Bird's eye view of the BP processing plant in Whiting, Indiana. The plant processes crude coming from the Alberta tar sands, and is located on the coast of Lake Michigan.
The Tar Sands of Northern Alberta never cease to elicit debate. Located near the remote community of Fort McMurray, they are the world’s single largest industrial project – and the only one visible from outer space.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, one of the the project’s strongest supporters, has said the development is akin to the building of the great wall of China – only bigger.
It’s critics, though, are vocal – and growing in number.
The extraction of bitumen from the tar sands is a resource intensive and dirty process. Critics point to the high amount of pollution produced during extraction, processing, and the eventual use of the oil.
Concern has also been raised over its impact on local communities and wildlife. Development of the tar sands has cleared large swathes of vegetation and natural habitat, and abnormally high cancer rates have appeared in nearby communities, including among the Dene of Fort Chipewyan. All of this has led to major concerns about the true cost of harvesting this source of oil.
And the questions have spread beyond the reaches of Alberta. Across Canada and the United States, environmental and citizen’s groups are starting to ask about the potential impact of the transportation and use of the oil being extracted in Alberta.
In this week’s podcast, Maggie Hughes returns to CITIZENShift with her piece, ‘From Tar Sands to Great Lakes.’ In it, she investigates growing concerns over the transport through pipelines of tar sands oil through Central Canada and United States, and it potential impact on the largest source of fresh water in the world.
Listen to Episode #81 From Tar Sands to Great Lakes (Running time: 23:38)
This podcast coincides with the launch tomorrow of our newest multimedia dossier: ‘Exploring Alberta’s Tar Sands: Fuelling whose economy?’, produced by freelance journalists Chris Arsenault and Sebastian Harder. The dossier is a work in progress - so make sure to visit and join in the discussion by adding you own videos, pictures, audio, links or articles.
As always, if you have any comments or thoughts about the podcast you’d like to share, leave them below!
We often hear of the difficult situation on aboriginal reserves and in their communities. For many of us, our vision is characterised by media reports of poverty, unemployment, leadership disputes and internal divisions.
We also hear their calls for treaty rights and other signed agreements to be respected by the federal government. We see their protests and actions to put pressure on the government after what is seen as years, even decades, of foot-dragging and outright disregard. But these stories are often divorced from a discussion of the impacts that decades and centuries of colonialism has had.
Last summer when the Canadian government formally apologized for the horrors of the residential school system there was a rare break is the conventional discussion. Both government officials and the media made reference to how the historical abuses of the residential school system had contributed to the current struggles facing most First Nations communities across Canada.
But those links are often both quickly forgotten and rarely discussed.
When members of the Algonquin community of Barriere Lake blockaded a major highway in northern Quebec twice this past year, there was little discussion in any venue about the historical context that would bring members of a small, northern Algonquin community to initiate a blockade and face the harsh repercussions. In episode 80 of the CitizenShift podcast, Montreal journalist and member of Barriere Lake Solidarity Courtney Kirkby delves into this history, from before the first encounters and treaties with European settlers to their current struggle to have management and say over their land and their community.
As always, if you have any thoughts or comments on this issue, wed love to see them posted below.
To find more media on First Nations and aboriginal rights and culture in Canada, visit our two dossiers, on the topic: Language Lost, on the struggle to maintain native languages in Canada, and Rebel With a Cause: Alanis Obomsawin, a look back at the work and career of this groundbreaking aboriginal filmmaker. For more on Barriere Lake, visit barrierelakesolidairty.blogspot.com.
Listen to Episode #80 Taking the Road Back: From Wampum Belt Promises to Highway Blockades (Running time: 24:57)
