Health

Greenpeace takes poke at Alberta oil sands
The Canadian Press
June 27, 2008

CALGARY -- Greenpeace is stepping up pressure on the environmental record of Alberta's oil sands with a tongue-in-cheek website that offers mock tours of the province's industrial northeast.

The site, with an address similar to the province's official tourism website, tempts travellers with black sand beaches, toxic lakes and clearcut forests.

It recommends starting the day with a "propane cannon wake-up call" and suggests a little open-pit paragliding over the vast oil sands mines.

Macdonald Stainsby gives http://h2opodcast.com/ an overview of the tar sands, their history in development, why now, the connection to the war on terror & Iraq, trade deals, expansion of the temporary foreign worker programs in such development, violation of indigenous nations' self-determination and environmental destruction unparalleled in the world. (Part I of II)

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Part II of II:

Macdonald Stainsby gives http://h2opodcast.com/ an overview of the tar sands, their history in development, why now, the connection to the war on terror & Iraq, trade deals, expansion of the temporary foreign worker programs in such development, violation of indigenous nations' self-determination and environmental destruction unparalleled in the world. Part II of II.

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Abuse of foreign workers unavoidable, Alta. Tories suggest
Elise Stolte , Canwest News Service
Published: Wednesday, June 18, 2008

EDMONTON - Some abuse of foreigners working temporarily in Alberta is unavoidable because of conditions in their home countries, Alberta's minister of Employment and Immigration suggested Wednesday.

Hector Goudreau was reacting to news that as many as 120 Chinese workers were paid a fraction of what they were owed for work building tanks at a northern Alberta oilsands site.

Bruce Power launches nuclear power feasibility study
Cassandra Kyle, Saskatchewan News Network; Canwest News Service
Published: Wednesday, June 18, 2008

SASKATOON -- A feasibility study into the potential for a nuclear energy plant in Saskatchewan will be complete by the end of the year, according to the president and CEO of Bruce Power LP, a nuclear power producer in Ontario.

Racism in the Tar Sands: exploiting foreign workers and poisoning indigenous people
June 12, 2008

By Macdonald Stainsby

The giant corporations that are determined to exploit the Alberta tar sands face a major problem — a serious shortage of local labour to do the actual work. So the Canadian and Albertan governments have a plan, ideal in their eyes, to solve the crunch.

More articles softening up the population for the massive expansion of the Temporary foreign worker programs, being brought in by the tag team of THe SPP and TILMA, and done in time to build Olympic and Tar Sands infrastructure... Yet, due to the size of the proposed Gigaproject as well as the 2010 Games this is actually true-- the question not being asked is are we prepared to allow projects with such dire prospects?

--M

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Shortage of skilled workers to continue
Written by GORDON HOEKSTRA
Citizen staff
Friday, 06 June 2008

First Nations town plans road blockade
Florence Loyie, The Edmonton Journal
June 13, 2008

EDMONTON - A First Nations community straddling a section of the border between northern Alberta and British Columbia is planning a blockade later this month to draw attention to health and safety concerns caused by oil and gas exploration on its traditional lands.

Clayton Anderson, a consultant working for Kelly Lake Cree Nation, said the blockade will be held in conjunction with an emergency disaster preparedness drill the community plans for next week.

Small band has big bite
Slave River Journal, June 11/2008

A small First Nation group in the southern part of the Municipality of Wood Buffalo is suing the Alberta provincial government for failing to ensure its treaty rights. Industrial encroachment near the Chipewyan Prairie Dene First Nation is destroying their way of life, according to Chief Vern Janvier.
“Today we’re at the point where we see no future where we are,” Janvier told reporters in a press conference Wednesday, June 4.

Finding their voice [Economist]
Jun 12th 2008 | OTTAWA
Canada delivers an official apology to its increasingly assertive indigenous peoples