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.
VANOC may axe Whistler ceremonies
By BOB MACKIN, 24 HOURS, Dec 24, 2008
A Whistler forest may have been cut for naught.
Medals are supposed to be awarded nightly at B.C. Place Stadium in Vancouver and the Celebration Plaza next to Whistler Village during the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Vancouver 2010 organizers -- faced with unprecedented recessionary pressure for a North American-held Games -- may cancel the Whistler ceremonies to save money.
A moving speech by Casey Camp-Horinek of the Ponca Nation in Oklahoma on the
theft and industrial devastation of their lands. Many Ponca are dying
from cancer in what is now Oklahoma´s refinery "hub". Now there are new
plans for refineries to process tar sands bitumen from Alberta.
Then, Dave Malka went to the Coalition Yes rally early in December and
collected a few interviews of attendees. Some opinions about the coalition
you might have missed on the mainstream radio.
http://www.cjsr.ualberta.ca/news/news.php?s=riseup
Downloadable link:
Industry upset over JRP deadline
Guy Quenneville
Northern News Services
Published Monday, December 15, 2008
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Reaction to news that the Joint Review Panel will not have its report on the embattled Mackenzie Gas Project ready until December 2009 has been uniformly negative and in some cases incredulous.
"You've got to be kidding" was the initial reaction of Ann Marie Tout, president of the NWT Chamber of Commerce.
Council of Canadians blasts Alta. gov’t (over possible censorship of film productions)
By CAROL CHRISTIAN
Fort McMurray Today staff
The Council of Canadians is asking Albertans to say no to censorship after the province recently suggested rethinking the funding of productions critical of the oilsands.
Who's dishing real oilsands propaganda?
Gov't decries environmentalist agenda, but refuses to subject data to non-partisan scientific scrutiny
By David Schindler December 15, 2008
This week, Alberta Environment Minister Rob Renner is in Poland, expected to defend the oilsands from being considered as a source of "dirty oil." I don't envy him. In the past, international criticism has been largely based on the high emissions of greenhouse gases from mining the oilsands. This is changing rapidly in recent weeks.
Stephen Harper: Mackenzie Gas now
December 12, 2008
Diane Francis // Financial Post
Ottawa need not sign a single check in order to kick start a gigantic $20-billion economic stimulus project that would also be in the national interest. The feds must short-circuit their dysfunctional system in order to start the Mackenzie Gas Project.
First Nation takes province to court over oilsands leasing
Thursday, December 11, 2008
CBC News
Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation speaks to reporters in Edmonton on Thursday.Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation speaks to reporters in Edmonton on Thursday. (CBC)
The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation in northern Alberta announced Thursday it has filed a request asking a court to review how Alberta grants leases for oilsands developments.
The notice was filed Wednesday in Edmonton's Court of Queen's Bench.
Polluted tar sands ponds leaking, report indicates
MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT / ENVIRONMENT REPORTER
December 9, 2008
The tailings ponds storing waste water left over from the processing of Alberta tar sands oil are leaking an estimated 11 million litres of contaminated water every day, according to a new report.
The figure, one of the first publicly available on the scale of the seepage from tailing ponds that dot the landscape in Northern Alberta, is being released today in a report by Environmental Defence, a Toronto-based conservation advocacy group.
Alberta rethinks film funding rules after anti-oilsands doc gets cash
Thursday, December 11, 2008
CBC News
A documentary that takes a critical look at the oilsands is raising a big stink at the Alberta legislature.
It turns out that Downstream, by U.S. documentary maker Leslie Iwerks, was funded in part by the provincial government.
That's prompted the government to take a closer look at how films get funded in Alberta.
David Suzuki: Tar sand wealth comes with environmental costs
By David Suzuki and Faisal Moola
If you want to be scared, you don’t need to watch a horror movie or read the latest Stephen King bestseller.
Real terror can be found by simply firing up Google Earth, the computer program that allows users to look at satellite pictures of any place on the planet. By mousing over and zooming in, you can see what Alberta’s tar sands look like from space.
It is not a pretty sight. In fact, it’s scary—and for good reason.
