Ask Me Why I Protest the Tar Sands

On Sunday Oct. 17th, activists from Environmental Justice Toronto and the Indigenous Environmental Network came to Yonge and Dundas Square, in the heart of downtown Toronto, to invite people passing by to ask them why they protest the tar sands giga-project and start a conversation. This action was done in solidarity with BC First Nations and the  No Pipelines No Tanks Day of Action in BC.

Ask Me Why I Protest the Tar Sands

“The tar sands has been called ‘the most destructive project on earth’ and its expansion is devastating the regional environment, including contaminating Canada’s precious water supply, endangering wildlife, threatening First Nations’ health and preventing Canada from meeting it’s climate commitments.”

Ask Me Why I Protest the Tar Sands

“The explosive growth of tar sands projects comes at a huge cost, damaging land, air, water, forests, and the climate. Tar sands extraction and processing is one of the greatest social and ecological injustices of our time.”

Ask Me Why I Protest the Tar Sands

“The world stands at an energy crossroads. As cheap, plentiful conventional oil becomes a luxury of the past, we now face a choice: to set a course for a more sustainable energy future of clean, renewable fuels, or to develop ever-dirtier sources of transportation fuel — at an even greater cost to our health and environment.”

Ask Me Why I Protest the Tar Sands

“Our energy future is now — and all it requires is investing in affordable, available clean and renewable sources today that will move us beyond oil and dirty fuels that imperil our planet and our health.”

Ask Me Why I Protest the Tar Sands

“Downstream communities have experienced polluted water, water reductions in rivers and aquifers, declines in wildlife populations such as moose and muskrat, and significant declines in fish populations. The tar sands are destroying the traditional livelihood of First Nations in the northern Alberta watershed.”

Ask Me Why I Protest the Tar Sands

“The tar sands operations are the largest source of projected new greenhouse gas pollution in Canada. This is the number one reason Alberta and Canada’s emissions are rising instead of falling.”

Ask Me Why I Protest the Tar Sands

“If the tar sands continue to operate as predicted, there is no hope of Canada meeting its international commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as outlined in the Kyoto Protocol.”

Ask Me Why I Protest the Tar Sands

“Between 2 and 4 barrels of water are required to produce each barrel of oil extracted from the sands. At least 90% of the fresh water used in oil sand extraction winds up in tailing ponds so toxic that propane cannons are used to keep ducks from landing on them and dying. These tailings ponds already span more than 170 square kilometers and can be seen from space”

Ask Me Why I Protest the Tar Sands

“A 2008 Environmental Defense report estimated that 11 million liters of contaminated water are seeping from the tailings ponds into the environment on a daily basis.”

Ask Me Why I Protest the Tar Sands

“Tar sands development is the single largest contributer to the increase in climate change in Canada, as it accounts for 40 million tons of CO2 emissions per year, and means that thousands of hectares of ancient Boreal Forest are clear-cut and destroyed.”

Ask Me Why I Protest the Tar Sands

“By 2011 it is expected that the tar sands will emit 80 million tons of CO2 emissions. And these numbers only take into account the production of oil from the tar sands. Once tar sands oil is burned as fuel, it creates further emissions.”

Ask Me Why I Protest the Tar Sands

“Tar sands are transforming Canada’s boreal forests and wetlands into fuel for Americas gas tank and war machine. Canadian and US citizens are getting little benefit and suffering huge environmental costs.”

Ask Me Why I Protest the Tar Sands

“Described by the United Nations Environment Program as one of the world’s top ‘environmental hot spots,’ tar sands projects will eventually transform a boreal forest the size of Florida into a toxic industrial sacrificial zone.”

"Enbridge Invests in Oil Addiction"

As Enbridge held its investors meeting in First Canadian Place, Environmental Justice Toronto entered the building and released a banner attached to helium balloons that read “Enbridge Invests in Oil Addiction.” The banner was visible through the glass front of the building, where activists held up another banner saying “Community Resistance is the Cure.”

On the outside, activists were chanting and handing out flyers which were made by the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council, in British Columbia, who are resisting Enbridge’s proposed $5 billion Gateway pipeline project. The Gateway project would move oil from the tar sands in northern Alberta to Kitimat, BC.

Enbridge has a long history of pipeline spills and other accidents, including a 1 million gallon spill of crude oil into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan, one of the largest spills in US history. According to the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council’s flyer, “the Gateway Pipeline risks damage to 785 watercourses, wildlife habitat and fragile salmon fisheries. The project route also crosses the territories of over 20 First Nations in BC.”

The Carrier Sekani Tribal Council and other First Nations communities along the route are proposing “a community-lead process based on the minimum international standard of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent as ratified by the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People in 2007.”

The Environmental Justice Toronto activists were calling on investors to support these reasonable proposals and demand a full disclosure of environmental and legal risks associated with construction of the Enbridge Gateway pipeline.

(click on thumbnails below to view images of the action, use arrow keys on keyboard to navigate through images)

Dunham Climate Action Camp from allan lissner on Vimeo.

- Dunham, Quebec, Canada – August 7-23, 2010 -

Community members of Dunham, Quebec, joined forces with supporters from across Quebec, Canada, and North America, to hold a Climate Action Camp to strengthen the campaign against the Trailbreaker Project. The the proposed pumping station in Dunham is part of Enbridge’s Trailbreaker Pipeline Project which is intended to carry oil from the Alberta Tar Sands to the United States’ Eastern Seaboard.

According to community members, the proposed pumping station threatens the health, water, environment, and lands of the people of Dunham and the region. The company, and government backers, behind this proposed pumping station are ignoring community wishes and concerns, including demands for an independent environmental assessment. The community has never consented to the project.

Dunham Climate Action Camp

Harper and his bankers were followed by a human oil slick. Overworked tax-payers scrambled behind the oil slick with mops and brooms to clean up the mess while Harper and his bankers counted their giant $1billion bills.

The action, which was organized by the At the Table Coalition, was a tongue-in-cheek commentary on spending for the G8 and G20 summits when foreign aid has been frozen and Canada’s fair share on climate adaptation has yet to be paid.

Stephen Harper leading a procession of wealthy bankers through the financial district of downtown Toronto.

Marching with Stephen Harper, wealthy bankers count their giant billion dollar bills.

The text on the billion dollar bills read: "the winters of my childhood were long, long seasons. Now they're almost gone and I miss the outdoor rinks."

Harper and his bankers were followed closely by a human oil spill.

Human Oil Spill

Oil

The human oil spill was followed by a group of overworked tax payers cleaning up the mess.

Tax payers cleaning up the mess behind by Harper and the bankers.

Banker steals from tax payer.

Harper makes sure the tax payers don't miss a spot.

$450+ billion from the Robin Hood Tax.

More info on the Financial Transaction (aka Robin Hood) Tax HERE

The human oil spill passes by the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Banker profits from oil spill.

$173 billion a year saved by renewable energy.

Harper Oil Spill

Harper dancing around the issues.

Invest in the future now.

Mommy worries about the future.

More information at: atthetable2010.org

RBC: Fossil Fool of the Year 2010

April 1st, 2010, Rainforest Action Network Toronto naming Royal Bank of Canada the Fossil Fool of the Year 2010, for being the leading financier of the Tar Sands oil projects.

Music: Kevin MacLeod

Shut Down the Tar Sands

Inside the shareholder meeting, First Nations Chiefs and community representatives from four different Nations demanded RBC phase out of its Tar Sands financing and to recognize the right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent for Indigenous communities.

Vice Chief Terry Teegee of the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council of BC calls on RBC to recognize the right to free prior and informed consent.

Chief Al Lameman of Beaver Lake First Nation, Vice Chief Terry Teegee or the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council, Hereditary Chief Warner Naziel of the Wet’suwe’ten First Nation, and Gitz Crazyboy of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation addressed RBC CEO Gordon Nixon directly about the way tar sands extraction projects have jeopardized their health and their rights.

Chief Al Lameman of Beaver Lake First Nation says a prayer to start off the rally.

“RBC’s significant financial relationship with companies pursuing tar sands development activities within our traditional territory and without consent warrants close attention,” said Chief Al Lameman of Beaver Lake First Nation, “RBC should update their policies to include a recognition of Free, Prior and Informed Consent for Indigenous communities; this globally recognized concept was adopted by TD Bank Financial Group in 2007 and is endorsed by indigenous communities across the political spectrum.”

After the rally outside the RBC AGM, Hereditary Chief Warner Naziel of the Wet'suwe'ten First Nation leads the protesters in a march to RBC's headquarters.

“I pleaded with the board of directors,” said Hereditary Chief Warner Naziel of the Wet’suwe’ten First Nation about his experience inside the RBC shareholder meeting, “I pleaded with the president, with the CEO and the shareholders to seriously consider looking at exactly what the RBC is doing. And it’s an important message; pay attention to what’s happening with the investments and the lending circles that are created from the RBC – it’s destroying our planet! It’s destroying our planet’s ability to sustain us as human beings. And it will continue to do that. I fear that, if we continue allowing banks like RBC to continue what they’re doing, climate change is going to reach its tipping-point, if it hasn’t already.”

RBC Creates Profit from Climate Chaos

“We completely oppose the entire scope of the whole dig-up project,” said Hereditary Chief Warner Naziel of the Wet’suwe’ten First Nation, “we’re not just opposed to the tar sands, we’re opposed to the proposed tanker traffic on the coast, we’re opposed to pipelines, and we’re opposed to the proposed CN transportation of dirty oil from the tar sands to the coast of BC.”

Indigenous Rights Now!

“People in my community are getting sick, people are dying,” said Gitz Crazyboy from the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, “we can’t drink the water, we used to about 10-15 years ago right out of the Athabasca River, no body wants to do that anymore … too many people are dying.”

Gitz Crazyboy from the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation speaks to the crowd

“People in my community are getting pissed off,” continued Gitz Crazyboy, “we’re getting tired, we’re getting angry, we’re losing faith in the world around us. All of you people here have a responsibility as Canadian citizens, as human beings even, to try to help us out, for our voice to be heard, we haven’t been heard in the last 400 years!”

Free Prior and Informed Consent

According to Bloomberg, since 2007, RBC has backed $16.9 billion in loans to companies operating in the tar sands and has earned more than $132 million in underwriting fees. As a result, RBC has enabled the production of the world’s dirtiest oil.

RBC AGM Protest March

Oil extraction from the tar sands generates three times the CO2 emissions as conventionally extracted oil, and will soon make Canada the biggest contributer to global warming.

Indigenous Rights Now!!

Mining oil from tar sands requires churning up huge tracts of ancient boreal forest and polluting clean water with so much poisonous chemicals that the resulting waste ponds can be seen from outer space.

Vice Chief Terry Teegee of the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council speaking to the crowd.

The health impacts to Alberta’s First Nation communities are severe, with cancer rates up in some communities as much as 400 times its usual frequency. In addition, communities living near oil refineries face increased air and water pollution from tar sands oil, which contains 11 times more sulfur and nickel and five times more lead than conventional oil.

Dirty Oil

For more information on RBC and the tar sands, visit: Rainforest Action Network Toronto

Video of the protest coming soon…

Stop Bankrolling the Tar Sands!

The text on the poster reads:

On March 3rd, the Royal Bank of Canada will hold its annual general meeting of shareholders’ at the Toronto Metro Convention Center.

Expansion of the tar sands is trampling the rights of Indigenous peoples, destroying globally significant ecosystems and significantly increasing Canada’s carbon emissions.

Representatives from several First Nations impacted by tar sands expansion will attend the meeting to demand that RBC recognize the right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent for Indigenous communities and suspend its financial support for tar sands expansion.

Join us for a morning of creative, non-violent direct action culminating in a rally outside the Metro Center at 2 pm to show solidarity with First Nations representatives.

Stop Bankrolling the Tar Sands!

More information on Rainforest Action Network’s campaign and how to get involved HERE

The protest was led by the Indigenous Environmental Network.

Speakers: Mother & daughter Susan and Eriel Deranger from the Athabasca Chipewan First Nation, just downriver from the Tar Sands oil projects in Alberta, Canada.

Clayton Thomas-Muller, of the Indigenous Action Network, led the protestors' chants of "Shut down the Tar Sands!"

Clayton Thomas-Muller, of the Indigenous Action Network, led the protestors' chants of "Shut down the Tar Sands!"

Implement Indigenous Peoples Rights!

Harper: Shut Down the Tar Sands

Implement Indigenous Peoples Rights!

Clayton Thomas-Muller embraces Maude Barlow, of the Council of the Canadians, at the end of the rally.

The Indigenous Environmental Network delivered a welcoming basket for Prime Minister Steven Harper containing, among other things, copies of several treaties broken by the Canadian government, a copy of the Kyoto Protocol, and a copy of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

A mask of Canadian Prime Minister Steven Harper hangs on the street outside the Canadian Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Besides these photos, I also video recorded the speeches made by the speakers at the protest.  Some of the speakers included Francois Paulette of Fort Smith First Nation, Naomi Kline Canadian author of “No Logo” and “The Shock Doctrine”, Eriel Deranger of Rainforest Action Network, Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians, and others.  I will get the videos posted as soon as I can.

The Sarnia skyline features dozens of oil refineries

According to the 2006 census, Sarnia has a population of 71,419 making it the largest city located on Lake Huron. It has been involved in the oil industry since 1850 and is home to the second busiest US/Canada border crossing.

Sarnia has been heavily involved in the oil industry since 1850 so their economy is almost completely dependent on the industry.

There are four refineries in Sarnia that use tar sands oil, including Imperial Oil, Shell, Suncor, and Nova Chemicals.

Oil refinery in Sarnia, Ontario.

The Aamjiwnaang First Nation is surrounded with the Imperial, Shell, and Suncor refineries. The community has seen twice as many females born as males, and have reported feminization in turtles in the St. Clair River. Suncor refinery is ranked number one for releasing pollutants that are known or suspected to cause reproductive and developmental toxicants.

Oil refinery in Sarnia, Ontario

An Ecojustice report titled Exposing Canada’s Chemical Valley shows that in 2005, facilities within 25km of Sarnia released more than 131,000 tonnes of air pollution. That much air pollution (consisting of mercury, dioxins and other toxins) equates to a toxic load of more than 1,800 kilograms per Sarnia and Aamjiwnaang resident.

Oil refinery in Sarnia, Ontario.

Between June 2008 and June 2009, employment in the Windsor-Sarnia region decreased by 6%. The number of unemployed rose by 15,400 increasing the unemployment rate up to 12.8% – the highest rate in Ontario’s economic regions.

Oil refinery in Sarnia, Ontario

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has described Windsor as “the most polluted city in North America,” explaining that “[With] a lot of the industries in Detroit, the air emissions make their way to Windsor. Windsor has high cancer rates, particularly thyroid cancer. Many other respiratory illnesses that are associated with pollution are more prevalent here than elsewhere in Canada as Windsor is downwind from several strong polluters.”

oil refinery in Sarnia, Ontario

The Weather Network has designated Windsor the “Smog Capital of Canada.”

Industrial landscape of Detroit, Michigan.

People living around the Marathon refinery in Detroit, Michigan, “suffer disproportionally in terms of asthmatic rates, their sleep patterns are disrupted, and they have to contend with all the dirt generated by truck traffic in the area.” (Michigan Chronicle)

World Class Cancer Care is Right Down the Street

Many Detroit area residents, despite the economic opportunity, are weary of plans to expand the Marathon oil refinery. Detroit resident Lucille Campbell states: “I have a list of the chemicals that Marathon spews out and what cancers it causes. People are dying. People are sick … we want to have jobs and all these kinds of things, but we need for it to be done right. As far as I’m concerned, Marathon can go someplace else.” 

Industrial landscape of Detroit, Michigan.

Ethanol plant in Chatham, Ontario

Ethanol plant in Chatham, Ontario

Beware of Toxic Neighbors

Check out more photos from the Tracking the Tar Sands Tour, courtesy of Kathleen Black.

Group Stages Mock Death Outside RBC Branches in Protest of Bank’s Involvement in Dirty Oil

Feigned Collapses Represent Real Impacts of Tar Sands Destruction and Water Pollution of First Nations Throughout Athabasca Delta

RBC Die-in

Toronto - Customers visiting RBC’s newly opened downtown banking centre today were met with the sight of motionless bodies strewn along the pavement in front of the bank entrance. The bodies were those of approximately 15 Rainforest Action Network (RAN) activists who, in protest against RBC’s continued financing of Alberta tar sands production, feigned death after symbolically drinking contaminated tar sands water.

RAN activists take a drink from the Athabasca water cooler.

Leading all other Canadian banks, over the past four years RBC has provided $8.9 billion in financial support to companies operating in the tar sands. The tar sands, which are devastating the regional environment, contaminating water sources, undermining local First Nation’s people’s health and preventing Canada from meeting its climate commitments, have become a source of global shame for Canada. RAN is asking RBC to cease financing tar sands production and instead, provide financing for the production of renewable energy. 

Would you drinking water from the Athabasca River?

“RBC, as Canada’s largest bank, is positioned to lead the country towards a future of energy sustainability and environmental stewardship,” says RAN activist Kimia Ghomeshi. “Instead, RBC has chosen to become the ‘ATM’ for companies seeking financing for dirty tar sands production. I think RBC’s customers would like to know what their bank is doing with the money in their savings and chequing accounts.”

Kimia Ghomeshi describes the RBC as the "ATM for companies seeking financing for dirty tar sands production."

Tar sands projects, which extract and process bitumen, a type of crude oil, have become the leading cause of CO2 emissions growth in Canada. A water intensive process, production has resulted in the creation of over 130 km2 of toxic tailing ponds, which are now estimated to leak 11 million litres of polluted water into the Athabasca watershed daily. Downstream from the tar sands, a Government of Alberta health study has confirmed that First Nations’ communities are now experiencing elevated levels of rare cancers.

RBC Creates Climate Chaos

The protesters emphasized that RBC’s support of tar sands production is not consistent with its public commitments to leadership in the areas of corporate environmental sustainability and water conservation. As Melina Laboucan-Massimo, who is a member of the Lubicon Cree Nation, asked at the recent RBC annual shareholders meeting, “If RBC is serious about supporting clean water, why are they financing projects that are contaminating the lakes and rivers around my community?”

RBC Die-in

RBC’s “Create” PR campaign touts RBC’s environmental credentials. In one TV ad publicizing the RBC ‘s Blue Water Project, we are asked to:

“Think of all the water in the world … oceans, rivers, lakes. It may seem like a lot but only a small fraction is fresh water, and there’s only so much to go around, which is why it is so important to protect it.”

In a November 2008 speech to an environmental group, CEO Gordon Nixon proclaimed that “water is the problem of the ages” and that “life depends on water. It’s high time we remembered that.”

"Life depends on water" - RBC CEO Gordon Nixon.

Yet, in contrast to the $3 million in donations under the Blue Water Project in 2008, RBC in the same year financed an estimated minimum of $641 million with oil and gas companies operating in the Alberta tar sands. An estimate of RBC’s total fossil fuel financing based on public records shows over $50 billion financed across all business lines in 2007 (see: www.climatefriendlybanking.org) And since 2002, RBC has directly invested over $63 billion in tar sands companies such as Encana, Suncor, and Canadian Natural Resources.

Drinking from the Athabasca Water Cooler

According to industry information, toxic lakes in the tar sands stretching over 50 km leak over 11 million litres a day of contaminated water into the environment. First Nations downstream are growing increasingly concerned about water quality and elevated cancer levels and have sued the Province of Alberta over adverse environmental impacts. Tar sands are also Canada’s fastest-growing source of greenhouse gas pollution. (more at: www.ran.org/tarsands)

RBC Die-in

RBC Die-in

RBC Die-in

RBC Die-in

RBC Die-in

For more information:

Rainforest Action Network

www.tarsandswatch.org