Fort Chipewyan rally calls for oilsands moratorium

CBC News, August 15, 2007, Edmonton Sun -- First Nations residents at an environmental rally Tuesday in Fort Chipewyan, Alta., called for a halt or slowdown to oilsands development in the province.

They are worried about the impact of upstream development on the health of wildlife and First Nations people.

"Economic boom becomes an economic disaster to our way of life. With the pollution that's coming downstream," said Alan Adam, a member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation.

More than 60 people packed the community hall at the remote northern Alberta community to hear from elders, scientists and environmental advocates.

It was organized by the First Nations in Fort Chipewyan, nearly 600 kilometres northeast of Edmonton on the western tip of Lake Athabasca and downstream from major petroleum refineries.

Among the speakers present was University of Alberta ecologist David Schindler, who called for a study of development-related chemicals that end up in the water and how they affect human health.

"I'd say it's high time that we started analyzing the source of these chemicals," Schindler said. "To be investing billions of dollars and not knowing that, there's only one word to describe it — it's stupid."

People in Fort Chipewyan, a community of 1,200, say they have noticed an unusually high number of deaths from cancers in the past year, including colon, liver, blood and bile-duct cancers.

Chief Roxanne Marcel of the Mikisew Cree First Nation said she and other aboriginal leaders want the Alberta government cease approving oilsands development permits, at least until a health study is done.

"Our message to both levels of government, to Albertans, to Canadians and to the world, who may depend on oilsands for their energy solutions, that we can no longer be sacrificed any longer," she said.

In addition to having a health study, Chipewyan elder Pat Marcel also urged aboriginal leaders and environmentalists to form an alliance to act as a powerful voice to influence governments and industry.

"The elders are saying, 'Why are we burying our children?' Nobody here can give us answers. There's got to be a human study done in this community," he said.

"We have to do it, when you see as many as four or five deaths in a month, and the pain that everybody has to go through because the whole community suffers ... when one person goes."