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Subject: Lubicon Cree West Coast Speaking Tour

Hello,

The following is notice of the upcoming Lubicon Cree : West Coast
Speaking Tour.

Please post this where appropriate and send it to anyone you know
who may be interested and able to attend.

Thanks for your help.


THE LUBICON CREE : WEST COAST SPEAKING TOUR : MAY 15-19, 1997

Vancouver, Bellingham, Olympia, Seattle, Portland

Come hear about the remarkable Lubicon struggle first-hand from :

Dwight Gladue, Lubicon Cree
Fred Lennarson, advisor to the Lubicon Cree
Kevin Thomas & Stephen Kenda, Friends of the Lubicon (Toronto)
Ed Bianchi, Aboriginal Rights Coalition & Friends of the Lubicon

Find out how you can join the ever-expanding network of Lubicon
supporters fighting unbridled, destructive corporate control in
our society.

Agenda:

Dwight Gladue is a member of the Lubicon Lake Nation Council. Over
the last couple of decades Dwight and his people have faced up to
the combined forces of oil & gas multinationals, forestry
companies, government bureaucrats and elected officials.

In each city, Dwight Gladue & Fred Lennarson will speak about the
ongoing struggle of the Lubicon people to defend their lands and
about the impact on the community of unbridled resource
exploitation.

Members of Friends of the Lubicon will talk about successful
campaigns against corporations in your home town that are linked
to the destruction of the Lubicon, and about combatting corporate
use of the legal system to silence critics. A 25 minute video on
the Lubicon, "A Fight Against Time", will be shown. A question and
answer session will round out each night.

Goal:

The goal of the speaking tour is to provide an opportunity for
individuals & groups to learn more about how they can support the
Lubicon Cree.

Schedule:

Thursday May 15  - 7 pm
Vancouver, The Vancouver Unitarian Church,  949 - West 49th Ave,
For more info: 604-736-4624 (Dawn Mills)

Friday May 16 - Noon
Bellingham, Western Washington University, Wilson Library
Presentation Room
For more info: 360-650-6125 (Peace Resource Centre)

Friday May 16 - 7:30 pm
Olympia, Evergreen State College, The Longhouse : Cedar Room
For more info: 360-866-6000 x6105 (Native Student Alliance)

Sunday May 18 - 7 pm
Seattle, Black Cat Cafe, 4110 Roosevelt Way NE
For more info: 206-723-4703 (Dan Clarke)

Monday May 19 - 7 pm
Portland, Rexall Rose Cafe and Theatre, 2403 NE Alberta St.
For more info: 503-245-3866 (Chiapas Urgent Call)

Focus of the Presentations:

In VANCOUVER, it's the LUBICON CREE AND UNOCAL

Unocal Information Campaign (UIC) was formed in 1995. UIC is a
citizens' group endorsed by a coalition of human rights,
environmental and other grassroots groups, including Friends of
the Lubicon. UIC is concerned with the highly questionable
corporate practices of Unocal, a California-based gas and oil
company.

In the province of Ontario, Canada, UIC focussed on Consumers Gas,
one of Unocal's largest Canadian gas clients. Recently, Consumers
announced they will not renew their contract with Unocal. This
leaves no known significant Unocal customers in Ontario.

B.C.'s activist community is established, knowledgeable, committed
and effective. The head office of B.C. Gas is in Vancouver.  B.C.
Gas is Unocal's largest gas client in Canada.

In BELLINGHAM, OLYMPIA, SEATTLE & PORTLAND, it's the LUBICON CREE
& DAISHOWA Friends of the Lubicon is a Canadian organization that
focuses on confronting corporations on issues of Native land
rights and the environment. Through their enormously successful
boycott of Daishowa paper products, Friends of the Lubicon has
been instrumental in preventing the transnational paper company
Daishowa from clearcutting unceded Lubicon land for the last six
years. Daishowa claims the boycott has cost them upwards of $10
million in lost sales. Three of the organizers are now facing a
multi-mill ion dollar lawsuit launched by Daishowa in an effort
to shut down the boycott and intimidate supporters. The lawsuit
appears to be part of the growing American phenomenon of SLAPP
suits: "Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation", legal
proceedings brought by corporations to deter or punish lawful
public participation in the democratic process.

The defendants will speak about organizing effective opposition to
unjust corporate practices, Native land rights, SLAPP suits, and
consumer action for social justice in the age of transnational
corporations. There will be a screening of the video "Fight
Against Time" by On Cue Film and Video (1995), a short and
gripping account, in their own words, of the Lubicon peoples'
battle to survive as a community.

As a result of Daishowa's heavy-handed tactics in Canada, a
Seattle-based Daishowa Boycott is now off and running in the
States.