The Dominion - Cree

What if Natives Stop Subsidizing Canada?

Tim McSorley — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 17:01:13 +0000

This piece was originally posted on the Media Co-op. For more #IdleNoMore coverage, click here.

MONTREAL—There is a prevailing myth that Canada's more than 600 First Nations and native communities live off of money—subsidies—from the Canadian government. This myth, though it is loudly proclaimed and widely believed, is remarkable for its boldness; widely accessible, verifiable facts show that the opposite is true.

Indigenous people have been subsidizing Canada for a very long time.

Conservatives have leaked documents in an attempt to discredit chief Theresa Spence, currently on hunger strike in Ottawa. Reporters like Jeffrey Simpson and Christie Blatchford have ridiculed the demands of native leaders and the protest movement Idle No More. Their ridicule rests on this foundational untruth: that it is hard-earned tax dollars of Canadians that pays for housing, schools and health services in First Nations. The myth carries a host of racist assumptions on its back. It enables prominent voices like Simpson and Blatchford to liken protesters' demands to "living in a dream palace" or "horse manure," respectively.

It's true that Canada's federal government controls large portions of the cash flow First Nations depend on. Much of the money used by First Nations to provide services does come from the federal budget. But the accuracy of the myth ends there.

On the whole, the money that First Nations receive is a small fraction of the value of the resources, and the government revenue that comes out of their territories. Let's look a few examples.

Barriere Lake

The Algonquins of Barriere Lake have a traditional territory that spans 10,000 square kilometres. For thousands of years, they have made continuous use of the land. They have never signed a treaty giving up their rights to the land. An estimated $100 million per year in revenues are extracted every year from their territory in the form of logging, hydroelectric dams, and recreational hunting and fishing.

And yet the community lives in third-world conditions. A diesel generator provides power, few jobs are available, and families live in dilapidated bungalows. These are not the lifestyles of a community with a $100 million economy in its back yard. In some cases, governments are willing to spend lavishly. They spared no expense, for example, sending 50 fully-equipped riot police from Montreal to break up a peaceful road blockade with tear gas and physical coercion.

Barriere Lake is subsidizing the logging industry, Canada, and Quebec.

The community isn't asking for the subsidies to stop, just for some jobs and a say in how their traditional territories are used. They've been fighting for these demands for decades.

Attawapiskat

Attawapiskat has been in the news because their ongoing housing crisis came to the attention of the media in 2011 (MP Charlie Angus referred to the poverty-stricken community as "Haiti at 40 below"). More recently, Chief Theresa Spence has made headlines for her ongoing hunger strike. The community is near James Bay, in Ontario's far north.

Right now, DeBeers is constructing a $1 billion mine on the traditional territory of the Āhtawāpiskatowi ininiwak. Anticipated revenues will top $6.7 billion. Currently, the Conservative government is subjecting the budget of the Cree to extensive scrutiny. But the total amount transferred to the First Nation since 2006—$90 million—is a little more than one percent of the anticipated mine revenues. As a percentage, that's a little over half of Harper's cut to GST.

Royalties from the mine do not go to the First Nation, but straight to the provincial government. The community has received some temporary jobs in the mine, and future generations will have to deal with the consequences of a giant open pit mine in their back yard.

Attawapiskat is subsidizing DeBeers, Canada and Ontario.

Lubicon

The Lubicon Cree, who never signed a treaty ceding their land rights, have waged a decades-long campaign for land rights. During this time, over $14 billion in oil and gas has been removed from their traditional territory. During the same period, the community has gone without running water, endured divisive attacks from the government, and suffered the environmental consequences of unchecked extraction.

Sour gas flaring next to the community resulted in an epidemic of health problems, and stillborn babies. Moose and other animals fled the area, rendering the community's previously self-sufficient lifestyle untenable overnight. In 2011, an oil pipeline burst, spilling 4.5 million litres of oil onto Lubicon territory. The Lubicon remain without a treaty, and the extraction continues.

The Lubicon Cree are subsidizing the oil and gas sector, Alberta and Canada.

What will Canada do without its subsidies?

From the days of beaver trapping to today's aspirations of becoming an energy superpower, Canada's economy has always been based on natural resources. With 90% of its settler population amassed along the southern border, exploitation of the land's wealth almost always happens at the expense of the Indigenous population.

Canada's economy could not have been build without massive subsidies: of land, resource wealth, and the incalculable cost of generations of suffering.

Overall numbers are difficult to pin down, but consider the following: Canadian governments received $9 billion in taxes and royalties in 2011 from mining companies, which is a tiny portion of overall mining profits; $3.8 billion came from exports of hydroelectricity alone in 2008, and 60 per cent of Canada's electricity comes from hydroelectric dams; one estimate has tar sands extraction bringing in $1.2 trillion in royalties over 35 years; the forestry industry was worth $38.2 billion in 2006, and contributes billions in royalties and taxes.

By contrast, annual government spending on First Nations is $5.36 billion, which comes to about $7,200 per person. By contrast, per capita government spending in Ottawa is around $14,900. By any reasonable measure, it's clear that First Nations are the ones subsidizing Canada. (2005 figures; the amount is slightly higher today.)

These industries are mostly take place on an Indigenous nation's traditional territory, laying waste to the land in the process, submerging, denuding, polluting and removing. The human costs are far greater; brutal tactics aimed at erasing native peoples' identity and connection with the land have created human tragedies several generations deep and a legacy of fierce and principled resistance that continues today.

Canada has developed myriad mechanisms to keep the pressure on and the resources flowing. But policies of large-scale land theft and subordination of peoples are not disposed to half measures. From the active violence of residential schools to the targetted neglect of underfunded reserve schools, from RCMP and armed forces rifles to provincial police tear gas canisters, the extraction of these subsidies has always been treated like a game of Risk, but with real consequences.

Break the treaty, press the advantage, and don't let a weaker player rebuild.

Idle? Know More.

The last residential school was shut down in 1996. Canadians today would like to imagine themselves more humane than past generations, but few can name the Indigenous nations of this land or the treaties that allow Canada and Canadians to exist.

Understanding the subsidies native people give to Canada is just the beginning. Equally crucial is understanding the mechanisms by which the government forces native people to choose every day between living conditions out of a World Vision advertisement and hopelessness on one hand, and the pollution and social problems of short-term resource exploitation projects on the other.

Empathy and remorse are great reasons to act to dismantle this ugly system of expropriation. But an even better reason is that Indigenous nations present the best and only partners in taking care of our environment. Protecting our rivers, lakes, forests and oceans is best done by people with a multi-millenial relationship with the land.

As the people who live downstream and downwind, and who have an ongoing relationship to the land, Cree, Dene, Anishnabe, Inuit, Ojibway and other nations are among the best placed and most motivated to slow down and stop the industrial gigaprojects that are threatening all of our lives.

Movements like Idle No More give a population asleep at the wheel the chance to wake up and hear what native communities have been saying for hundreds of years: it's time to withdraw our consent from this dead end regime, and chart a new course.

Dru Oja Jay is a writer, organizer, Media Co-op co-founder. Co-author of Paved with Good Intentions and Offsetting Resistance.

Barriere Lake Protest

DeBeers Victor Mine

Intimidation, Irregularities Cloud Pinehouse Election

Tim McSorley — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 13:24:54 +0000

Northern Saskatchewan residents report infractions, climate of fear in municipal election process

PINEHOUSE, SK—Something is rotten in the State of Denmark, according to people in the northern village of Pinehouse, Saskatchewan. Residents contacted provincial officials to report irregularities and acts of intimidation at last week's advance poll in an effort to ensure a free and fair municipal election today.

Longtime Pinehouse resident John Smerek sent a letter to provincial government officials reporting irregularities in the advance poll held September 12. In the letter sent Monday via email to Minister of Government Relations Jim Reiter and carbon copied to several other provincial authorities, Smerek highlighted process infractions such as the failure to abide by new voter ID requirements and acts of intimidation.

"I would like to see the people here have a free and democratic opportunity to vote without the fear or intimidation or false promises offered to them by the individuals that are sent out or hired by our leaders to intimidate the democratic process," Smerek told the Media Co-op in an interview in Pinehouse.

One of the individuals in question is Vince Natomagan, who acts as a community liaison to the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO). He has an office in the village office building and works closely with the Pinehouse council.

Along with two other locations in northern Saskatchewan and more than a dozen in Ontario, Pinehouse is currently part of NWMO's search for a "willing host community" for Canada's high-level radioactive waste. In 2010, Pinehouse Mayor Mike Natomagan sent NWMO an Expression of Interest, initiating the community's inclusion in the site selection process for a deep geological repository for the used nuclear fuel bundles currently stored onsite at nuclear reactors in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick.

Five hundred kilometres north of Saskatoon, the northern village of Pinehouse is a predominantly Cree-speaking Metis community of approximately 1,000 people near the boundary between the Canadian Shield and Boreal Plain regions. It used to be the end of the road. Trucks now travel another 220 kilometres past the turnoff to the community up to the Key Lake uranium mill. Operated by Saskatoon-based uranium mining giant Cameco, the mill processes ore from the McArthur River uranium mine 80 kilometres further north. Open pit uranium mining at Key Lake itself ended in 2002.

Today, tensions in Pinehouse run high with the municipal election taking place. Some residents are concerned that despite secret ballots, there may be negative consequences if they cast a ballot and the councillors who end up elected believe they voted for other candidates—whether they have or not, said Smerek.

"Our current leaders have hired people that work for them that go around making offers and directions that sound like a threat—that they won't be able to service the people if they don't vote for the current leaders. And they'll try to lead them directly to the polls," he said.

In one case identified in Smerek's letter, voters were threatened on their way to cast a ballot in the advance poll last week. According to an account of an incident by another resident who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal, residents walking to the polling station were told by an individual affiliated with the current council not to expect anything at all from the village in the future, after they alluded to their plan to vote for candidates not currently on council.

The Executive Director of Communications for the Ministry of Government Relations, Jeff Welke, responded via email to the Media Co-op's request for comment on the allegations of intimidation contained in Smerek's letter.

"References to attempts to bribe voters and/or otherwise influence for whom voters would cast their ballot are very serious allegations, and pertain to legal matters that are outside the Ministry's authority, as well as outside the authority of election officials, to deal with," Welke wrote to the Media Co-op. "Any person or persons who have experienced an attempted bribery, or who have witnessed such an attempt should consider contacting the nearest detachment of the RCMP as soon as possible. Alternatively, they could also proceed under the provisions of The Controverted Municipal Elections Act by contacting a judge and swearing out a complaint."

Smerek's letter also identifies an infraction in the advance poll process itself. At least some residents were not asked to produce identification, despite reforms to the Local Government Elections Act passed in 2011, requiring all voters provide identification. In an affidavit sworn before a Commissioner of Oaths, a resident who has requested that their name be withheld due to fear of reprisal stated that at no time was he required to produce identification when he voted at the advance poll.

"I pulled out my wallet and asked, 'Don’t you need two pieces of ID' to which [polling clerk] Nancy Misponas replied, 'No, don’t worry about it,'" states the affidavit, according to a copy of the text obtained by the Media Co-op. "None of the people lined up in front of me while I was there were asked to produce their identification.”

In his response to the Media Co-op, Welke explained that "province's role in the municipal election process is to provide for and maintain the legislative framework under which the elections are run and to provide training, resources and advice to local election officials." Conducting elections in keeping with legislation is a municipal responsibility with no direct provincial oversight. However, he stated that local officials have been made well aware of elections procedures, including the new voter ID regulations.

"Prior to any round of municipal elections the Ministry holds workshops around the province for election officials...Pinehouse attended the May 9 session in Prince Albert. As well, the Ministry took extra measures to try and ensure that local election officials were aware of the new requirements including articles in 'Municipalities Today', guides and resources on the Ministry's website and the production of promotional materials that could be downloaded and used at the local level to help citizens become familiar with the voter ID requirement," wrote Welke.

"Ministry officials have also been in direct contact with local election officials in Pinehouse to reinforce the need to abide by all election procedural rules, including the new voter ID requirements," he wrote.

This year's municipal election is not the first time a resident has voiced concern about local governance and requested the intervention of the provincial government. In 2011, Fred Pederson wrote to Municipal Affairs officials requesting an investigation into the actions of mayor and council. He highlighted the alleged misuse of village funds, the appropriation of a youth centre, housing issues and intimidation.

"People feel threatened about losing their jobs because council sit on every board in town. So it influences people from feeling free to speak out or even votes during an election," wrote Pederson in his undated letter. "[The village] office is being used for their own benefit [and] every rule has been broken...all of them have [quit] their jobs to live off of the Village."

Pederson received a response from Colleen Digness, Manager of the Northern Municipal Administration, based in La Ronge. Her letter, dated November 30, 2011, outlines and includes the relevant sections of The Northern Municipalities Act, 2010, including section 128: "No member of council is eligible to be appointed as an employee of the municipality or of any committee or controlled corporation of the municipality in which he or she serves as a member of council."

After last week's advance poll, Pederson again contacted Municipal Affairs officials—this time by telephone—to report irregularities and request intervention. The response from the central office in Regina indicated that the issue was a matter for the La Ronge office. When Pederson contacted the Northern Municipal Administration in La Ronge, he was informed that his concerns should be raised with the local village council implementing the elections process.

Pederson is running as a candidate in today's election, on a platform based on honesty. He has been an outspoken critic of the potential selection of northern Saskatchewan for a nuclear waste storage site and of the process the council and the industry-led Nuclear Waste Management Organization have been pursuing during the site selection phase. They meet behind closed doors and the community is not informed of the meeting dates, Pederson told the Media Co-op in an interview last month.

Pinehouse is not the only place in NWMO's site selection process where a council has come under fire for undisclosed meetings with NWMO. Shannon Quesnel reported in the Elliot Lake Standard that a meeting between NWMO and the city council of Elliot Lake was the subject of a complaint to and ruling by Ontario's ombudsman. In her September 5, 2012 article, Quesnel cites Elliot Lake City Clerk Lesley Sprague: "The mayor and five members of this city’s council attended [the NWMO meeting]. The ombudsman stated despite the fact the meeting was arranged and hosted by a third party, this does not relieve the municipality from giving notice of the meeting. And despite the fact the meeting was not closed to the public it is still considered to be a closed meeting because of the lack of public notice."

Back in Pinehouse, Smerek is an outspoken opponent of Pinehouse and northern Saskatchewan being considered for the site of a nuclear waste repository. "Say No To Nuclear Waste" reads a sign on the front of his house, a stone's throw from the shore of Pinehouse Lake.

For now, though, Pinehouse residents are focused on today's election. Smerek hopes his letter will result in the presence of an outside election monitor to ensure due process—including the chain of custody of the ballots—is respected. He has also requested the presence of an RCMP officer to ensure no intimidation or threats take place at the polling station.

"I'm trying to get free and fair voting opportunities for our community," said Smerek.

Sandra Cuffe is a freelance journalist and a member of the Vancouver Media Co-op. She is currently in northern Saskatchewan. This article was originally posted on the Media Co-op.

Pinehouse Map

Dammed if You Don't

dru — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 10:30:54 +0000

Hydro-Quebec turns its back on wind power

It takes 90 minutes to drive to Nemaska from the turn-off on the James Bay Highway. Following the gravel track that cuts east through the low-standing forest, you pass trappers’ cabins, veer left onto the access road that is marked with an inukshuk, and come to a compact and tidy Cree community, population 700, tucked onto the north shore of Champion Lake.

For the first-time visitor, strolling along the town’s sandy footpaths or sitting at the base of a wind-shaped cedar tree, it is easy to feel at peace here. Poking your head into the town’s steamy, camp-style diner, you are met by the sound of young voices, mostly speaking Cree.

The name Nemaska derives from a Cree word meaning "plenty of fish," and even today, aside from administrative functions, hunting and fishing remain the economic lifeblood of the community. On the nearby Rupert River, world-class rapids create an oxygen-rich environment that is ideally suited to the growth of sturgeon and giant trout.

A series of traplines, managed by extended families, cluster along the Rupert, which served as a conduit to the early fur trade. Cree settlement here, as evidenced by archaeology, goes back thousands of years.

Still, for a more recent generation of Nemaska Cree, the Rupert has become synonymous not only with tranquility and abundance, but also with upheaval. Originally located at a site 60 kilometres downstream, the town of Nemaska was closed by government order in 1970 to make way for a hydro-electric project that was expected to flood the area. Following protests, the project was suspended, but now, almost four decades later, a new Hydro-Quebec initiative is underway to divert the majority of the Rupert's waters into a set of reservoirs along the La Grande River, in the north of Cree territory.

When it is finished, in late 2009, the diversion will flood 640 square kilometres, reducing the area on 10 out of the 15 traplines belonging to Nemaska families. The once-mighty Rupert, up to a kilometre wide in places, will be reduced to a trickle. The new project will entail the construction of four dams, several dykes and a diversion channel.

The Rupert seems fated to become the latest link in a network of projects that has altered the shape of free-flowing rivers in northwestern Quebec. In 1974, Hydro-Quebec started building the first in a series of dams along the La Grande River, which drains into James Bay. Throughout the 1980s, the diversion of two neighbouring rivers doubled the outflow of the La Grande and flooded an expanded area around the La Grande reservoirs.

The project forced the relocation of the Cree community at Fort George (now Chisasibi), and was associated with a host of setbacks that included restrictions on fishing (due to mercury pollution), a change in weather patterns and a decline in waterfowl populations.

Proponents of the development point to a 1975 compensation package, negotiated with the provincial and federal governments, which helped pay for the construction and maintenance of infrastructure in Cree villages. But many Cree feel that by flooding traplines, the hydro development undermined the prospects for a hunting-based economy, forcing young people away from what is still a nomadic lifestyle and into a sedentary and rootless existence on reservations with few prospects for employment.

* * *

Each day, summer and winter, the Jolly family drinks tea brewed from the water of the Rupert River. A collection of storage jugs stashed beside the samovar in the kitchen attests to the fact that these Nemaska residents prefer the taste of fresh water to the tap variety. Freddy Jolly, a 53-year-old trapper, was my guide in Nemaska. Like many Cree of his generation, Jolly was born at his parents' bushcamp. Bushmeat remains a regular part of his diet and during spring goose season he spends a few weeks in a cabin on his family trapline.

As we drove around the back roads near Nemaska, Jolly kept his gun at the ready. More than once he estimated for me his yearly catch in animals. He described his childhood, explained how to roast bear fat with blueberries, and tried, in halting language, to convey the pain he felt at losing the Rupert, which runs along his trapline and which he feels is part of his very self.

To reach the northern reaches of Jolly's trapline today, you need to drive through a Hydro-Quebec checkpoint. You can have lunch, the way we did, at a workcamp built of prefab houses designed to accomodate 1,800 employees. While we were there, Jolly went to talk to a project manager about the burial sites of two of his older relatives, located near the area to be flooded.

From the workcamp, you can continue for half an hour and park your vehicle at the end of a gravel road, keeping well back from the earth-moving machinery that is busy there.

It will take you at least an hour to pick your way through the clearcut, a kilometre or three down to the isolated bush cabin that stands at the water's edge.

When the area is ready to be flooded, the cabin, according to Jolly, will be dismantled and burned.

Although Jolly opposes the diversion, last summer he accepted a contract from Hydro-Quebec to clear the spruce forest along this part of his trapline in advance of the flooding. I asked him how he felt about that.

"Sometimes, after the work, tears would come out from my eyes," he said. "Seeing the trees being cut, seeing the trees being piled and burned. It was hard."

* * *

The Rupert diversion was first mooted in 2001, when the Quebec government offered to provide funding for services that had been promised but not adequately delivered to the Cree communities. By tabling a "new relationship" agreement that included both the funding and the diversion, the province implicitly made one a condition for the other.

The agreement, known as the Paix des Braves, won the support of Grand Chief Ted Moses, who campaigned in favour of it. Initially, a majority of Cree residents on eight out of nine reserves voted to support the settlement in a referendum.

Nevertheless, for Cree residents in the affected communities of Nemaska, Waskaganish (located at the mouth of the Rupert; population: 2,200) and Chisasibi (population: 4,000), the diversion subsequently became the source of grave misgivings.

Speaking in June 2006, before an environmental review panel, the elected chiefs of these three communities criticized the plebiscite, arguing that since the vote was held three years before Hydro-Quebec issued its impact study, it could not provide a basis for informed consent. They noted that, during the referendum campaign, the Cree were told they were only approving studies on a potential diversion and were not being asked to give the go-ahead to the diversion, as such.

"At the end of the day, the project...is one that creates unacceptable impacts on the natural environment," said the chiefs. "Unacceptable impacts on the species that are most important to the Cree way of life; unacceptable impacts on the material, social and spiritual lives of our communities; and the loss of one of the the most extraordinary free-flowing rivers in North America."

The three chiefs promote the development of wind energy as a compromise that would allow Hydro-Quebec to generate electricity on Cree territory without destroying more of the traplines that sustain Cree culture.

According to Hydro-Quebec, diverting the Rupert will add 893 megawatts (MW), or about 2.5 per cent, to the utility's power-generating capacity.

But this figure represents less power than will be provided by wind energy once a series of new wind farms come online, starting in 2011.

Since 2002, Hydro-Quebec has licensed private wind contractors to generate electricity and sell it to the utility's distribution branch at a pre-negotiated price. In 2005, the utility launched a new phase of its competitive bidding process to invite contracts that would total 2,000 MW.

Regrettably, the proposals that were selected all involve wind farms in the south or southeast of the province.

Among the unsuccessful bids was a proposal by Yudinn Energy, a Cree company based in Chisasibi, to build a wind farm near one of the existing reservoirs on the La Grande River.

In an interview with The Dominion, a Hydro-Quebec spokesperson declined to specify the reason why the Yudinn project was rejected, citing confidentiality.

Nevertheless, a cursory search on the utility's website shows that the projects that were approved were mostly small. Twelve of the 15 sites accepted projects at capacity of 150 MW or less, whereas the Yudinn farm, situated at a favourable location, would have produced 324 MW.

For environmentalists and some Cree, it seems that the corporate culture at Hydro-Quebec remains biased against wind energy. In March 2007, an article by journalist Louis-Gilles Francoeur, writing for Montreal's Le Devoir newspaper, indicates that the province has a policy of not allowing wind power to exceed 10 per cent of the utility's generating capacity.

This attitude is highly frustrating to those who see more hydro development as both socially and environmentally destructive.

In their written submission, the chiefs said:

"We have unfortunately discovered that Hydro-Quebec is not a leader but a follower in this 21st-century industry. For many years, Hydro-Quebec has been discussing the difficulties of wind development, while others have been busy solving them."

"The documents leave little doubt that Hydro-Quebec would simply rather dam another river than take on the challenge of harnessing the wind."

Freddy Under Power Lines

Elder cleaning sturgeon

The Rupert River

Oil Versus Water

dru — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 16:26:41 +0000

Toxic water poses threat to Alberta's Indigenous communities

Alberta is replete with precious oil. Recovery of that oil from the tar sands, however, is putting another precious resource at risk: water. Dene and Cree First Nations people live close to and in the midst of the largest tar sand deposit in the Athabasca River region and oil extraction is harming their water supply.

The recoverable oil reserves in Alberta's tar sands are so bountiful that they vie with oil reserves in Saudi Arabia and Venezuela for top status. Compared to Saudi Arabia, however, the oil extraction process is very expensive. What is extracted is bitumen, a form of crude oil, mixed with clay and silica that must be refined to produce a barrel of oil. Current high oil prices make the extraction and refinement of bitumen very profitable.

Scientists at the University of Toronto and the University of Alberta have warned that the excessive water demand will result in the disappearance of the Athabasca River, having a devastating impact on the largest boreal delta in the world---a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

First Nations communities who live along and depend on the Athabasca River are also at possible risk from tar sands operations. There have been reports of increased illness and signs of toxic chemicals affecting wildlife.

Some elders with Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) are concerned with the environmental monitoring of the Cumulative Environmental Management Association (CEMA), an NGO that is supposed to represent "all levels of government," First Nations and other stakeholders.

ACFN elder Pat Marcel said that CEMA was "dead" in the eyes of the elders because the Athabasca River is not being protected. "The corporations have to deal with us. We've got environmental agreements with every one of them," Marcel said.

"If you're not able to honour the treaty that we signed," said Marcel, "we might as well do away with that treaty and you can get your scrap of paper back and we can get our country back."

George Poitras, a member of the Mikisew Cree First Nation, also in Fort Chipewyan, explained:

"There's been a de facto extinguishment of our treaty rights because the government continues to take up land without any consideration or consultation with the First Nations." The treaty, Poitras told the Dominion, "obligates the government to consult with us any time there is a potential or adverse impact on our treaty rights--to hunt, fish, trap and so on."

But the government is not doing that.

"Historically," said Poitras, "they attempted to colonize us through policies and legislation that are paternal, colonial, imperial and they continue that attitude...[the government is] simply not dealing with us as priority rights holders of these lands."

University of Alberta ecologist David Schindler, winner of the 1991 Stockholm Water Prize (known as "water science's Nobel Prize"), expressed concern over industry-related chemicals found in the water and their effect on human health.

In an interview shown in a video documentary produced by OilSandsTruth.org Schindler said his biggest concern is the possibility of a breach of massive tailing ponds near Fort McMurray, which now cover an estimated 50-square kilometres. "Those ponds are acutely toxic material, so they would affect things probably well down the Athabasca and into the Slave River, and possibly beyond the Slave Delta."

Such a breach, said Schindler, could conceivably occur in the event of extreme rainfall or an earthquake. But it's not just the extreme possibility that has Schindler concerned.

"We know that those [tailing pond] dykes do seep some material. They try to catch it at the bottom and pump it back over the top. I don't know what per cent efficiency they have, but very few things are 100 per cent efficient."

In Fort Chipewyan, there have been reports of increases in diseases and cancers.

A local doctor, John O'Connor, reported disproportionately high incidents of colon, liver, blood and bile-duct cancers in the community. "There have been several different kinds of cancer, as well as what we call auto-immune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, various skin rashes," O'Connor told the Dominion. "The malignant--the cancerous diseases have been the biggest concern."

One condition, Cholangiocarcinoma, normally occurs in one out of 100,000 people. But in Fort Chipewyan, "We've had two tissue biopsy confirmed cases...and possibly another three or four, which didn't actually get to tissue biopsy diagnosis."

"In a population of between 750 and 1200, that's very unexpected."

"There are all kinds of sicknesses going on," said Allan Adam, a councillor with ACFN. "The elders say that before, in the 70s, people weren't sick like they are now. That's when all the oil sands started developing."

Warning signs of toxicity have also turned up in animals. "Some people say that they've seen spots inside the animals, that they won't eat the moosemeat because there's a different taste in it now," said Adam. "Fish have different growths on them, that weren't there before. Pusses growing out of their skin, and the gills are deformed on some of them"

After O'Connor took his claims public and called for an inquiry into the effects of the tar sands operations on water, he became the subject of an official complaint by officials at Health Canada. He subsequently gained the support of the community, environmental groups and First Nations. The Alberta Medical Association unanimously passed a resolution defending his "professional obligation and his right to speak out when he observes something."

Chief Roxanne Marcel of the Mikisew Cree First Nation has issued an appeal: "Our message to both levels of government, to Albertans, to Canadians and to the world who may depend on oil sands for their energy solutions, that we can no longer be sacrificed any longer."

Toxins from tailing ponds aren't the only problem on the Athabasca, however.

Estimates have oil production at 3 million barrels per day by 2015. At this rate, the Athabasca tar sands are projected to last over 400 years. But along with the effects of climate change, water usage will exacerbate the drying of the Athabasca.

Because the Athabasca River is iced-over for long periods, it is susceptible to low oxygen levels from decomposing organic matter. Diminished flows could exacerbate low oxygen levels further. This threatens high flows that flood shallow-side channels and perched basins in the delta, which are critical spawing grounds for fish like walleye.

"About the most positive thing I can say is that I'm glad I'm a human being and not a fish in Alberta," said Schindler.

While Fort Chipewyan and other communities downstream from the tar sands are the first to suffer, scientists say Alberta is not far behind.

The 1900s, said Schindler, has been unusually wet in Alberta, but that is not likely to remain the case. "Any farmer will tell you that it was pretty borderline for agriculture here in the twentieth century, and a good part of the province had to rely on irrigation water."

"If we get a return to those earlier conditions with the effects of climate change and with the high population and industrial growth here, we have the makings of a perfect storm with respect to effects on water."

While oil companies pumping over 100 billion gallons of water out of the Athabasca ever year will be the main problem for life downstream on the Athabasca, it is likely to be climate change--fed increasingly by the tar sands--that will affect the water supply of Edmonton and Calgary.

"Alberta's saving grace has been the water that flows out of the Rocky Mountains," said Schindler. "The only reason we have developments like Calgary and Medicine Hat is because of that water. That water is drying up."

"It's a little bit ironic that the province that's been opposing greenhouse-gas regulations the most is going to be the first to suffer, but that's where we are," said Schindler in May of this year.

That tar sands mining is the cause of toxins in the water and the recent upturn in diseases and cancers is a foregone conclusion for many residents of Fort Chipewyan.

Nonetheless, O'Connor says that the way forward lies in getting the government to investigate the problem and verify the source of the illnesses.

"I've asked for a baseline health study to be done in the community. This has been asked for before," said O'Connor. "If the population south of here is concerned about the health of this community, I would expect further pressure for such a study to be done will result in it being done and will shed much-needed light on what is happening."

Schindler says that the immediate solution is for the government to install a water treatment plant in Fort Chipewyan, to address the problem with the drinking water, and then investigate.

For George Poitras, the battle over the ongoing mining comes down to the fundamental right to exist.

"If we don't have land and we don't have anywhere to carry out our traditional lifestyle, we lose who we are as a people. So if there's no land, then it's equivalent in our estimation to genocide of a people."

"Here, we're living in a G8 country, fully developed, one of the most advanced countries as far as quality of life and as Indigenous people, we're still fighting for our existence."

Playing by Lake Athabasca

Water Intake