Copyright © 1999 NLThomas
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A consumer boycott organized in support of the Lubicon Cree Nation of northern Alberta can now resume after an Ontario Court rejected claims by the Japanese pulp and paper company, Daishowa, that the boycott was illegal.

The Lubicon Cree were excluded from the treaty-making process that took place in Western Canada late last century. Although their territory was never ceded, and they have been unable to reach a land claim settlement with the federal government, the province of Alberta has encouraged resource extraction in Lubicon land.

The boycott against Daishowa was launched in 1991 by a Toronto-based support group called Friends of the Lubicon after Alberta granted the transnational corporation logging rights over lands traditionally used and occupied by the Lubicon. This small volunteer organization persuaded 50 Canadian companies to stop buying paper products, such as paper bags, manufactured by Daishowa. The transnational company claimed that it had lost $14.2 million in sales due to the boycott.

In 1994, Daishowa sought an injunction claiming that the boycott was an "intentional interference with economic relations." But in April of this year, Justice James MacPherson of the Ontario Court rejected the injunction, freeing the Friends of the Lubicon to resume their campaign.

From the beginning, Friends of the Lubicon said they would continue the boycott until Daishowa promised to stop logging on Lubicon lands until their land claim was settled. Justice MacPherson stated that the campaign, and the concerns that the group expressed, deserve "respect, protection and a forum."

The decision, however, was not a complete victory for the Lubicon or their supporters. Although the Court found that the Friends of the Lubicon had been careful and honest in expressing their opinion when they called the situation of the Lubicon one of "genocide," the judge ordered the Friends of the Lubicon to stop using the word in their campaign against Daishowa. MacPherson also awarded Daishowa a token $1 in damages, although the judgment did not specify why.

Perhaps most significantly, fighting against the injunction has tied up the small organization since 1994 and curtailed the support that it could provide to the Lubicon in their land rights struggle.

Daishowa has said it will appeal the decision.