Tar Sands 101
The Tar Sands "Gigaproject" is the largest industrial project in human history and likely also the most destructive. The tar sands mining procedure releases at least three times the CO2 emissions as regular oil production and is slated to become the single largest industrial contributor in North America to Climate Change.
The tar sands are already slated to be the cause of up to the second fastest rate of deforestation on the planet behind the Amazon Rainforest Basin. Currently approved projects will see 3 million barrels of tar sands mock crude produced daily by 2018; for each barrel of oil up to as high as five barrels of water are used.
Human health in many communities has seriously taken a turn for the worse with many causes alleged to be from tar sands production. Tar sands production has led to many serious social issues throughout Alberta, from housing crises to the vast expansion of temporary foreign worker programs that racialize and exploit so-called non-citizens. Infrastructure from pipelines to refineries to super tanker oil traffic on the seas crosses the continent in all directions to allthree major oceans and the Gulf of Mexico.
The mock oil produced primarily is consumed in the United States and helps to subsidize continued wars of aggression against other oil producing nations such as Iraq, Venezuela and Iran.
To understand the tar sands in more depth, continue to our Tar Sands 101 reading list
Cancel Tax Breaks to Tarsands?
Committee report urges end to oilsands tax break
http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/187693
Mar 02, 2007 05:35 PM
Dennis Bueckert
Canadian press
OTTAWA – The federal government should cancel its generous tax treatment of the Alberta oilsands industry, putting it on the same footing as the rest of the energy sector, says a draft report by a House of Commons committee.
The tax break, estimated to be worth $1.4 billion annually, has been a point of growing controversy as oilsands operators reap record revenues.
BC's Big Pipeline Plans Draw Fire from Indigenous Nations
BC's Big Pipeline Plans Draw Fire from Indigenous Nations
Massive Gateway project faces serious legal obstacles. A special report.
By Christopher Pollon
August 23, 2006
http://thetyee.ca/News/2006/08/23/Enbridge/
Whenever Jim Culp thinks about the proposed Enbridge pipeline, his thoughts return to the night the mountain fell from out of the sky.
Dehcho, Chipewyan nations call for oilsands moratorium
Dehcho, Chipewyan nations call for oilsands moratorium
Last Updated: Wednesday, January 31, 2007 | 12:38 PM CT
CBC News North
Northern First Nations are calling for a halt to further development in Alberta's oilsands, saying the massive industrial growth is hurting their land, their water and their people.
Dehcho First Nations Grand Chief Herb Norwegian told a news conference in Fort McMurray Tuesday the effect of the massive development can be felt downstream along the Mackenzie River system.
Federal Judge changes Dene Tha' ruling: MGP Hearings Resume
This is a setback, and what form of setback is a matter of interpretation. It is a signal that the nations of the North are expected to take a payoff or get steamrolled. It is also an attempt to use the usual doublespeak manner of the Canadian State: not allowing the supreme court ruling to actually effect the economic situation for the Mackenzie Gas Project by delaying the process, but forcing the cosmetic change in the JRP final report. However, it should be noted that decisions on whether or not the MGP goes ahead will come from something other than a federally orchestrated panel.
The Costs of Alberta's "Black Gold"
Oil Sands: The Costs of Alberta's "Black Gold"
Alana Herro – July 7, 2006 – 4:27am
Canada Vs. Nunavut for Oil & Gas in the Arctic?
December 22, 2006
Okalik: Devolution must include internal waters
“It is, frankly, an area where, for the moment, we agree to disagree.”
http://www.nunatsiaq.com/news/nunavut/61222_05.html
JIM BELL
Ottawa-Nunavut devolution talks hit a snag last week when Nunavut
Premier Paul Okalik and Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice came out
with opposing views on jurisdiction over the vast oil and gas reserves
lying within Nunavut’s internal waters.
Prentice said last week in an interview broadcast on CPAC, the Canadian
The Violence of the Letter: Land Claims and Continuing Colonial Conquest in Canada
The Violence of the Letter: Land Claims and Continuing Colonial Conquest in Canada (Peter Kulchyski)
Canadian Dimension Magazine, January/February 2007 Issue
Why is Cancer Sweeping Tiny Fort Chipewyan?
May 22, 2006
Globe and Mail
Why is Cancer Sweeping Tiny Fort Chipewyan?
by Patrick Brethour
A generation ago, Lake Athabasca was clear and clean enough that Fort Chipewyan residents drew their drinking water straight from it, and thought nothing about dipping a cup over the side of a canoe during hunting trips. Those days are long gone, as industrial development -- particularly the explosive growth of the oil sands -- accelerates along the Athabasca River, the main tributary of Lake Athabasca.
No Lifeblood for Oil: Lubicon Fight for Survival
April 28, 2005
No Lifeblood for Oil
Lubicon nation fights oil companies, governments for survival
http://www.dominionpaper.ca/original_peoples/2005/04/28/no_lifeblo.html
by Kim Petersen
NEB spells out Mackenzie pipeline conditions
What is of concern here is not what is mentioned, but rather what isn't. There are two equally disturbing environmentally dangerous aspects to the proposed pipeline. One cannot be hidden but only minimized and "greenwashed", the other can be lied about, declared irrelevant, or simply left unspoken. The first is what we have discussed by the NEB: land and water protection from both the construction and the operation phases of the MGP. The other is the impact on the overall atmosphere via the transport of the gas to be used in the operation of the Alberta tarsands.