ENVIROWATCH

HOW HUMANS TREAT
THEIR SURROUNDINGS,
EACH OTHER, THEMSELVES


A Clearcut Canadian SLAPP
In the wake of protests and boycotts against the Japanese firm Daishowa's plans to log 10,000 square kilometers of Alberta lands claimed by the Lubicon native tribe, a Canadian environmental group is facing a SLAPP suit.
Known as Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP), the suits are a common tool used by developers and corporations to stem organized public protests.
Despite a Lubicon claim to Alberta lands which dates back to 1939, the province of Alberta granted logging rights to Daishowa in 1989. With plans to cut 11,000 trees daily from the Lubicon's traditional lands, such deforestation threatens the very existence to the tribe.
"If they cut down our trees, we know we will be finished as a people," Lubicon chief Bernard Ominak told Multinational Monitor.
The Toronto-based Friends of the Lubicon took action. It organized a consumer boycott of paper products manufactured by Daishowa, and a secondary boycott of companies which purchase Daishowa paper goods. Remarkably, Canada Safeway, Kentucky Fried Chicken and the Body Shop all took notice and stopped using Daishowa products.
But early last year, Daishowa filed suit in Ontario court alleging $8 million in damages and seeking an injunction against the secondary boycott. In May, 1995 the trial court found that the boycott was a protected form of expression under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and that an injunction would chill freedom of speech. However, Daishowa has prevailed on appeal, and Ontario's Divisional Court has issued an injunction against Friends of the Lubicon's boycott.
Alan Borovoy, general counsel for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, which came to Friends of the Lubicon's defense, noted that picketing is one of the few tactics that public groups can take in the absence of a well-funded media campaign.
In recent years, SLAPP suits have become more difficult in the U.S. and groups that organize boycotts still enjoy relatively strong First Amendment protection. However, in Canada, said Borovoy, "It's time the law made some progress in this area."
Daishowa does a large amount of business in the U.S. and the Lubicon are looking for international support in an effort to save their forests.

-Eric Nelson



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Contents on this page were published in the November/December, 1996 edition of the Washington Free Press.
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