UN urges Ottawa to resume talks with Lubicon Cree

A UN human rights committee is calling on Ottawa to get back to the negotiating table with a Cree community in northern Alberta.

The Lubicon Cree, a band of about 500 people who live in the Peace River region north of Edmonton, have been fighting for land-claims rights for 66 years.

The most recent talks with the federal government broke off two years ago, spurring the band to send a delegation to Geneva in September to ask the UN committee for help.

"The committee is concerned that land-claim negotiations between the Government of Canada and the Lubicon Lake band are currently at an impasse," the committee said in a report on civil and political rights released Wednesday, according to the Canadian Press.

"The state party should make every effort to resume negotiations. It should consult with the band before granting licences for economic exploitation of the disputed land."

The UN committee also says the Lubicon band continues to be compromised by logging and large-scale oil and gas extraction, urging the government to consult the band before granting licences to exploit resources in the area.

The Lubicon are concerned about what the drilling will do to fish and wildlife habitats, as well as their water supply.