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01-22-2009, 10:23 AM | #1 |
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Downstream: Oilsands/Cancer Documentary
There are stories of illness, high death rates among indigenous peoples, downstream of Alberta's oilsands (aka tarsands) extraction areas. The provincial government has spent a fair chunk of taxpayers' money for marketing and promoting (media, Washington lobbyists) oil energy projects.
Many people felt that the federal and provincial governments, as well as the Alberta Cancer Board, did not adequately investigate the stories (or evidence) and erred in claiming that residents' fears were unfounded. The town of Fort Chipewyan rejected the Alberta Cancer Board study in November 2008 (read statement here, PDF, 3pp). A new short documentary, i.e. half an hour, by Santa Monica filmmaker Leslie Iwerks is "about the plight of northern Alberta physician John O'Connor and his efforts to raise the alarm about what he saw as high cancer rates in the native population of Fort Chipewyan, which happens to be downstream from massive oilsands developments," etc. Downstream Of Oscar Oilsands documentary raising controversy and talk of an Academy Award nomination, by Eric Volmers, Calgary Herald, January 21, 2009 "The short is going to be expanded into a feature," says Iwerks, in an interview from her office in California. "John's story will be a smaller part. We are editing that now. We did get a ton of material. It is difficult to cull it down into a short. At the same time, I've done it before." http://www.calgaryherald.com/Technol...693/story.html |
01-22-2009, 05:00 PM | #2 |
Avalon Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: great northern boreal forest
Posts: 440
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Re: Downstream: Oilsands/Cancer Documentary
this atrocity of environmental devastation is nothing new. the governments have been ignoring the stories for years. wanna bet that if was a white, middle-class neighbourhood being affected, rather than native settlements, that it would have gotten more attention?
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