Jesus Christ. There has been a tailings pond leak from the Kearl Lake project into the water near Fort Chipewyan First Nation for NINE MONTHS and the people weren't even informed. These corporations are criminals, murderers, they knowingly dump carcinogens aptnnews.ca/featured/toxic… If this was a leak in downtown Calgary near the lawyer's offices and the mall and the condos they would fucking evacuate that place but it's next to a First Nation community so for nine months everyone knew what was happening and no one said a god damned thing

I live in Cape Breton and we know about industrial violence on the bodies of communities, we used to be home to the largest toxic waste site in North America, the Sydney Tar Ponds -right in the middle of the town of Sydney- it was the effluent from the coke ovens of Sydney Steel People lived right next to it, the steel plant was in town. They knew from the 60s maybe that working in the plant made people sick, but they covered it up until the 80s. Worker's comp didn't even cover lung cancer from breathing in the smoke every day, it wasn't on the list.

"Fort Chip needs a comprehensive health study. Contrary to what the government has been telling us for years, this industry has a huge adverse impact on the environment. Money talks, and the Peoples downstream of this industry represent a sacrificial zone" It has been known for decades that there are elevated cancer rates and other health issues in the Indigenous communities living downstream of oilsand industries, it is in the government's interest to hedge and deny it until the profits are gone

I talk about this in on tour, and often in my interviews, but find that it is also often cut down or cut out when published, so. Oil sands corporations and the Alberta government are knowingly killing Indigenous people with industrial carcinogens. They will kill workers too. In a famous incident, Dr John O'Connor, a doctor for Fort Chipewyan, raised concerns about high rates of rare cancers in the early 2000s. Instead of listening to him, and the community, he was put under a conduct review ("undue alarm") and later fired. aptnnews.ca/national-news/…

The Spot Goody Howard