The largest industrial project in the world, the Canadian tar sands, looks as though it is about to get bigger, according to Real News (see video report below).
Alberta’s energy regulator has recently given the green light to the expansion of Shell’s Jackpine Mine five and a half years after the company first proposed the project. The mine is just one of ten new tar sands projects awaiting approval, though concerned indigenous communities and environmentalists argue that further development will exacerbate the already dire conditions of people and ecosystems in the region and beyond.
“We see inherent aboriginal and treaty rights being violated in the name of the tar sands, rights that are enshrined in the Constitution of Canada,” says Melina Laboucan Massimo of the Lubicon Cree First Nation, speaking to Real News. “We are calling on the B.C., Alberta, and the Harper government to become truly accountable to the people they claim to represent.”
For a full transcript, go to Real News.
