#tarsands — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #tarsands, aggregated by home.social.
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They Are Dying. And #Canada Is Watching.
#Mikisew #Cree’s own health study confirms what the community has always known: the #OilSands are killing them. If governments and industry don’t act, they say they will shut it all down.
by Brandi Morin
Apr 13, 2026Excerpt: "The findings confirmed what this community has carried in their grief, in their graveyards, for generations: cancer rates in Fort Chipewyan are at least 25 percent higher than the rest of Alberta. Since 1993, there have been 149 documented cases — and that number, Tuccaro says, is a gross underestimate. People who leave the community for treatment are no longer counted in local statistics. Factor those in, and the real number for Mikisew Cree members alone, he estimates, is closer to 250 to 300."
#CanadaPol #FortChipewyan #MikisewCreeFirstNation #NativeAmericanNews #TarSands #BigOil #FirstNations #EnvironmentalRacism
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For #Indigenous communities in ‘#Alberta,’ the #OilIndustry has left an ugly stain
Facing #OilSpills, evacuations and #illness — nations downstream of the #OilSands grieve their way of life, as the #corporations polluting their water get richer
By Brandi Morin, December 7, 2023
Excerpt: "The rush of the wind and sprays of water add to the thrill as Jason Castor guides his riverboat through a stretch of #LakeAthabasca near #FortChipewyan, in #Treaty8 territories. If he slows down, his boat could get stuck in the mud or even flip over because the water levels in this spot are remarkably low. He steers around buoys, dodges logs and other debris while accelerating to the mouth of the channel, which he knows should be deep enough to navigate at an average speed.
"While trawling his boat further down the river, Castor points to odd-looking clusters resembling dirty foam floating by.
" 'There’s just a slurry of a foam that looks like #oil or some kind of #chemical in there,' says Castor, a 42-year-old father, construction business owner and member of the #AthabascaChipewyan #FirstNation (#ACFN).
"He’s been a traditional hunter, trapper and fisherman for nearly 20 years and has documented strange changes in the water, the land and animals.
"Something’s going on in the river, he says.
" 'They say that it’s natural, well, I know that that’s not natural because I’ve been on the river my whole life,' he explains as he points to brown and #WhiteFoam, #OilSheens and other discoloured formations floating on the river.
"Nowadays, it’s risky to navigate these waterways because of industrial intakes like the #WACBennettDam to the west in B.C.; the #AlbertaOilSands just up the river and impacts from #ClimateChange.
"The #PeaceAthabascaDelta is the second-largest #freshwater delta in the world.
"The #AthabascaRiver, and the larger delta, also sit atop the world’s largest known reservoir of #CrudeBitumen.
"The industry that has sprung up around it drives Alberta’s and Canada’s economy, employing about 138,000 people. In 2021, crude bitumen production totaled approximately 3.3 million barrels per day. The oil sands energy sector including oil sands, conventional #OilAndGas, mining and quarrying is valued at about $18 billion.
"But while Canada prospers off the oil sands industry, #Indigenous communities downstream are dealing with its #toxic impacts.
"Not only are the water levels fluctuating, but the health of the water flowing through the Athabasca River is jeopardized."
#CanPol #CanadaPol #Alberta #TarSands #BigOilAndGas #OilSands #WaterIsLife #Pollution #Environment #Oiligarchy
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Back in 2018, Beaver Lake Cree filed for an #AdvancedCostOrder - #ACO - to secure funds from #Alberta and #Canada in order to continue accessing #justice for their #TreatyRights case, a case which will protect their people and territory from further expansion of the Alberta #TarSands and other #ResourceExtraction industries if successful. But, the cost of litigation for a case this momentous was more than the #FirstNation could front. That’s where the ACO comes in.
After six years, and reaching the #SupremeCourt of Canada ( #SCC ) — #BeaverLakeCree Nation will now receive $1.5 million annually from Alberta to continue their Treaty rights case!
The decision for a yearly contribution is a welcome relief, allowing the Beaver Lake #Cree Nation to move their case forwards while managing costs across their community needs.
Read more about the ACO in this blog :
https://raventrust.com/beaver-lake-cree-nation-comprehensive-treaty-claim-updates/Attend a #webinar featuring Crystal Lamemen, Beaver Lake Cree member, and Karey Brooks, their lead #lawyer on September 24 to find out more about what this all means and what comes next for the #Treaty6 #litigation :
https://fundraise.raventrust.com/event/accessing-justice-a-legal-update-from-beaver-lake-cree/e617430#Indigenous #NativeRights #Landback #ABpoli #CDNpoli #StopEcocide #EndEnvironmentalRacism #environmental #NativeLand #Legal #Law #FightForJustice
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‘They #criminalize us’: how #felony charges are weaponized against #PipelineProtesters
Twenty states have passed laws that criminalize protesting, including on infrastructure including #pipelines. In #Minnesota, at least 66 felony theft charges against #Line3 protesters remain open
Alexandria Herr for Floodlight
Thu 10 Feb 2022"Last summer [2021] Sabine von Mering, a professor of German at Brandeis University, drove more than 1,500 miles from Boston to Minneapolis to protest against the replacement of the Line 3 #OilPipeline that stretches from #Canada’s #TarSands down to Minnesota.
"Along with another protester, she locked herself to a semi-truck in the middle of a roadway, according to a filed court brief, as a means of #peaceful #resistance. But when she was arrested, she was charged with a serious crime: felony theft, which carries up to five years in prison.
"'It’s very scary that they criminalize us like that, and to face jail time,' said Von Mering, 54, of her June arrest. 'But what can I do? I feel responsible to my kids and #FutureGenerations.'
"The felony charges come as more than a dozen states have passed laws to criminalize #FossilFuel protests, and as the federal government has ramped up its own tactics for surveilling and penalizing protesters.
"Von Mering is one of nearly 900 protesters who were arrested in Minnesota for protesting against the pipeline’s construction, with the vast majority of arrests taking place during the summer of 2021, and one of dozens facing felony charges. Construction on the Line 3 pipeline was finalized in October 2021 and carries 760,000 barrels of oil per day across northern Minnesota. But its construction for years has stoked fierce protests and legal challenges, led by #Indigenous activists in northern Minnesota who worried about potential impacts of oil spills and the pipeline’s threat to #treaty rights to gather wild rice. While most of the arrests have led to misdemeanor or gross misdemeanor charges for crimes including 'disturbing the peace' and 'trespassing', felony charges like Von Mering’s mean protesters are facing years of jail time.
"Legal advocates say that in Minnesota the elevated charges are a novel tactic to challenge protest actions against pipeline construction. They see them as furthering evidence of close ties between Minnesota’s government and the #FossilFuelIndustry. It follows reporting by the Guardian that the Canadian pipeline company #Enbridge, which is building Line 3, reimbursed Minnesota’s #police department $2.4m for time spent arresting protesters and on equipment including ballistic helmets. Experts say the reimbursement strategy for arrests is a new technique in both Minnesota and across the US, and there’s concern it can be replicated.
"'I do a lot of representation for people in political protests and I’ve never seen anything like that,' said Jordan Kushner, a defense attorney representing clients charged in relation to Line 3 protests.
"Two of Kushner’s clients were charged with felony 'aiding attempted suicide' charges for crawling inside a pipe. The charge is for someone who 'intentionally advises, encourages, or assists another who attempts but fails to take the other’s own life', according to Minnesota law and carries up to a seven-year sentence. Authorities alleged that the protesters were endangering their lives by remaining inside the pipeline."
Read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/10/felony-charges-pipeline-protesters-line-3#StopEnbridge #NoLine3 #Protestors #ClimateActivists #Fascism #WaterIsLife #ACAB #IndigenousNews