Indigenous

Aging Chevron oil refinery must clean up or shut down

By Peter Cech, The Province June 1, 2010

I am appalled that oil leaks are still happening in Burrard Inlet in the heart of the Lower Mainland.

There's a long string of "events" related to Chevron's operations in North Burnaby. "Unplanned discharges" of particulate and toxic fumes in the air we breathe are an annual event.

We've even been subjected to leaks of methyl tertiary butyl ether. This goes beyond the "nuisance odours" we've been subjected to for decades.

Alberta’s Tar Sands and Idaho’s Wilderness Gateway

Unfiltered By Nick Gier, Unfiltered 5-31-10

In April of 2008, over 1,000 ducks flying over Northern Alberta took a break from their migration north and landed in what they perceived was just another lake in the area. They never took flight again, along with other 10,000 other waterfowl that year. The water in many of these lakes has been tarred and poisoned by bitumen processing.

First Nations and Tar Sands Industry Clash in the Courts and the Hague

Canadian Forestry Firms’ Agreement Fails on Caribou, Boreal Protection
Good news turns out to be too good to be true

by Wilderness Committee Manitoba

Winnipeg, MB - A recent announcement by a 21-corporation forestry consortium that led Canadians to believe that huge swaths of boreal forest and caribou habitat were no longer going to be logged turned out to good to be true, as 9 times more caribou habitat is being targeted for logging than is being temporarily preserved over the next three years.

Reactions to Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement
Officials, First Nations, activists offer praise, criticism
May 26, 2010

The announcement of the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement has sparked a mix of sweeping pronouncements and passionate reactions. Below, we have compiled a small sampling.

Readers are invited to post additions in the comments sections at the bottom of the page.

"The Ontario government is encouraged to see environmental groups and forest companies working together to help develop a plan that would lead to both a healthy and a prosperous Canadian forest."

The Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement Reconsidered
ENGOs sign over right to criticize, companies continue to log caribou habitat

by Dawn Paley
May 26, 2010

The Dominion - http://www.dominionpaper.ca

VANCOUVER—Last week’s announcement of the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement (CBFA) was celebrated by environmental groups as a historic deal that could save a significant amount of sensitive woodland caribou habitat.

Kinder slows Canadian plans
Calgary Herald
May 26, 2010

Pipelines - Kinder Morgan Energy Partners has slowed multibillion-dollar plans to add oil pipeline capacity to Canada's West Coast due to a lack of demand, but still believes its proposal is the oilsands industry's best option, its president said Tuesday.

Kinder Morgan and Enbridge Inc. have both floated projects to move crude from Alberta's oilsands to the Pacific Coast, where it could be shipped by tanker to Asia.

ENGOs Do Not Speak for CSTC
May 20, 2010 07:01 ET

Attention: Assignment Editor, Business/Financial Editor, Environment Editor, News Editor, Government/Political Affairs Editor

TAR SANDS: The dilemma of the ponds
Tar sands tailings ponds remain an environmental quagmire

Lewis Kelly / lewis@vueweekly.com

Last week a lawyer for Syncrude, Robert White, told provincial court Judge Ken Tjosvold that Syncrude can't be legally responsible for the birds that land in its tailings ponds as preventing all birds from touching the contaminated water is impossible. If Syncrude is guilty in the case of the 1600 ducks that died in its tailings pond in April 2008, White argued, so is every other company with a tailings pond.

Boreal Forest Conflicts Far From Over
Mainstream enviros, timber industry shut First Nations out of "historic" deal

by Dawn Paley
May 18, 2010
Vancouver.Mediacoop.ca

Timber companies and environmental organizations came together Tuesday to announce the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement, which they say could protect a swath of boreal forest twice the size of Germany, and maintain forestry jobs across the country.

"This is an agreement between the two principle combatants over logging," said Steve Kallick, director of the Boreal Conservation campaign of the Pew Environment Group.