Oil Sands Truth: Shut Down the Tar Sands

Labour / Migration

It is falsely assumed that big projects equal lots of jobs and, by extension, labour peace if not outright satisfaction. The size and scope of the tarsands means for incredibly dangerous work conditions-- some fatalities at the plants have already occurred. The products seldom get their "value added" in union-run locations, instead the heavy bitumen can be shipped to many different locations across North America for refining, denying benefits to the union. However, the Union does not represent the "guest worker", now being imported in increasing numbers as legislation is changed to make access easier, the term of exploitation last longer, without any new efforts or pathways to deciding to stay after helping tear up the earth.

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bruised, but not out

Oil sands: bruised, but not out

The oil-price collapse took some steam out of the boom in Canada's energy sector. Development is likely to proceed at a more sedate pace

"Tar sands need positive spin"-- Diane Francis

Good to see Ms Francis up to her usual turgid nonsense.

-M

Oil sands need positive spin

Diane Francis, Financial Post
September 19, 2009

Alberta and Canada have an image problem and it's called the oil sands. Non-government organizations such as Greenpeace and others have made these gigantic open-pit mining operations their current whipping boy. And by deploying hyperbole or inaccuracies, these organizations are winning the public relations game in the United States where the lion's share of this oil is destined.

Inuvik businesses hit by MGM Energy's drilling delay

Inuvik businesses hit by MGM Energy's drilling delay
Friday, September 18, 2009
CBC News

Some businesses in Inuvik, N.W.T., have less work lined up for the coming months after a Canadian gas exploration company said it won't explore in the region this winter.

MGM Energy Corp. announced this week that it will postpone drilling in the Mackenzie Delta region in the 2009-10 winter drilling season, citing continued uncertainty surrounding the proposed Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline project.

Alberta Clipper oil pipeline project creates housing crunch in Bemidji

Alberta Clipper oil pipeline project creates housing crunch in Bemidji
Posted: Sep 16, 2009

BEMIDJI, Minn. (AP) -- The influx of workers building the new Alberta Clipper oil pipeline across northern Minnesota has meant a shortage of rental housing in the Bemidji area.

Some homeowners are renting rooms to pipeline workers and a local hotel that's been closed for several years may reopen as construction activity ramps up.

Mackenzie delays prompt MGM to put Arctic drilling plans on ice this winter

By Lauren Krugel (CP)
September 17, 2009

CALGARY — MGM Energy Corp. (TSX:MGM), a junior company focused on exploiting natural gas in the high Arctic, is putting its drilling plans on ice this winter as uncertainty persists around the development of the Mackenzie pipeline.

"With really nothing going ahead, we just couldn't justify spending the money and drilling the wells," Henry Sykes, president of the Calgary-based company told an energy conference hosted by Calgary brokerage Peters & Co. Wednesday.

Residents of Peace River region call gas development 'a tsunami' as saboteur's deadline passes

BC Pipeline Bombings
Residents of Peace River region call gas development 'a tsunami' as saboteur's deadline passes

Chris Arsenault
Vue Weekly, September 15, 2009.

Edmonton Journal Spin to ramp up security at Tar Sands mines

It was only a matter of time that the corporate media and their owners used resistance to tar sands destruction and death to raise the spectre of "terror". Let's hope that people are able to defend their civil liberties from this utter nonsense.

--M

Greenpeace protesters breach “secure” oilsands site

By Richard Warnica, edmontonjournal.com
September 15, 2009

Tar czar: Ignatieff panders to Alberta's Big Oil

Tar czar: Ignatieff panders to Alberta's Big Oil
By Derrick O'Keefe
September 9, 2009

Near the end of Michael Ignatieff’s True Patriot Love -- an exploration of the men in his mother’s family rushed to publication in an effort to assert his Canadian bona fides -- we are treated to a play-by-play of the road trip he and his wife took in 2000, retracing the pioneering sea-to-sea journey of his great-grandfather.

Tar sands: Downplaying a mistake

Tar sands: Downplaying a mistake
By Emily Hunter
| September 8, 2009

Today I hit Calgary in my journey to the tar sands, the oil headquarters of Alberta. All the oil giants rest in this part of Albertan land -- Esso, Shell, Petro Canada -- who all have their hands in the tar sands. Here I spoke with the united face of the oil companies, CAPP (the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers). I tried to confront them in oil pains to the planet. But there answer was more of the same, that the tar sands is more or less 'sustainable.' But is this true?

From margin to mainstream-- Climate Protesters in the UK

From margin to mainstream
Once seen as outsiders, green protest groups now have a big influence on government policy
Jonathan Leake
The Sunday Times
August 30, 2009

For Ed Miliband it was a moment of acute embarrassment. What he needed, the environment secretary had told a recent press conference, was a “mass mobilisation”, with green activists taking to the streets to put pressure on the government. This, he said, would give ministers the political space they needed to get tough on climate change.