Gender impacts are often completely ignored within the hollow social impact assessments often conducted in the modern era. Oil patches and natural gas operations are overwhelmingly operated by young men who naturally go into small towns nearby after weeks in the bush. Alcohol and/or drug fuelled violence and rape often increase in communities dealing with such an influx, as do drug use, alcoholism and sexual exploitation. The effect on the community leads to further social breakdown and often violence against elders—especially after the “rush” of initial construction is over and the spike in money is gone, but the torn up earth is still there, along with fatherless children in many cases. The higher the rate in inequality and alienation during a "boom" cycle, the higher the levels of gender-biased impacts. The plans for the tar sands are the single largest project, and therefore "boom" based "collateral damage" could easily match anything seen before.
North Dakota: Questions raised about Keystone Pipeline
State regulators are considering whether to grant a permit for a proposed oil pipeline from Canada. Eastern North Dakota landowners and others along the proposed route have been raising questions about what it will do to their land.
Terry Borgeson says a ten-mile stretch of the route is too close to the Forest River. He worries that an oil spill would contaminate the Fordville Aquifer, which provides water for about 10,000 people.
Fort McMurray teens swapping sexual favours for shelter: report
'Pace of life' in booming city contributing to problem, official says
Last Updated: Thursday, September 27, 2007 | 8:19 PM NT
CBC News
A survey by a homelessness committee found some teenagers in the booming city of Fort McMurray are resorting to prostitution in exchange for a bed or couch for the night.
The report, released this month by the region's Homelessness Initiatives Steering Committee, said 65 young people between the ages of 11 and 17 are without a permanent home in Fort McMurray.
If Albertans want it all, oil sands must pay
October 2, 2007
Listening to the great Alberta royalty debate is like watching the Yankees play the Red Sox: It's hard to know which overprivileged group to root against. Should you boo the oil sands CEOs, who pay too little? Or jeer the provincial politicians, who spend too much?
Tuning in to the North
Review by MARIAN BOTSFORD FRASER
September 22, 2007
"Late Nights on Air"
By Elizabeth Hay // McClelland & Stewart // 364 pages, $32.99
Closing Edmonton's Tent City
EDMONTON — It’s a difficult feat to be homeless but still have a space that feels like a home, but that’s exactly what life in Edmonton’s tent city has felt like for Claude Parisee over the past month.
Surrounded by the books he reads to pass the time, and secure in the knowledge that guards watched his belongings and kept unwanted troublemakers from causing a stir, the former resident of Hull, Que., said life has largely been good in the makeshift community, which was set up in May and at times swelled to 80 tents and up to 200 people.
Peak Oil and Gender
Jon Lebkowsky
September 17, 2007 8:27 AM
Kurt Cobb at Energy Bulletin wonders whether peak oil is a gender issue or, as he says, a "guy thing." (Thanks to Paul Robbins for the pointer.)
Street drugs, gangs on rise in the West
'Street-level' social problems worst in Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver: study
Larissa Liepins, CanWest News Service
Published: Wednesday, September 12
Western Canadian cities are fighting a rising tide of street drugs and gang activity, says a report released Tuesday by the Canada West Foundation.
In researching Hard Times: A Portrait of Street Level Social Problems in Western Canada, the foundation consulted 311 frontline workers, experts and community leaders.
Canada’s Third World; The Plight of the Lubicon Cree
Posted: June 21, 2007
http://www.tarsandswatch.org/canada-s-third-world-plight-lubicon-cree
Cosanna Preston, June 19, 2007,
Rah-rah-radicals
Changing the world, one pom-pom at a time
Francois Marchand, edmontonjournal.com
Published: Saturday, September 8, 2007
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/ed/story.html?id=96db584f-d46...
Samantha Power and her cheerleading squad are rehearsing their jumps and kicks and readying their rah-rah-rahs.
"It's a lot of practice," says Power, a former University of Alberta Students' Union president. "We want to be pretty tight. We have a few friends who have been cheerleaders before to teach us how to do those types of things."
Mexican rights violated in free trade’s name
Published September 3rd, 2007 in Opinion
http://www.cordweekly.com/archives/2168
ALEX HUNDERT
JOURNALISTS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
In mid-August, I spent several days in a small vacation town called Montebello, located between Ottawa and Montreal. In this town on the historic Ottawa River is a resort complex owned by a prominent hotel chain.
The heads of state from Canada, the United States and Mexico were there meeting on August 21 and 22 with an array of the most powerful businessmen and industrialists from North America.
