It hasn’t even been released yet, but aboriginal leaders living downstream from the oilsands are already rejecting an Alberta Cancer Board study into cancer rates in Fort Chipewyan.

Leaders of the Athabasca Chipewyan and Mikisew Cree First Nations, along with the Fort Chipewyan Métis local association, say the board’s study of cancer in Fort Chipewyan hasn’t been done transparently. They also say local health officials haven’t been adequately consulted. “The lack of transparency and community involvement are the exact reasons the community no longer trusts the Alberta government and its agencies to deliver accurate and responsible information to our community,” said Steve Courtoreille, chairperson of the local health board society, in a news release.

Fort Chipewyan is on the shore of Lake Athabasca, and many in the community of 1,200 believe their health is being compromised by the oilsands. The province did a statistical analysis of cancer rates in July 2006 that found there was nothing unusual in the community, but most people in Fort Chipewyan don’t trust the analysis. Chief Roxanne Marcel of the Mikisew Cree First Nation says the province can’t be trusted to “provide accurate information on anything related to tar sands development and its impacts downstream.”

However, Lee Elliott, a spokesperson for the Alberta Cancer Board, says people should suspend their judgments until the study is actually released. “We understand why the community is concerned, and certainly they’ve waited a long time to find out more answers,” she says. “But we really hope people will wait until the study is released and it’s complete. Our commitment is to ensure the scientific integrity of that study.” The study is currently being peer reviewed, and Elliott says the province is hoping to release it by the end of the year.

This isn’t the first time a study on Fort Chipewyan has been dismissed before it’s been released. Last November, Alberta Health and Wellness dismissed an independent study into contamination downstream from the oilsands as “misleading” without having seen the final report. The study found people and fish in the Fort Chipewyan area are being exposed to higher levels of arsenic, mercury and polycylic aromatic hydrocarbons — some of which are carcinogenic — than those upstream.

The situation at Fort Chipewyan, meanwhile, continues to attract international attention. Downstream, a short documentary about John O’Connor, the community’s former whistleblower physician, was recently shortlisted for an Oscar.