Fort-Chip.jpg

VIDEO: Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Says Tar Sands Have Gone Far Enough

Following a trip to the Netherlands to speak at the Royal Dutch Shell Annual General Meeting, the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) has released a short documentary film detailing the struggle against tar sands development.

Narrated by Indigenous rights activist and ACFN communications coordinator Eriel Deranger, the film gives a brief history of the nation’s conflict with Shell Oil, including broken impact-benefit agreements dating back ten years, and residents of Fort Chipewyan explain in their own words why they fight for their land.

Yet another test of Treaty 8 and section 35 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms will come at the end of this month. Shell’s proposal to expand the Jackpine Mine in northern Alberta is currently under review with the Alberta regulatory body, the Energy Resources Conservation Board, with a decision expected by next Friday, May 31.

Since the ACFN filed its constitutional challenge against Shell in 2012, the company has also proposed a new open pit mine project, the Pierre River Mine, that will likely go under review before the end of this year.

Deranger says the time has come to draw a line in the sand. “If we don’t put our foot down somewhere, it will never stop.”

Image Credit: Creative Commons via mark(s)elliott

We’ve got big plans for 2024
Seeking out climate solutions, big and small. Investigating the influence of oil and gas lobbyists. Holding leaders accountable for protecting the natural world.

The Narwhal’s reporting team is busy unearthing important environmental stories you won’t read about anywhere else in Canada. And we’ll publish it all without corporate backers, ads or a paywall.

How? Because of the support of a tiny fraction of readers like you who make our independent, investigative journalism free for all to read.

Will you join more than 6,000 members helping us pull off critical reporting this year?
We’ve got big plans for 2024
Seeking out climate solutions, big and small. Investigating the influence of oil and gas lobbyists. Holding leaders accountable for protecting the natural world.

The Narwhal’s reporting team is busy unearthing important environmental stories you won’t read about anywhere else in Canada. And we’ll publish it all without corporate backers, ads or a paywall.

How? Because of the support of a tiny fraction of readers like you who make our independent, investigative journalism free for all to read.

Will you join more than 6,000 members helping us pull off critical reporting this year?

Mines, logging, sprawl — but no wind turbines. Here’s what Alberta is still doing in ‘pristine viewscapes’

Last week, the Alberta government released a draft map outlining new buffer zones prohibiting new wind energy developments, saying "wind projects are no longer permitted...

Continue reading

Recent Posts

Thousands of members make The Narwhal’s independent journalism possible. Will you help power our work in 2024?
Will you help power our journalism in 2024?
… which means our newsletter has become the most important way we connect with Narwhal readers like you. Will you join the nearly 90,000 subscribers getting a weekly dose of in-depth climate reporting?
A line chart in green font colour with the title "Our Facebook traffic has cratered." Chart shows about 750,000 users via Facebook in 2019, 1.2M users in 2020, 500,000 users in 2021, 250,000 users in 2022, 100,000 users in 2023.
… which means our newsletter has become the most important way we connect with Narwhal readers like you. Will you join the nearly 90,000 subscribers getting a weekly dose of in-depth climate reporting?
A line chart in green font colour with the title "Our Facebook traffic has cratered." Chart shows about 750,000 users via Facebook in 2019, 1.2M users in 2020, 500,000 users in 2021, 250,000 users in 2022, 100,000 users in 2023.
Overlay Image