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Indigenous campaigners join Climate Camp to launch anti-Tar Sands action in the UK
Media Releases | Joint Release | August 18, 2009
Five indigenous representatives from Canada’s First Nations will be
joining the London Climate Camp this month [1]. They are coming to
team up with UK climate activists, to stop the Tar Sands development
in Alberta, Canada [2].
As traditional sources of oil begin to run dry, the oil multinationals
are scraping the bottom of the barrel and turning to sources that are
significantly more polluting. The Tar Sands is the biggest of these,
probably containing more oil than Saudi Arabia. Millions of barrels of
oil a day are already being extracted in Alberta, creating lakes of
toxic waste so huge that they are visible from space.
Lionel Lepine, one of the visiting group [3], said: “Tar Sands is a
global phenomenon. It is the largest industrial project in the world.
It is also the dirtiest. Tar Sands produce three times as much CO2 per
barrel as conventional oil. There’s enough under the ground to push us
over the edge into runaway climate change. It should be everyone’s
concern.”
Although the Tar Sands are happening in Canada, they are being driven
from London’s Square Mile. Shell is heavily committed, and BP took a
significant stake in 2007. Both companies are financially backed by
pension funds from the UK. Meanwhile London’s investment banks, such
as RBS and HSBC, have helped finance a wide range of Tar Sands
projects [4].
This has prompted First Nations from the region to begin forging
partnerships with UK campaigners, to internationalise their campaign
for a complete Tar Sands moratorium.
“British companies such as BP and RBS in partnership with dozens of
other companies are driving this project, which is having such
devastating effects on our environment and communities. It is
destroying the ancient boreal forest, spreading open pit mining across
our territories, contaminating our food and water with toxins,
disrupting local wildlife and threatening our way of life. UK
companies are complicit in the biggest environmental crime on the
planet and yet very few people in Britain even know that it’s
happening” said Eriel Tchekwie Deranger from Fort Chipewyan, the
community at “ground zero” in terms of the negative impacts of Tar
Sands on their lives.
The visit is being coordinated by Indigenous Environmental Network, in
partnership with people from the Camp for Climate Action [5]. The
group will spend a week at the London Climate Camp, which runs from
27th August to 2nd September [6]. They will run workshops and plan
anti-Tar Sands actions with UK campaigners.
“The Tar Sands are violating our Aboriginal and Treaty rights in so
many ways. We are seeing a terrifyingly high rate of cancer in Fort
Chipewyan where I live. We are convinced that these cancers are linked
to the Tar Sands development on our doorstep. It is shortening our
lives. That’s why we no longer call it ‘dirty oil’ but ‘bloody oil’.
The blood of Fort Chipewyan people is on these companies’ hands.” said
George Poitras, a former chief of Mikisew Cree First Nation.
ENDS
[1] The indigenous people will be at the Camp and available for
interviews from Friday 28th August to Wednesday 2nd September. To
arrange an interview, call Jess Worth on 07946645726.
[2] For more information about the Tar Sands, see the Indigenous
Environmental Network’s Tar Sands campaign.
[3] The indigenous delegation consists of:
George Poitras is a Mikisew Cree member and served as the Chief from
June 1999 to June 2002. He is internationally recognized in his work
highlighting the grave threat of Canada’s tar sands. As Chief, he
initiated a successful, precedent-setting legal action against the
Federal government for their lack of consultation with the Mikisew
Cree on a proposed winter road that would traverse their traditional
lands.
Eriel Tchekwie Deranger is a Dene woman belonging to the Athabasca
Chipewyan First Nation of Northern Alberta. Eriel is currently
employed with the Rainforest Action Network as the Freedom From Oil
Campaigner in Edmonton, Alberta targeting Tar Sands development and
the banks that fund it. Eriel has dedicated herself to advocating for
environmental justice for her traditional First Nations community in
Fort Chipewyan.
Lionel Lepine is a member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and
currently resides in the community of Fort Chipewyan. He is a
nationally prominent anti-Tar Sands advocate and works closely with
many groups ensuring that Indigenous issues are at the forefront in
the global fight against the Canada’s Tar Sands.
Clayton Thomas-Muller, of the Mathais Colomb Cree Nation also known as
Pukatawagan in Northern Manitoba, Canada, is an activist for
Indigenous rights and environmental justice. Recognized by Utne
Magazine as one of the top 30 under-30 activists in the United States,
Clayton is the Tar Sands campaign organizer for the Indigenous
Environmental Network. He works across Canada, Alaska and the lower 48
states with grassroots indigenous communities to defend against the
sprawling infrastructure that includes pipelines, refineries and
extraction associated with the tar sands.
Heather Milton-Lightening is from the Pasqua First Nation,
Saskatchewan-Canada. She has been organizing with Indigenous youth
since 1994 through the Grand Council (Student Council) of Children of Earth
High School in Winnipeg, Manitoba-Canada. She has been a member of
Native Youth Movement since 1995. She is on the board of the Ruckus
Society, advisory council member of the Indigenous Peoples Power
Project (IP3) and the Alberta, Canada based Tar Sands organizer for
the Indigenous Environmental Network.
[4] For example, RBS financed OptiCanada, a Canadian oil company
involved in Tar Sands extraction in 2004, 2006 and 2007.
[5] IEN’s website. The trip is being carried out
in partnership with New Internationalist Magazine
and Platform
[6] See Climate Camp
For interviews and further information contact Jess Worth on
07946645726 or jessworth@riseup.net or Clayton Thomas-Muller,
Indigenous Environmental Network, (001) 218 760 6632 or
monsterredlight@gmail.com.
Tagged with: indigenous environmental network, bp, climate camp
