A Shameful Breech of Trust

February 28, 2009

Canadians, justifiably, take pride in their reputation as an environmentally conscious group. Witness the affection lavished upon our environmental guru David Suzuki. With the exception of the much hated seal hunt, we are perceived as a "nice" people by the rest of the world. Why then did hundreds of birds seeking safe haven find themselves drowning in an oil slick in northern Alberta a year ago? The word from the mining company responsible for the "incident" was that a "glitch" had occurred over the weekend and that computer operated guns, which would have detected birds in flight and fired off a warning, were inoperative. The explanation struck this Canadian as mindless rhetoric and spawned nightmares for weeks as a result.

I toyed with what could have been done to alter the course of a flock of birds seeking shelter. I wondered too why the company had been allowed to destroy the lake in the first place. And then I caught the article "Tar Sands" in the Canadian Geographic last fall and for the first time came to realize what inhumane acts are being perpetrated by human beings in the name of progress. Those who have not made themselves aware of the increasingly large scar being carved in the middle of Alberta need to take note. The lakes and rivers of this once beautiful province are being destroyed in order to withdraw fossil fuels which as we all know are eroding our ozone layer at an alarming rate.

The Tar Sands is a no win situation. One which provides work for thousands of Canadians, yes, but at a cost to the country which is both incalculable and irreversible. The companies mining the tar sands are foreign. Profits are simply being made by the leasing of the land. Land which will be forever destroyed. I suspect that with the exception of our native people, whose cries have gone unheard in Ottawa for decades, the average Canadian is oblivious to the rape of the land in northern Alberta. The area is remote and certainly not on any tourist map. Pilots, who fly over this area in the course of their work describe the view of the tar sands as gut wrenching in the extreme.

Our Canadian government has become an ally of big interests in Alberta. An ally that is prepared to ignore the plight of wildlife and the health of future generations who will one day look at what has been done and ask, "Why was this allowed to happen?"