Indigenous

Dehcho Land Use Plan revisions increase development

Roxanna Thompson
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, May 01, 2008

DEH GAH GOT'IE KOE/FORT PROVIDENCE - A revised Dehcho Land Use Plan could be completed as early as this fall, according to members of the Dehcho Land Use Planning Committee.

The planning committee has been working steadily since last fall to resolve the differences over the plan between the Dehcho First Nations (DFN) and the territorial and federal governments, said Michael Nadli, the chair of the committee.

Dehcho Process at crossroads

Paul Bickford and John Curran
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, April 10, 2008

K'ATLODEECHE/HAY RIVER RESERVE - There was not a lot of optimism about the Dehcho Process coming out of last week's leadership meeting on the Hay River Reserve.

Deh Cho leaders were disheartened following a report on the negotiations with the federal government.

"I feel that Canada is negotiating in bad faith," said Jerry Antoine, interim grand chief of Dehcho First Nations (DFN), following the meeting.

One key area of concern is land selection.

From the article below: "Experts on agro-economics say biofuels production is
largely responsible for the current food shortages and soaring prices. The crisis,
according to them, is not going to end unless the rich countries change their energy
consumption patterns.

If rich nations stopped biofuels production this year, it would lead to a price
decline in corn by about 20 percent and wheat by about 10 percent within the next
two years, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute, a think
tank in Washington."

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Change in activists' tactics poses serious threat to 2010 Games: analyst

By Stephanie Levitz, The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER - Changing tactics by Canadian activists pose a serious threat to security
at the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, security analysts say.

The usually fragmented, single-issue groups are converging and organizing in ways
never seen before in Canada, said Tom Quiggan, a former security consultant with the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Where there's usually a lull in protest activity in the years leading up to

Duck Deaths Confirm First Nations' Fears

Fort Chipewyan, May 2, 2008 -- Only one day after the 500 ducks were found dead in the tailings pond at Syncrude Canada in the Alberta tar sands, a local Mikisew Cree hunter killed a duck that was totally covered in oil. Community leaders have no doubt that the duck was a victim of the toxic tailings ponds near Fort McMurray, 300 kilometres south of Fort Chipewyan. The oil-drenched duck will be released to the Canadian Wildlife Service for further investigation.

Bolivian president proposes radical measures to save planet
Canwest News Service
Published: Tuesday, April 22, 2008

The hottest housing market in North America, driven by oil
By Marshall Loeb, MarketWatch
Last update: 7:38 p.m. EDT April 21, 2008

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- A boom of unprecedented dimensions is sweeping Canada's spectacularly scenic western province of Alberta, the Texas-sized territory with a population of 3 million that is home to a pair of world-class cities -- Calgary (population 1.2 million) and Edmonton (population 1.1 million).

Downstream from tarsands, Fort Smith worries over water
Monday, April 21, 2008
CBC News

Concerned residents in Fort Smith, N.W.T., met Saturday to talk about the water they drink, and how tarsands development south of the town may be affecting its quality.

"We don't know the answers. We don't know what's in our water," resident Keith Hartery said at Saturday night's public meeting in Fort Smith, located on the N.W.T.-Alberta border.

April 22, 2008
The Political Economics of Greenwashing
Green as a Blackjack Table
By STAN COX

Hard times are looming. And in their desperation to keep the American economy afloat, government and business will be tossing overboard any proposals for real environmental protection. No time for such romantic foolishness when there are investments to be protected. Get those tax refunds back into retailers' registers, quick!

Signed, sealed, delivered
Posted: April 21, 2008 // Indian Country Today
by: Stephanie Woodard
Environmental concerns plague fast-tracked oil pipeline

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - In March 2008, the U.S. Department of State issued a federal permit for the 2,000-mile TransCanada Keystone Pipeline, which would carry heavy crude oil from the oil sands of northern Alberta across seven U.S. states to Oklahoma. The document was signed, even though mandated government-to-government consultations with concerned Native nations were described as ''ongoing'' by the State Department.