[IPSM] [Fwd: Information-Imperial Oil Announcement]

[Macdonald Stainsby]

Macdonald Stainsby wrote:
> Great news!!
> Macdonald

I was wrong to say that. Here's why.

On the face of it (and also on the front page of the National Post April 
29), this appears to be good news; the slow down or cancellation of the 
Mackenzie Valley destruction project. However, thanks to the good words of 
people working in opposition to the project in their hometown of 
Yellowknife, I have come to believe that this is most likely nothing but a 
cynical ploy by Imperial Oil to try and "force" the government to "override" 
the "red tape"-- the red tape being, of course, Deh Cho sovereignty and 
environmental regulation.

In recent weeks, it has become apparent to environmental groups such as 
Ecology North, the Sierra Club and indigenous rights groups such as the 
Arctic Indigenous Youth Alliance that the goal of the pipeline is not 
"merely" to extract fossil fuels to sell off energy for great profit, but in 
fact to open up the tar sands (through a heating process of strip mining the 
north of Alberta, most likely including unceded Lubicon Nation territory). 
This completely insane plan only has its "logic" in profit and the fact 
there is less and less oil. Imperial Oil, hoping to push the Liberal DIAND 
minister Andy Scott (an open door being pushed by by a cyclone, basically) 
to run roughshod over the process towards getting the pipeline "ready" for 
operation, has announced it will "cancel" plans for the pipeline knowing 
what the political fallout would be for such a DIAND minister as would allow 
this to happen on his watch.

The north is already littered with "pipeline readiness offices". The 
greenhouse gas emissions that would come out of such a project would 
skyrocket Canada far above their already pathetically under-achieving Kyoto 
accord commitments. Since there is already so much capital expenditure 
coming from Ottawa and Yellowknife about how to proceed with the plan, the 
Imperial gambit (with the tacit support of the Asper family-- hence the 
front page billing for northern issues-- when's the last time we saw that?) 
is to force the hand of Ottawa to do what the Premier of the Northwest 
Territories has already called for doing-- squash the efforts of the Deh Cho 
to have a real say in if/how the pipeline will be laid down (they are in 40% 
of the pipeline's path). The other problem is that the Deh Cho government, 
unlike many band councils who work for Ottawa's AFN, have a large dose of 
self-respect and are in no hurry to "extinguish" themselves; the feds have 
long stated that they would not proceed with any pipeline so long as there 
is a non-settled nation claim in the valley. Yet recently Herb Norwegian, 
grand chief of the DEh Cho, said to me in an interview that the Deh Cho 
"will not extinguish their claim to their land". Herein lies the real 
decision by Imperial to attempt to blackmail Ottawa (not a hard sell for the 
colonialists in parliament) and Yellowknife to simply ignore the Deh Cho's 
national rights, even the limited ones set forth by their own processes.

This must be over-ridden, according to the new ploy by Imperial. The other 
scare tactic, included in the paper article below, is the notion that Canada 
is in a "race" with Alaska to get natural gas south to the US: Some believe 
that if the natural gas isn't being slated to decimate the north of Alberta 
after the pipeline decimates the Arctic and sub-Arctic, it will be shipped 
directly to the US to address their energy dependency concerns by taking it 
from "friendly" Canada...

In the 70's, as the articles note, the pipeline was shelved, but not because 
the federal government was able to see the light-- but rather because the 
Dene and other nations of the north showed them their willingness to stand 
up and demand their rights. Today, there are many people who have concerns 
about the pipeline project, but none of them get any coverage in a virtual 
blackout of the media which counts on the South of Canada knowing less than 
spit about what happens in the Arctic North. We are fed images of the 
"Aboriginal Pipeline Group" and shown the number of nations whose government 
Indian leaders are promoting the pipeline to Yellowknife, without mention of 
whether the populations who live in the valley have themselves been 
consulted. Colonial and ecocidal practices of the already-vastly compromised 
pipeline review process have made it so that people have complained about 
the process itself almost more than probably damage to the ecosystem or 
national and cultural traditions of nations living in the north. The process 
in the 70's (The Berger Inquiry) involved consulation with every singhle 
community in the path of the pipeline. By the end of the process, all the 
nations had shown to be virtually unanimous in their opposition to the 
pipeline. Today, to avoid this problem, consulations are not held in the 
many Athabascan dialects, none of the smaller communities and are not 
providing any funding for the separate process of nations and/or 
environmental groups to conduct their own assessments.

This gambit is not a victory-- it's most likely a political ploy to 
undermine the sovereignty of nations who wish to save something we all need 
saved-- a healthy planet.

In reality, the pipeline would not be an end, but just another precdent set 
in how to overcome "fear" of a planet that is one giant block of concrete. 
It would also lead to other off-shoots, massive temporary migration and a 
settlement of the north in rapid fashion to rival the decimation of nations 
in BC who were slaughtered in the making of the railroads and the goldrush 
into BC's heart.

Colonialism is attempting to speed up another process of genocide. It is 
time we said "enough".

This summer, groups in the north are meeting to find ways to oppose this 
process. As more information about this continues to make itself available, 
please visit http://independentmedia.ca/survivingcanada/ to stay abreast of 
what is going on, and how we can resist the plunder of the great nations due 
north.



-- 

Macdonald Stainsby
http://independentmedia.ca/survivingcanada
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green
In the contradiction lies the hope
	--Bertholt Brecht.