The Mennonite Central Committee and the Lubicon Cree: Advocating Rights without Silencing Voices

1. The MCC Responses The Lubicon Situation Advocacy Tactics Conclusions The Mennonite Central Committee and the Lubicon Cree: Advocating Rights without Silencing Voices Shelisa Klassen The Mennonite Central Committee was founded in 1920, when various Mennonite churches met in Indiana and decided to provide famine relief to people, including the Mennonites, in Russia and Ukraine. They now operate worldwide. In Canada, their work is often centered around Indigenous communities and energy justice. The value statements on the MCC website are as follows: The Lubicon Lake nation are approximately 500 people living in northern Alberta who were overlooked in 1899, when their surrounding nations were included in a treaty. Resource exploitation on their land left both the environment and the health of their people devastated. The Lubicon petitions to both national and international audiences went unanswered, but MCC continued to draw attention to this injustice, writing letters to the Canadian government in 2002, petitioning the government in 1998 and the UN in 2006. In 2008 an article was published in the Canadian Mennonite newsletter, with the subtitle “Lubicon Cree seek help in fighting government inaction, public apathy.” An excerpt from that article tells the story of 30 years of support: Letter from Rev. Menno Wiebe, Director of Native Concerns at MCC: “Resolution of the Lubicon case is not only in the interest of the Lubicon Cree. It is also in the interest of other Canadians. Native and nonNative peoples want to live within a country that deals fairly with all peoples. […] The industrial conquest of the Lubicon community and its territory represents an ongoing conquest mindset that has gone largely unchecked and has happened at the terrible expense of the Cree peoples.” Religious organizations have often operated within Aboriginal communities in paternalistic relationships, but the trend since the 1970s, as demonstrated in this example, has been “an alternative vision of a mutually enriching encounter between peoples.” (Unrau, 65) MCC advocated on behalf of the Lubicon people, but also removed their presence from the community when asked. “Health problems: cancers of all kinds; a tuberculosis epidemic that affected a third of our population; reproduction problems which resulted in 19 stillbirths out of 21 pregnancies in an 18 month period,” and other respiratory and skin afflictions. “In the midst of multi-billion dollar resource exploitation of natural resources from our unceded traditional Territory, the Lubicon people face severe economic deprivation and live in third world housing conditions with as many as three or four generations living in a small 900 square foot bungalow with no running water or indoor toilet facilities.” -Excerpts from a UN petition sent to Geneva in 2006. The Lubicon Lake nation petitioned the UN for a recognition of their rights, and negotiated a settlement with the Canadian government. MCC volunteers advocated on their behalf, submitting their statements in the petitions. MCC also organized inter-church networks of prayer and support to make the Canadian people aware of this injustice. They are a part of KAIROS, a church-based social justice organization that continues to speak out against Canada and Alberta’s treatment of the Lubicon people. “MCC values peace and justice. MCC seeks to live and serve nonviolently in response to the biblical call to peace and justice. MCC values just relationships. MCC seeks to live and serve justly and peacefully in each relationship, incorporating listening and learning, accountability and mutuality, transparency and integrity." “MCC involvement with the Lubicon Cree began in the late 1970s […] Any MCC presence in the community ended in 2000, but Abe Janzen, director of MCC Alberta, says, ‘MCC is involved in advocacy at the national level, and also participates at a local level when the community requests such involvement.’” This is a way to repair relationships and move forward together.