This is a bit of ‘see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’ taken to the political level.
In the ongoing battle between Alberta oilsands protesters and the provincial government, Premier Ed Stelmach said earlier this week that he hadn’t seen recently released photos of the 1,600 ducks that died in April 2008 after landing on sludge ponds. Syncrude Canada Ltd. is currently on trial in Alberta for not taking action to prevent the ducks from landing in a toxic sludge pond nearly two years ago.
That prompted Greenpeace activist Mike Hudema to visit the legislature Wednesday with pictures to deliver personally to the premier. An aide said he would forward them.
Later, Stelmach admitted that he had indeed seen the images before.
But the incident is representative of the denial involved with the oilsands development. Hudema and others take issue with what they consider lax environmental standards that allowed the creation of lake-sized toxic ponds in the northern oilsands region.
Sadly, this is about the fate of these and likely other ducks, but it’s also important to see that it’s not simply an equation between ducks and lucrative development.
If this kind of thing is going on, what other atrocities are happening?
Like the proverbial canary in the coal mine, these kinds of tragic results are indicative of untold other, increasingly serious consequences.
We have to acknowledge people like the jobs – right across Canada. Stelmach and other pro-oilsands people have made the case that the development benefits Canada in general.
No doubt it does, but the blight being left behind has been duly noted by commentators around the world. Pressure is mounting in the United States to boycott the product for this reason.
If concerns about the environment don’t phase the companies in charge, they can consider something else. If they want to produce oil that will have markets, they have to do it in a way that isn’t an environment killer.
