheat Church wrestled with how to worship and support the art of farming, explained Tabitha Langel, part-owner of the bakery. “At that time there were a lot of farm suicides and grain prices were at a record low,” she said, adding, “A group of us at Grain of Wheat felt called to respond.”

“We try to support local farmers who are doing creation-care practices. I was raised at the communion table,” said Langel, who grew up on a Hutterite colony. “It seemed a good vision for me: ‘enough and the same for all.’?”

In conclusion, she said, “I hope that with the Holy Spirit something will happen if we stay at the table together, big and small.”

A really COOL field

How one church turned a small budget surplus into a big harvest

By Steve Plenert

Special to Canadian Mennonite

Springstein, Man.

When the Springstein Mennonite Church council met last February, members discovered that a $3,100 surplus needed to be dealt with. “Let’s do a project with a multiplier effect,” council chair Dave Wiebe suggested. Little did anyone know just how much those funds would multiply over the next few months!

The council settled on a Canada Foodgrains Bank project and other rural congregations in the area were asked to participate. At a planning meeting, Lutheran, Catholic and United Church congregations showed up. A 32-hectare field was selected, hard spring wheat was chosen as the crop to plant, and committee members started asking around to see who else wanted to help out.

Soon crop insurance and herbicides were donated. Rent on the field was reduced. Equipment was volunteered. Seed was donated. And a chemical company said, “We’d like to give two kinds [of fertilizer] before anybody else takes the opportunity.”

People in the communities around Springstein started talking about what the project should be called. “Food for Others” was an early favourite, but ultimately the choice was “Communities Offering Others Life,” or COOL.

On a brisk April day the seed went into the ground. The beautiful green shoots soon made their way out of the damp ground. In May, a dedication service was held at the field before Springstein Mennonite congregants held their church picnic.

An ecumenical worship service attended by more than 200 people was held at the field on Aug. 17. Hymns were sung, Scripture was read, prayers of thanksgiving were offered and messages of good will were pronounced. Many said how wonderful the project was and how meaningful it had been to worship in a wheat field. (Unfortunately, the field wasn’t quite ready for harvesting, so the four combines lining the field during the service were relegated to the status of “worship visuals for men.”)

Ten days later, nine combines, a bunch of trucks and a cheery group of onlookers saw the 4,000 bushels of wheat get safely thrashed in just over an hour and trucked to the bin. Under the 4-1 matching agreement with the Canadian government, the value of the crop came in at $150,000.

At a wrap-up meeting of the COOL Committee, the local reeve stated enthusiastically, “This project is the best thing that has happened by and to our community in years!”


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