UPDATE: The National Post has posted a PDF of the full investigation on its website:

http://www.nationalpost.com/documents/091111-oconnor_misconduct.pdf

I still don't buy it. Something about the investigation seems flawed. Why is there such a big effort to assure patients in Fort Chip that their illness statistics are normal, when they themselves say differently? I think the physician is just relaying the message.

I read this at the Globe and Mail: the Alberta Cancer Board decided to separate leukemia from hematopoietics for the analysis. Once the figures were combined, blood cancers were double the expected rate (five expected, 10 diagnosed).

Also, Fort Chip is near a huge uranium source area.

Readers should be aware that the Fort Chip Chipewyan First Nation and others have been lobbying the federal and provincial governments to investigate these issues for years. The documentary H2Oil gives a good synopsis of the kind of political games being played by all departments concerned. This is nothing new to First Nations people who must constantly contend with ignorant and uninformed views when it comes to getting their cases heard (for anyone doubting this, just look at the supreme court cases over the last 30 years). And for a more relevant example, take the case of the geese dying in the tarsands. First Nations have been fighting the issue of development and environmental impacts for years, but it took a special interest group, advocated by non-Natives, to get this issue any coverage.

The Fort Chip issue is tragic because it is primarily affecting most those who still practice a traditional diet, because all the carcinogens and chemicals being dumped into the ecosystem surrounding Fort Chip accumulate in the environment and end up intensifying because of what the residents are eating. Why doesn't science understand this? Instead scientists individualize the numbers, look at toxicity over a regional scale, and don't realize that no, they actually eat not just one animal per 1000 acres, its the entire diet that is being made toxic - from the water to the fish to the game to the herbs and medicines. Why aren't they gauging their studies on actual life experience, rather than playing a numbers game with the lives of people? TALK TO THE PEOPLE! Don't just appoint some would be "Indian Guide" to conduct their consultations, they have to go to the community and figure out what's going on, and work with the community to find solutions. 90% of the people they hire for these positions haven't grown up on reserves, are not part of any community, and have no understanding of the culture they're suppose to be dealing with. Without that kind of dedication, nothing will be done. And unless bureaucrats get off their duffs in Ottawa and admit they don't have a clue how to deal with the situation, and that a community based solution is what is needed, nothing is going to change. Instead we have a bargain basement mentality in our culture that says 'get in, take what you can get, and get out before you get caught,' so big business can continue to pollute as long as the government is getting its kickback, and the Indians and the environment will just have to continue to suffer.