Oil Sands Truth: Shut Down the Tar Sands

Social Impacts

Social Impacts. Overnight injections of migrant workers will not build healthy communities and can have severely adverse impacts on existing communities, especially those of indigenous nations on their traditional lands. Such development brings vices and long term displacement too often. Drugs, alcohol and associated violence spreads. Hunting becomes difficult when the land is threatened, leading to a further loss of culture and tradition. In towns like Fort McMurray there is no planning for the future, but merely consumption in the present. However transient the individuals may be, the populations will not leave, as “development” takes on a logic all its own. All levels of run away development are subordinate to that development, not social need.

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Author Andrew Nikiforuk fears tar sands undermine democracy

Georgia Straight October 23, 2008

Author Andrew Nikiforuk fears tar sands undermine democracy

By Charlie Smith

A Calgary author and journalist says most Canadians don’t understand that
we’re living in a “petrostate” that could undermine our democracy. Andrew
Nikiforuk, author of Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent
(Greystone Books, $20), told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview that
Canada needs a national debate on the topic. “I think the tar sands has
created a political emergency for the country,” he said.

Somebody local with a grudge targeting oilpatch?

Somebody local with a grudge targeting oilpatch?
Stephen Hume
Vancouver Sun
Monday, October 20, 2008

News of a second pipeline bombing in British Columbia's Peace River district splashed across headlines from New York to New Zealand.

Almost as quickly, anxious residents of Tomslake, about 700 kilometres northeast of Vancouver, speculated about al-Qaida, first nations militants and eco-extremists.

Hunker down, happy hour is over

Hunker down, happy hour is over
October 16, 2008

Back in the summer, Randy Eresman, the meticulous engineer who runs the country's largest energy company, sat down in a brown leather chair and talked about how Breaking Up is Hard to Do. EnCana Corp.'s executive group was drawing two lists - who would stay, and who would go to the new oil spinoff. And it was tough.

"It's going to be a sad day when we actually end up splitting and moving people apart that have worked together for a very long period of time," he said.

TAR SANDS-PART 3: Biggest Customer Has Second Thoughts

OIL SANDS-PART 3: Biggest Customer Has Second Thoughts
By Chris Arsenault*

FT. MCMURRAY, Oct 20 (IPS) - As Canada's tar sands extraction expands full steam ahead, a perfect storm of internal and external opposition could derail some of the voracious growth at the world's largest energy project.

Together, skyrocketing construction costs, falling crude prices, increasingly vocal opposition from some native groups, and a little known section of the 2007 U.S. Energy Independence and Security Act all threaten growth projections in northern Alberta.

Opti-Nexen Rethinking Long Lake Expansion

Nexen, Opti delay decision on next oil sands phase
Mon Oct 20, 2008 1:22pm EDT

CALGARY, Alberta, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Nexen Inc and Opti Canada Inc have postponed a decision to expand their new Long Lake, Alberta, oil sands project, citing the financial market crisis and uncertainty over costs to curb carbon emissions, a Nexen official said on Monday.

The partners in the C$6.1 billion ($5.1 billion) development, which is now in start-up mode, had expected to decide by the end of this year whether to begin work on twinning the project.

Mackenzie Gas Project Creeps Ever Closer

Positive step forward for pipeline
Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Published Monday, October 6, 2008

INUVIK - A major piece of the puzzle that is the Mackenzie Gas Project has fallen into place.

Access and benefits agreements have been reached between the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation and project proponents.
NNSL Photo/Graphic

Construction of the $16.2 billion Mackenzie Valley Pipeline is awaiting regulatory approval and the inking of access agreements similar to one signed by the Inuvialuit last week. - NNSL file photo

"Terrorists target U.S.A. via Alberta"

Hopefully this can begin a discussion about what activists resisting the largest project in human history and the second largest oil deposit on the planet will do when the state sees us as dangerously effective.

Shysters enslave foreign workers

Shysters enslave foreign workers
By TOM GODFREY, SUN MEDIA
19th October 2008

Immigration officials are targeting a network of shady recruiters who are charging foreign construction workers huge fees for jobs that are available free in Canada.

The shysters are forcing workers to turn over their earnings and live like slaves after they arrive here.

"Where I Come From Is Ground Zero"

OIL SANDS-PART 2: "Where I Come From Is Ground Zero"
By Chris Arsenault*

Michael Mercredi, a member of the Athabasca Chipewyan/Dene First Nation, says people in his small community are experiencing rare cancers because of the tar sands.

Credit:Chris Arsenault/IPS

FT. MCMURRAY, Oct 17 (IPS) - The wheels of the Caterpillar 797B, the world's largest truck, are always going round and round at Shell Canada's Albian Sands mine.

Winter Olympic supporters and opponents both claim success from Spirit Train

Winter Olympic supporters and opponents both claim success from Spirit Train
October 18, 2008
Canadian Press Ltd.

VANCOUVER — Organizers and opponents of the 2010 Winter Olympics have both declared victory after duelling campaigns to raise awareness about the Games over the course of a promotional train journey from Vancouver to Montreal.

The Canadian Pacific Spirit Train wrapped up its 10-city tour in Montreal on Saturday, with an estimated 35,000 people across the country having taken part in activities highlighting Olympic sport.