People in Fort Chipewyan appreciate straight talk. That’s something I quickly learned when I visited the small northern Alberta community for a reporting assignment in July. The people of Fort Chip — who are mostly Chipewyan, Mikisew Cree and Metis — have been lied to again and again since European fur traders first showed up there in the late 18th century. For many years, an imposing residential school loomed over the community. And now Fort Chip has the misfortune of being downstream from one of the largest industrial projects in the world.
It’s an unfortunate circumstance. John O’Connor, the community’s longtime doctor, has warned that he’s seeing high levels of cancer and other diseases in Fort Chip’s population of about 900. And with his warnings, he’s asked a very simple question: why? To answer this important question, O’Connor has requested a comprehensive health study. Seems like a good idea.
Yet both the provincial and federal health departments have steadfastly refused to do a study — even though, in 2004, Health Canada accepted an Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (EUB) recommendation to do such a study. Health Canada now says a study would be outside its jurisdiction. Alberta Health and Wellness, meanwhile, did a hasty statistical analysis of cancer deaths in the community last year, but Fort Chip residents regard the resulting six-page report as a joke. (The analysis concluded there was no problem in Fort Chip.) Alberta Health says the analysis is all that was needed.
The federal and provincial governments have absolutely no credibility in Fort Chip. And why should they? Both governing Conservative parties have made it very clear that oilsands development will continue uninhibited, human beings be damned — rivers, land and air, too. This was abundantly evident in November, when independent ecologist Kevin Timoney released a study finding higher-than-normal contaminant levels in the Athabasca River and Lake Athabasca. (Fort Chip is on the northwestern shore of Lake Athabasca.) Alberta Health and Alberta Environment both immediately dismissed Timoney’s findings as “misleading” without even having seen the final report.
This is baffling. No one with any sense can believe a response like that. Public relations stunts like these are insulting — to reporters, to our readers, to scientists, and most importantly, to the people of Fort Chip. If the government truly cared about the people of Fort Chip, it would take the report seriously, and not simply rush to discredit the findings and tar the author, as happened here. At the very least, it would have enough respect to review the final report before making a judgment.
A disturbing trend is emerging in both levels of government. When someone blows the whistle and suggests that maybe everything’s not OK downstream from the oilsands, the government goes on the offensive and tries to discredit the bearer of bad news. O’Connor is currently the subject of a complaint filed with the Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons — a complaint filed by a Health Canada employee because O’Connor was speaking plainly about the health problems he was seeing. Health Canada called it causing “undue alarm.”
I have spoken with O’Connor a number of times, and each time I have been struck by his integrity and quiet confidence. His words are measured and thoughtful. When I was in Fort Chip, everyone — everyone — had only good things to say about O’Connor. He’s a local hero for sticking his neck out and risking his career for the people he serves. Yet the federal and provincial governments try to portray him as a miscreant, a loose cannon with some kind of wacky agenda. In fact, O’Connor is very careful in what he says, and he’s simply asking for a proper health study. It’s hardly an unreasonable request.
David Schindler, a world-renowned water scientist at the University of Alberta, has received similar treatment at the hands of the Alberta government for speaking plainly about his research. (His findings are alarming: summer flow levels of the Athabasca River upstream from the oilsands decreased by 29 per cent from 1970 to 2005 as a result of climate change. That’s not even factoring in the massive water withdrawals of the oilsands.) Alberta Environment downplays his findings as exaggerated. Instead of using Schindler’s research and building on it, the department contemptuously disregards it and says there’s nothing to worry about.
And what about the people of Fort Chip themselves? They, more than anyone else, have a right to be heard. And yet they are treated like dirt. They aren’t even worthy of a health study. Instead, they get spin and lies — and whatever else floats downstream from the oilsands. They deserve better. If the provincial and federal governments are so convinced that the people of Fort Chip have nothing to worry about, they should go ahead and do a comprehensive health study, like O’Connor has requested, and put these concerns to rest. If everything is fine in Fort Chip, what is the government so afraid of?
