Gender impacts are often completely ignored within the hollow social impact assessments often conducted in the modern era. Oil patches and natural gas operations are overwhelmingly operated by young men who naturally go into small towns nearby after weeks in the bush. Alcohol and/or drug fuelled violence and rape often increase in communities dealing with such an influx, as do drug use, alcoholism and sexual exploitation. The effect on the community leads to further social breakdown and often violence against elders—especially after the “rush” of initial construction is over and the spike in money is gone, but the torn up earth is still there, along with fatherless children in many cases. The higher the rate in inequality and alienation during a "boom" cycle, the higher the levels of gender-biased impacts. The plans for the tar sands are the single largest project, and therefore "boom" based "collateral damage" could easily match anything seen before.
First Nations Women to Speak Out in Toronto against Tar Sands
By Kathleen Airdrie
Published Oct 25, 2010
National First Nations Women's Speakers Tour on Tar Sands will hold an event October 27, 2010 at the University of Toronto.
The women’s tour is sponsored by several organizations concerned with the devastation caused by the massive projects’ degradation of the land.
First Nations Women Speaking Out
It goes against our nature; but the left has to start asserting its own values
The progressive attempt to appeal to self-interest has been a catastrophe. Empathy, not expediency, must drive our campaigns
o George Monbiot
o guardian.co.uk, Monday 11 October 2010
So here we are, forming an orderly queue at the slaughterhouse gate. The punishment of the poor for the errors of the rich, the abandonment of universalism, the dismantling of the shelter the state provides: apart from a few small protests, none of this has yet brought us out fighting.
Alberta's oilsands city wants workers to live in, not just cash in
By: Bob Weber, The Canadian Press
Posted: 11/10/2010
FORT MCMURRAY, Alta. - Four years ago, Fort McMurray was a byword for boomtown.
Many saw it as a "lawless frontier town overrun by transient workers with too much money and too few community linkages," Mayor Melissa Blake said recently.
Hunger strikers seek money for women’s shelter in Fort McMurray
Victims of domestic violence in the oil-sands boomtown have few places to go, forcing many to return home to their abusers
Josh Wingrove Edmonton— From Monday's Globe and Mail
Sunday, Aug. 15, 2010
When Fort McMurray’s only women’s shelter was built nearly 30 years ago, the city had a population of about 30,000 and oil sands production was in its infancy.
Delay refinery until health effects are studied, Alberta regulator urged
Josh Wingrove
Fort Saskatchewan, Alta.
Globe and Mail
Jun. 11, 2010
The latest in a string of applications to build a massive oil refinery in an Alberta farming community – one coping with a rising cancer rate and soaring number of hospitalizations – should be put off until an inquiry can be called to examine the health impact of rapid industrial development, an energy hearing was told on Friday.
See You in Cochabamba!
Evo Morales Plans Bolivian Alternative Climate Summit for April
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 01. 6.10
Not wasting any time, Bolvian president Evo Morales has announced that his nation will be hosting an alternative climate summit in the city of Cochabamba on April 20-22, the New York Times reports. Morales is calling on activists, scientists and government officials "who want to work with the people" to attend. Bolivia was one of five nations dissenting on the non-binding COP15 agreement:
Oilpatch activist released in pipeline bombings case
By Laura Drake and Richard Warnica,
Canwest News Service
January 9, 2010
GRANDE PRAIRIE, Alta. — After hours of police interrogation, controversial oilpatch activist Wiebo Ludwig walked out of an Alberta police station facing no charges Saturday — a day after he was arrested in connection with a series of pipeline bombings.
Wiebo Ludwig arrested in pipeline bombings
By Ryan Cormier, Hanneke Brooymans and Paula Simons, edmontonjournal.com
January 8, 2010
EDMONTON — Convicted oilpatch bomber Wiebo Ludwig has been taken into custody by the RCMP in connection with the bombings of EnCana’s pipelines in Northern British Columbia, says a friend and his lawyer.
“We believe he’s been arrested,” said Richard Boonstra, a family friend who lives on the same property. “That’s all we know. We’re in the dark here.”
Mackenzie Pipeline saga to drag on despite Joint Review Panel approval
By Lauren Krugel (CP)
CALGARY — The Mackenzie Gas Project's supporters will usher in 2010 having passed a major milestone in what has been a long and often frustrating process.
But it's not time to uncork the champagne just yet.
There are numerous hurdles the backers of the 1,200-kilometre natural gas pipeline through the Northwest Territories must clear before a single segment of pipe can be laid.
Panel Issues Mackenzie Natural Gas Report
Panel weighing Canada's Mackenzie natural gas pipeline issues environmental report
CALGARY, Alberta December 30, 2009 (AP)
The Associated Press
A nearly decade-long quest to build a multibillion-dollar natural gas pipeline in Canada's north has cleared a major hurdle with the release of a years-overdue regulatory report Wednesday.
