The Health implications in terms of these projects are vast, and not just the deadly explosions and industrial accidents that happen in production-—from reported increases in rare forms of cancer downstream from tar sands production to the pollution of fresh water leading to poisoned diets (fish, moose and plant toxicity)—-direct links are hard to establish but impossible to either rule out or ignore, especially where tarsand operations constitute overwhelmingly the greatest change to the environment in most corners of the continent effected directly by tarsand infrastructure.
Here is the intervention that was made at the United Nations by the
Athabasca Chipewyan and Mikisew Cree First Nations.
INTERVENTION TO THE SEVENTH SESSION ON THE UNITED NATIONS PERMANENT FORUM ON
INDIGENOUS ISSUES
Read at approximately 12:00 noon, Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Intervention on Agenda Item 5: Human rights: dialogue with the Special
Rapportuer on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of
indigenous peoples and other special rapporteurs.
Thank you Madame chair,
Temporary foreign workers see exponential growth in Alberta
Apr. 30, 2008
Richard Gilbert // staff writer
Alberta is experiencing an explosion in the number of temporary foreign workers (TFW) in the construction industry, but official statistics may underestimate the number of these workers in the country.
“Alberta has seen exponential growth in the use of TFWs for construction,” states a study recently released by the Construction Sector Council (CSC).
The study investigates the impact that the workers have on Canada’s construction industry.
Hot issue = cool debate
A report that suggests Lake Diefenbaker might be a good location for a nuclear power plant does not mean such a facility will ever be built. It does, however, kickstart a welcome debate.
The Leader-Post
Published: Friday, May 09, 2008
Nuclear energy, we hope, is finally on the table for discussion in Saskatchewan.
Foreign workers pull disappearing act: employer
Updated Thu. May. 15 2008 10:25 AM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
The foreign worker program is causing big headaches, says one Calgary employer, who complains that 20 of his employees pulled a disappearing act soon after arriving in the country.
Calgary business owner, Owen Colbourne, has brought in 31 foreign labourers to work at his manufacturing and consulting company in the past 18 months.
It's not just about 500 dead ducks
May 11, 2008 04:30 AM
Gillian Steward
Who could have known that a flock of ducks on its way home for the summer was fated to become a powerful symbol of all that is wrong with Alberta's most vital industrial project – the tar sands?
As much of the world knows by now, about 500 of them died when they set down on a lake of oily goo, usually referred to by the petroleum industry and the government as a tailing pond – a much more neutral phrase than 22 square kilometres of toxic sludge produced when oil is extracted from the sandy soil.
Work- place deaths up 24%
154 Alta. workers died on job last year, 30 more than in 2006
Archie McLean, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Friday, April 18
EDMONTON - Alberta workplace deaths jumped 24 per cent in 2007, but injuries fell slightly during the same period, new provincial statistics show.
A total of 154 people died on the job or as a result of their work last year, which is up from 124 in 2006, which was a 15-year low. The government says the number of deaths last year is consistent with the rates from the past 10 years.
Last surviving duck hangs in
By Victoria Handysides
May 13, 2008
A female mallard duck is the only surviving creature that took a dip in Syncrude’s toxic tailings pond that will live to tell the tale.
In total, 18 birds have been brought to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Society of Edmonton from different tailings ponds in the Fort McMurray area. Only six have survived.
Scenes From the Tar Wars
NEWS: As Canada scrambles to dig up some of the world's dirtiest oil, a bush doctor
tracks mysterious diseases, poisoned rivers, and shattered lives.
By Josh Harkinson
May/June 2008 Issue
At a small airport in the northern Alberta town of Fort McMurray, a rickety,
single-engine Cessna hurtles off the ground with a roar. Dr. John O'Connor ignores
the shuddering fuselage, the tail wiggle, the steep climb above the spruce trees at
the end of the runway. For O'Connor, a bush doctor who has tended to some of
More dead birds giving Oilsands a blackeye
May 05, 2008 - 7:25 am
Kevin Usselman & Bryce Kelley
The Alberta oilsands is coming under fire again after a loon was found dead
and two others in distress at the ConocoPhillips tar sands site over the
weekend.
A campaigner with Greenpeace says he received the tip about the loons on
Saturday. It's the second incident involving birds in the oilsands in about
a week.
Last week, 500 ducks were found dead on a tailings pond at the Syncrude
oilsands site. That's because the birds, were found in a pond that has high
May 1st, 2008
Canada caught on its own tar baby. Tar sand investments now a dead duck?
Posted by Harry Fuller @ 3:41 am
As one Canadian newspaper put it. Ducks in Alberta died a crude death. One of the species of ducks that died on a pond filled with crude oil polluted water: Bufflehead.
