Indigenous nations have protected the earth on their territories for thousands of years. With the government of Canada ignoring their sovereignty, nations not only see massive theft of resources that could help alleviate social problems, but their exacerbation through their further alienation from their own lands, often accompanying being overrun by development and southern workers, while having no self-determination during this process. In the south of Canada industrial farming displaced many nations with often genocidal results. In the north, a modern equivalent of that fate is only just beginning, wrought on by industrial oil and gas drilling schemes (among many industrial plans) that are condemning entire societies, languages and cultures to a precarious future, becoming minorities in their lands for the first time.
Access and benefits negotiations with Imperial Oil stalled
Roxanna Thompson
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, July 2, 2009
TTHEK'EHDELI/JEAN MARIE RIVER - Access and benefits negotiations between the Dehcho First Nation and Imperial Oil have stalled.
On June 24, DFN delegates attending the nations' annual assembly were informed by Shane Parrish that access and benefits negotiations with Imperial Oil for the Mackenzie Gas Project have hit an impasse.
Enbridge ramps up to build
Published July 03 2009
Superior Telegram
Enbridge Energy is gearing up for construction of two pipelines designed to meet North American’s need for a reliable and secure energy supply.
The project includes construction of a 1,000-mile long, 36-inch diameter pipeline from Alberta, Canada, to Superior; the line includes 326 miles to be constructed in the U.S., capable of carrying 450,000 barrels per day from the oil sands in Canada to its terminal in Superior.
Peak Oil And World Food Supplies
By Peter Goodchild
29 June, 2009
Countercurrents.org
Only about 10 percent of the world’s land surface is arable, whereas the other 90 percent is just rock, sand, or swamp, which can never be made to produce crops, whether we use “high” or “low” technology or something in the middle. In an age with diminishing supplies of oil and other fossil fuels, this 10:90 ratio may be creating two gigantic problems that have been largely ignored.
Mackenzie pipeline timing 'uncertain'
Guy Quenneville
Northern News Services
Published Monday, June 29, 2009
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - When the Mackenzie Gas Project will begin producing natural gas - originally thought to be 2014 - is now "uncertain" due to regulatory delays, said Pius Rolheiser, spokesperson for Imperial Oil, adding that the project timeline will be revisited after the release of the Joint Review Panel's report.
Tribal members fight Enbridge oil pipeline
Some members from Fond du Lac and Leech Lake bands will petition Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to block the Enbridge project.
By: John Myers, Duluth News Tribune
Saying the environmental damage to their native brothers’ land in Canada is too great, tribal dissidents on two Minnesota Indian reservations are battling a major new oil pipeline across northern Minnesota.
Could tar sands be behind high rates of cancer in Fort Chipewyan?
By Stephanie Dearing.
Published June 29, 2009
Is the extraction of oil from Alberta's tar sands responsible for the disproportionate increase in cancers in a down-stream community?
A northern Alberta First Nations community, sited down river from the tar sands, is suffering from a higher-than-normal incidence of cancer. Dr. John O'Connor was instrumental in drawing attention to the cancer rate. So why is he seen as a bad guy?
Group Wants To Stop Planned Pipeline
Jun 26, 2009 at 6:14 PM CDT
Some members of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe have joined forces with members of the Fond Du Lac band in an effort to stop a planned Enbridge Energy oil pipeline from crossing their reservations.
Spokespeople with the groups say the pipeline will transport dirty oil and they fear a contaminating oil spill.
Enbridge spokespeople say they already have legal agreements with Fond du Lac and Leech Lake tribal councils to allow the Alberta Clipper pipeline to cross reservation land.
June 26, 2009
Tar sands "as they are" provoke negative press coverage
Here's an interesting admission from the first edition of the Canada West Foundation's Oil Sands Media Monitoring Report:
Issues: Learning from the present
Strong response to racist backlash against Six Nations in Ontario offers important lessons for Albertans
Macdonald Stainsby / oilsandstruth.org
Vue Weekly, Week of June 25, 2009
Canada's 'toxic secret' soon to be made public
Last Updated: Thursday, June 18, 2009 |
CBC News
Environmental groups have long called the tailings lakes in the Alberta oilsands Canada's toxic secret, but companies operating there will soon be required to disclose exactly what pollutants are there.
In April, a federal court ordered Ottawa to make the mining industry release a complete inventory of what material they release into the environment. Now companies in the oilsands will also have to comply, CBC News has learned.
