Oil Sands  Propaganda

Quoted from the AAEV:( Environmental Voters Party of Canada) : “Harper intends to make toothless most of the legal and regulatory framework that protects Canada’s environment and animals. The Species at Risk Act, the Fisheries Act, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, the National Energy Board, all these and more are being gutted, hamstrung, neutered to give Harper-friendly industries unfettered license to degrade, to destroy, to kill the environment and animals. All to fuel their reckless drive for profit – and damn the cost!”

We continue to be inundated with high cost television ads touting the benefits of continued Oil Sands development and expansion. Our tax dollars fuel the placement of this advertisement.  We continue to have our own Canadian researchers allegedly gagged when new findings need to be revealed to the public.

We continue to bathed in propaganda…..what we are not bathed in are facts….

As a concerned Environmentalist I strongly suggest that the sites below be visited.

http://oilsandstruth.org/

http://www.sierraclub.ca/en/tar-sands/publications/tar-sands-environmental-justice-health

http://www.mcgilldaily.com/2012/11/the-alberta-tar-sands-and-first-nations-health/

To quote a recent article in the Northern Journal, one of the best publications, at least in my opinion, that comes out of Canada’s Arctic region and which has no fear of presenting the truth to its readers:

“Fish deformities in Alberta,US linked to oil pollution: scientist”

Excerpts are taken from the article written by Meagan Wohlberg in the Northern Journal, Vol.36 No.48

“Renowned scientist David Schindler says deformities found on fish in the Athabasca River..are remarkably similar to those found on fish in the Gulfs of Mexico and Alaska following devastating oil spills.”

Schindler, a scientist with the University of Alberta, helped to link ‘carcinogenic contaminants found in the nearby snowpack in northeastern Alberta’ to the ‘oilsands upgraders’.

Schindler stated in his letter to Peter Kent, Minister of the Environment and Keith Ashfield, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, according to the Northern Journal:

“Given the parallels in the cases from various locations, it seems likely that some chemical or suite of chemicals in crude oil is causing the malformations.”  Here he is referring to the “remarkable similarities” (abnormalities) found on the fish found in the Athabasca River as well as in the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe and as well in the Gulf of Alaska after the Exxon Valdez oil spill.  Deformities in fish found in the Great Lakes within the areas where there is heavy industrialization also points at the poisonous effect of industrial waste contaminants .

Schindler has also requested that the outdoor lab  (The Experimental Lakes Area in northwestern Ontario (ELA) be kept open as it is under threat of closure due to the decision of the Federal Government to cut the $2M yearly funding it receives.  The only outdoor lab of its kind in the world, has been shut down temporarily in March, while the Feds are looking for ‘a new group to take it over’ according to the Northern Journal.

According to Schindler, Environment Canada scientists do a very good job of monitoring the river, however, as Mr. Schindler also states “it will be impossible to determine which chemicals are responsible for the malformations in the complex chemical soup downstream of oilsands mining.”

These PAH’s : “polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, alkylated derivatives or closely related dibenzothiphenes” are “suspected or known to cause cancer, mutations or deformities in embryos  and are linked to immune suppression.”

Bloggers Notations:

With the gutting of Environmental Protection in Canada, our waterways and land, our environment period, is now suffering the consequences.  Open Season on the Traditional Way of Life for First Nations, and the overall Canadian environment/heritage  appears to have been declared and the legacy to be left for future generations is at best questionable.

http://acfnchallenge.wordpress.com/2012/06/01/for-immediate-release-fort-chipewyan-community-alarmed-two-deformed-and-lesion-covered-fish-caught-in-lake-athabasca/

THE FIGHT TO SAVE OUR HERITAGE, OUR ENVIRONMENT, OUR CANADA!!!

IN THE NEWS:

NORTHERN JOURNAL:  www.srj.ca

“Norway church backs Dene Oilsands fight”…”Bishop, Sami Parliament ask Statoil to pull out of Alberta”

by Meagan Wohlberg

Excerpt:  ” A prominent bishop in Norway is the latest luminary to throw some weight behind Francois Paulette’s campaign against the oil sands, which took the Dene elder from Smith’s Landing First Nation on a tour of the Scandinavian country this month”……”all 12 bishops of the Church of Norway have joined opposition to Canada’s oil sands in solidarity with Canada’s indigenous peoples.”

“ACFN heads to Shell AGM in Netherlands

by Meagan Wohlberg

Excerpt:  ” Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) is sending a representative to the Hague in the Netherlands this week to confront shareholders of oil sands company Royal Dutch Shell at their annual general meeting May 22.”…”The First Nation is adamantly rejecting Shell’s two future oilsands project proposals, the Jackpine mine expansion and Pierre River mine.”

“Majority of oilsands companies foreign-owned – Report hits back at attack on ‘foreign funded environmentalists’

By Meagan Wohlberg

Excerpt:  “A report by environmental group ForestEthics Advocacy shows that 71 percent of all oil sands production is owned by foreign companies.”

Bloggers Note:  Co-founder of ForestEthics, Tzeporah Berman, is quoted in this article as saying “With the majority of profits from the tar sands operations flowing to foreign companies, we need to ask in whose interest is the Government of Canada under Prime Minister Harper serving?”

15 oil companies were looked at in the review, nine have headquarters in Canada and ForestEthics found that over 50% of all nine of these headquartered in Canada are actually owned by foreign interests.

Excerpt:  ” The study also found that over (51.1 percent) of all oil and gas operating revenue in Canada went to foreign entities, such as China.  According to Skuce, Canada is quickly becoming China’s “resource colony.””