Killer Water: The toxic legacy of Canada's oil sands industry for Indigenous communities
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 พ.ย. 2023
- In Northern Alberta, Canada, sit the Athabasca tar sands-the world's largest known reservoir of crude bitumen, and a major driver of Canada’s economy. The vast majority of Canadian oil production comes from the extraction and processing of the crude bitumen found in the tar sands. But while Canada prospers off the tar sands industry, Indigenous communities downstream are in the grips of its toxic impact. It is well documented that the people of Fort Chipewyan, in northern Alberta, have been struck by disproportionately high rates of cancer, and their proximity to the tar sands has long been the suspected dominant factor contributing to their sickness.
In a new feature documentary, "Killer Water," award-winning journalist Brandi Morin and award-winning filmmaker/director Geordie Day delve deep into the heart of the environmental crisis plaguing the Alberta oil sands, uncovering the hidden truths that have long been ignored. The film exposes the detrimental impact of toxic tailings ponds leakage on the delicate ecosystems, water sources, and human life in and around Fort Chipewyan. Through stunning visuals and compelling narratives, Morin and Day take viewers on a journey that highlights the injustices faced by the Indigenous community living in the shadow of this industrial development.
“Killer Water” was produced in partnership with @therealnews, @IndigiNewsMedia, and @ricochet_media.
Pre-Production: Brandi Morin, Geordie Day, Ethan Cox, Andrea Houston, Cara McKenna, Eden Fineday, Maximillian Alvarez, Kayla Rivara
Studio Production: Geordie Day
Post-Production: Brandi Morin, Geordie Day, Ethan Cox, Andrea Houston, Cara McKenna, Eden Fineday, Maximillian Alvarez, Kayla Rivara
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Here, here we have a microcosm of what is occurring, despicably and disgracefully on Indigenous Territories, Traditional Lands, not only in Canada but around the world. Not unlike "Governments", Corporations have become rogue. Whether Canada, the Brazilian Rainforests, South Dakota with the pipeline, or as far as Australian Aborigines not being recognised in the Constitution of that country, collectively, they care not for The People, the land, the animals, the trees, flowers, the birds, the insects, the medicines, the fish, or the elements: The Water. The Air. The Earth.
This predatory economy cares only for ravaging natural resources and pursuing ever-increasing profits. The "Safety Standards" and associated statistics are manipulated to the own ends of the Corporations exploiting the land, irrespective of the consequences, now and for the future generations, those yet unborn.
This, this is a powerful documentary highlighting the magnitude, scope, depth, height and breadth of the problems arising from this all-consuming avarice and ravaging of the land and the natural resources. Brandi (Morin) and her team are to be highly commended, all to their credit, for compiling this excellent, all-embracing, riveting and deeply moving footage of the lives of Indigenous People, while highlighting the adverse impacts, the highly negative implications and all too tragic consequences of the Athabasca tar sands project. Only wish this documentary could be viewed by a wider audience, in the hope it might wake more people up to what these Corporations are doing and the damage being consistently, relentlessly and incessantly wrought. Indigenous People have, in effect, become the sacrificial lambs upon the altar of economic acquisition and the pursuit of profits.
However, the Indigenous People continue to 'Stand'. They 'Stand' for their Ancestors. They 'Stand' for their Communities. They 'Stand' for their Nations. They 'Stand' for you. They 'Stand' for me. They 'Stand' for us. They 'Stand' for the Future Generations, those yet unborn. They 'Stand' for Humankind. They 'Stand' with courage. They 'Stand' with respect. They 'Stand' with dignity. They 'Stand' with honour. They are a bastion 'Standing' against the tyranny of modern day "Governments" and Corporations. May they be afforded protection and granted the strength, wisdom and knowledge to sustain them. They are to be saluted.
In the US, corporations have attained the rights of "persons" and that is at the crux of how they have amassed the power to do whatever they want. I agree that this documentary deserves a much wider audience. We are on borrowed time. People must wake up. Strength to the indigenous people and others who are actively fighting these evil forces.
@@dao8805 Thank you for taking the time, making the effort and affording the courtesy of a reply. It is absolutely horrendous to learn from your response that Corporations in the US (and I daresay, elsewhere, in other countries) have attained and acquired the rights of 'persons' and this facilitates them in riding slipshod over anyone and everybody! I would concur, people do not comprehend how fast we are moving and that the clock is ticking! There are those who, like the ostrich, persist in keeping their heads buried in the sand. Absolutely, more power and strength to the Indigenous People, actively, fighting and standing, as a bastion, against these tyrants running amok and opposing these insidious evil forces.
The same criminal elite who do this pollution all over the world are the ones now claiming the problems are caused by too many people causing climate change - NO, it's obviously THEIR industry pollution (wars, factory farms instead of homesteads, industrial mining, fracking, etcetera).
I reside in the US. I was doing research on my ancestors when I found this documentary. I am using it for my final project in my indigenous studies class, in order to raise an awareness at least at the University that I attend in Colorado of this heinous act of Colonization. It is my hope that the University will see the great importance of this documentary and make it available to other students.
That deserves an award. Great journalism. Tragic story.
😮 wow this made me so sad and angry at the same time! Remembering my Family of Hunters Fishermen and trappers brings great sadness! To see the waters me and my cousins would swim and spend our summer playing by, the waters my Dad and Grandpa fished and traveled look so lonely and sick! Water is Life and look what the Oil Industry has done.
You should have seen it before we started cleaning up this organic spill, caused by plate tectonics.
Thank you for exposing this.
My heart cries out for the People, the animals and the land. No water that’s fit for flora or fauna. The industry needs to held accountable!!! still, nothing brings back the people who have died because of this.
Good Friday evening from Waiheke Island, Auckland New Zealand
Devastating but true. Thank you to the team who got this story out.
The word not mentioned here is *'solastalgia'.* The deep grief felt in losing one's homeland: the ecosystems such as the woods, waterways,lakes, nature, the stories that connect people and places that exist no more, the loss of burial grounds where generations of ancestors are buried. It is deeper and more profound than a longing or hireath. It is a longing for a community and way of life that is no more.
Given the communities that have lost their towns, villages and tribal lands climate change is affecting many and will affect all.
To most people so far it is the relative 'privilage' of noticing fewer insects on the windshield compared to 20 or 30 years ago.
Pretty soon humans and their communities will start becoming absent insects on a windscreen. A declining human population will be a dawning realisation of solastalgia, of already losing what is.
The word not mentioned is MONEY.
Climate change is a scam get a clue
Truth be told, the hallow longing for the forever lost, a grievance most moderns can not even feel or conceive of.The same moderns poison their landscapes, their fields, yards and homes inside and out, polluting surface & subsurface water sources with pesticides to rid their personal reality of those so called insect pests sticking on their windshields, in the grasses and around their dwellings as well as saturating their gardens and field crops, only to consume the same toxins used to either kill or keep the insects away, is consumed in their food and drink, The visually perfect untainted & unblemished vegetable or fruit with no sign or evidence of any insect feeding upon them, If the insects do not eat the crops, humans should also avoid them, as one can suspect that something is very wrong in the food chain if bugs do not eat it. Fertilizers and growth hormones are in the same realm, to enhance and produce ever more product per acre or pound, sooner or later the rains will come & spread across the fields and grazing pastures, the chemical fertilizes as well as the hormones and steroid tainted animal excreta will wash all these chemical compounds into the local watersheds,, ponds, lakes, streams, rivers, aquafirs and then into the ocean. Many of these fertilizers and insect repellents are bi products and derivatives of petro chemicals whether/ oil from tar sands/ shale/ and the chemicals used in it's extraction. As well as traditional well pumping of crude or sweet lite reserves on shore and off shore. Cancer and other diseases, the degregation and destruction of mother earth, her people and all creatures in life both big and small bothers me alot more than a few insects smashed on my windscreen. In our lifetime we have witnessed the rampant escalation of destruction throughout the Americas, along with the senseless logging and replacing natural environment with often invasive cash crops or water intensive crops using an insane amounts of water and fertilizer to grow things in areas where otherwise they could not survive. A culture of self inflicted insanity, disease and ignorance,,
@@therealrobertbirchall
Strongly implied and even deeper in the soul, but unable to express in any words, past present, future or any language ...
because we all just know.
Knock it off 😂😂
Good morning. Anchorage Alaska
Excellent work! beautifully shot. touching and infuriating
woah nice show. Thank you.
So sad 😢 and how tragic 😞
Good Friday morning from Long Island New York
Self-regulation by these industries is an ongoing joke 😢
Depressing😢
Thank you for bringing this story to light!
Brandi, I thank thee. Great piece.
This is one of the most insightful, sensitive and thorough overviews of the issues. Bravo to the producers and allied staff. But without a persistent, supportive collaboration among the local indigenous groups together with other Canadian and American indigenous groups, as well as with sundry non-indigenous organizations, and experts that can bring and vouch for critical "scientific" proof of the problems, any effort to derail the extraction and current practices will be stalled. Unity is essential.
Everyone should watch this! Call your MP and if you live in Alberta, call your MPP!
Wow, watching a slow moving atrocity is so heartbreaking. Thanks to these wonderful people we get to see behind the curtain of lies.
Industry at the cost of communities (large or small) should not be allowed.
Thank you for this report. It's important that we learn about what's happening to our environment.
And what's happening to the people.
Indigenous People, are the scientists. Where the heart of and in everything, exists.
Its worth pointing out that Canada by no means is making big money off oil sands, in fact oil sands SALES have skyrocketed while royalties of oilsands has been falling in relation to natural gas and conventional oil.
And the fact is that ROYALTIES from oil and go all go to the PROVINCES. There is no royalty regime in Canada for the federal government. They get income taxes from the workers and the corporations just like any business, but thats not been providing any windfall for anybody but Alberta.
Which despite that has no better health care or public services than any other province, and is actually privatizing health care faster than any province.
And that doesn't even count subsidies. Canada BOUGHT the trans canada pipeline and is building it despite the fact everyone admits it will lose money. Now the liberals call it "an important national project' which ironically wins them NO favours in the west where they despise this Trudeau as much as the last one.
Canada subsidized oil and gas more than ANY other country according to recent studies, in the past free trade agreement with Argentina they were SUPPOSED to release a list of all the subsidies provided to oil and gas, but refuse to do so.
So this is how Canada is turning into the US or what we USED to call third world countries. Our resources are sold off for private gain, and not even for a profit because we as left with the costs. In Alberta before she was fired, the ALberta auditor general released a costing stating that ALberta faced a quarter TRILLION in remediation
In comparison, Norway chugs along with a trillion dollars in the bank with most of its society powered by renewables.
Top quality journalism. Everyone should see this. Thank you for exposing the horrifying truth.
Excellent informative documentary on Canadian tar sands
I remember when Chief Adam was attacked - that was so deeply upsetting, and he seems like such a good man. This is so informative, Brandi, thank you for your work!!!
Same thing the did to the poor sealife and folks in the gulf
I happen to be a petroleum engineer and I know in Russia we were treating our nature with more care ( I’m talking regarding this particular field of production, of cause). It’s so sad to see what we as humanity have done to the environment)…
Didn’t scientists recently have found some bacteria in Antarctica that feeds oil ?.. Why not to try to clean our rivers and lakes with that ? I know it takes time to do a research but we have almost no time left… Perhaps, we’ve bridged the “point of no return “ ?..
They vaxx us without prior trials?..
Stop lying😂😂 Russia has some of the most despicable oil spills and toxic rivers in the world
My question to the Regulator team, would they drink this water, would they swim in this water, would they hunt, trap and harvest off of these shores?! I think NOT!!!!!! The level of greed is disgusting, money is worth more than human life & the life of mother earth, sad! 😥😠
thank you for bringing Indigenous voices to the foreground where these stories REALLY need to be heard.
& good day from the also stolen and very abused lands of Seattle.
What is an apology without action, is this apology going to bring back the people that have died, we need actions!
Is that Game Of Thrones theme music at the end?
Very sad. It's happening to all the water sources worldwide. Access to fresh water is being denied systematically.
Solastalgia, is happening in Gaza right now, solidarity, we have to change the system. Barb
So So Sad We ALL MATTER and I Fear everyday for my Family Up there. Many prayers and sleepless nights
deep down there is still no respect for the indigenous people there, remember discovery of the children graveyards recently? that is sad the horror still happening in 21st century today PEACE
Deep down there is little truths that come from the mainstream media. No remains have been found yet in all these supposed mass graves.
I sometime see decal on the windshields "I❤Oil", here its what they. Not too long Canadian government will regret but it will be too late for them supporting those griddy oil companies.
Since when is profit more important than life giving water?? Makes me mad how corporations r ravaging the planet as if we have a spare
Sent to everyone I know. How can I help?
It is a great tragedy, just look at the wasted and destroyed land. The land was to sustain the people the way it has for thousands of years, now it is being turned into a wasteland and the people's inheritance has been pilfered away in greed and destruction. The scientists have not applied any honesty or ethical truth, if they had they would have concluded long before now that their equation did not make a true statement, they did not solve for y. Y is the pollution they have no idea what to do with. The other variable they did not solve for was the destruction of the land, how were they ever going to repair and restore the land? It really is a mega tragedy, so much life destroyed for the highlife of profits and all the riches it would bring, enough comforts to keep the ruin away long enough. It is unbelievable that a land and a way of life are perhaps gone forever for ignorance and greed and the utmost dishonesty and irresponsibility. Maybe in the end they will find out that all the money they have will not be able to help them in their hour of need. Colonization and industrialization were not good for life, the land or the people. No matter where they took it the results have been the same decimation, ruin, impoverishment, and uninhabitable. Human beings are born with Divine intelligence, they must return to using it for the well being of all so that life will continue on. There is no end to life, people should stop trying to create one.
We Love You too.
There are those who are of this Earth and there are those who are not😮
Yet if I dump used motor oil or raw sewage in my ditch Im getting fined and probably going to jail?
So sad😔
You won't find this depth of journalism in Canadian media. Thank you TRNN.
Wow! I hope you win the awards this deserves! Great work Brandi Morin!
😢
Thanks!
Thank you for your donation!!
Thanks RNN. Billionaires and their wannabes are parasites.
I have much respect for Adam a good man ✊🏿
All about $$$ no regard for next 7 generations
Brandi this documentary is so powerful and the truth is stark. Doing what I can to share your work and build advocacy regarding the legal oppression.
Reclamation is a joke too near Fort McKay ..buffalo all died there looks good but poisoned
Capitalism will never survive without democracy,so I'm surprised why this documentary is all about because the people who do the documentary believe and wanted democracy.
I'll appreciate if we stop tne hypocrisy and keep our mouth shut,the documentary it's all about the money not the plight of the indigenous people.
They complain about oil yet use petro products like mad . SMH
I recall my 1st day teaching Aboriginal Cultural teachings with Syncrude employees and I learned how hundreds of ducks landed in a tailing pond and they all died 🥲
The sand tars have to be “doctored” before being able to be transported thru a pipeline. All pipe eventually leaks… what happens when the leak seeps into our water reservoirs? These pipelines traverse from Canada to Texas.
Enbr_idg_ 😠
Maybe you're just not smart enough to understand this, but the oil sands are a natural oil spill that has seeped into the sand, soil and the water column, and harvesting the bitumen is actually CLEANING UP THE ENVIRONMENT. Natural oil deposits can be squeezed through fissures in rocks due to tectonic movement. On top of this, bitumen is not "dirty oil". It's not used as fuel because it's too contaminated with particulates. It's used for asphalt, chip coating, water proofing and sheathing for electrical wires.
You seem to be omitting the tailings ponds which kill landing wildfowl on contact, that three barrels pristine freshwater is contaminated/used for every barrel of usable bitumen (hence permanent toxic massive railings pins), plus the (natural gas) energy involved in the refining process, plus that the bitumen is cut about 30% with natural gas for transport, which is fracked gas (with their hundred plus so toxic they’re too secret) secret ingredients-? So the fracking regime in northern BC and AB is part and parcel as well.
@@raysondetre Still cleaner than naturally letting it continuously seep into soil and ground water. You're saying that instead of cleaning it up, and then treating the water following the clean up is a bad idea, just because of a few birds... birds that "environmentalists" don't care one bit about when it comes to wind farming...
If you’re creating liquified toxins with a 176 km surface area as of ten years ago that are permanent standing ponds with no impermeable protection that are seeping into the water table and causing exotics cancer clusters in the natives closest to proximity at Fort McJay, which has obviously never happened to them before in their history, that means you have a toxic emissions site, not a cleaned up one. Even a child has the common sense to realize toxins in water are more leachable and transmissible than inert bitumen on sand granules, which takes a lot of energy and freshwater to extract from.
I concur that the extraction of oil sands, followed by the restoration of the land to its natural state, proves to be more advantageous for both the natural environment and neighboring communities. Additionally, this process has successfully diverted the course of oil seepages away from river banks. It's crucial to note that tailings water differs significantly from process water confined within the mine, and the water released into the environment, meeting release limits, is considered clean water. These three aspects are distinct; the so-called tailings water released from the ponds is water that never came into contact with the oil sands. While it marginally exceeded the limits, it is erroneously labeled as tailings water with bitumen. The video is intriguing, and I acknowledge that residing in close proximity may have health impacts on local communities. However, concerning water releases and operations, some information presented is inaccurately portrayed or misleading.
And you’re pretending 100, 200 and thousand year frequency floods don’t exist either when we know the frequency and it’s prettty much guaranteed to flood the toxic tailings ponds into the entire land base given the utter stupidity of the mega corporations putting the tailings ponds in such close proximity to the second largest watershed in North America. It’s not like they live there or care. Fort McMurray was already subject to these types of risks in a Clearwater River major flood event, which feeds the Athabasca.
It is barbarian to do business like this ! IT’s criminal !.. The environment belongs not to one country it’s planetary…
From refinery oils spills into the river which brings it further into the ocean and so on, and so on. We don’t live in isolation… everything is circulating…
That’s why it is an international crime !!!
just another example of butting profit over everything esle..
Oh oh, be honest
Of course Jason is also a part of the fossilfuel economy: his livelihood relies on fuel and industrial goods too, and doubtless aswell on the food products of industrial agriculture
My only problem with these activist is they themselves continue to support these companies. The guy in the beginning was using a boat with a engine that runs on gas. The other guy is being driven around in a car that runs on gas. I mean how can I take you serious when you use the very products you’re fighting against?
That guy at the first part of the video saying he won't let his kids swim in the lake and he won't hunt or fish in his area bah he's just another activist and all they have to do is give him enough money and he'll shut up and go away they all do
Destroing the country😡😡
it's horrible and disgusting but who in the government cares?
That foam on the water is completely natural.. this all about money.. give it up. You are a citizen of Canada now live like everyone else
i second that
@rmf9567 would YOU want your kids drinking that water , or swim in that water ? Would YOU feed the fish in that water to YOUR kids ? Would YOU feed YOUR kids food grown in a garden watered with that water ? Would YOU raise YOUR kids beside that river ?
smdh
@@shari9721 I have seen Athabasca River not close to the mines and have seen foam on water. You would have to really test the water first to make that judgement. You would be surprised to see the results there are no hydrocarbons or napthaneic acids. I have tested the water and results came back negative.
You lost me at climate change
💰Yellen 🇺🇸Dimon
2024💰
Useless needless irritating irrelevant background so-called music. I cannot stand it to. I have to leave.
This video is a joke. The Natives want to own the pipeline...Not stop it. Own it.
Misleading. Not helpful. There are real issues that are not being addressed.
Instead of making weak claims, how about listing them so they can be debated.
@@RKZX2 the very first scene claims that the water his boat is traveling through is shallow because of the oilsands companies water withdrawal. This is "extremely" misleading. Alberta environment monitors, documents and publishes withdrawals as follows. Water Use
Actual water withdrawn by oil sands mines in 2019 was less than one per cent of the average annual flow - approximately 153 million cubic metres, or an average of 4.9 cubic metres per second.
Most of the rest of this video is full of exaggerated and misleading naratives.
@@BB-cf9gxJust go back to your Boomer music videos, eh?
@@michaelvickers4437 the first nations of Canada are not helped by your derisive attitude towards people like me who really care about the issues facing them. Your comment says everything about you and nothing about me.
Truthful. Helpful. Real issues are being adressed. Back to the drawing board for you.
Nah stopped watching after climate change there is none. Its called the weather
50 seconds you lost me at climate change
What about climate change?
@@svarog63science makes them feel icky.
Yes, scientific reality is too hard to deal with mentally, so it is easier to simply deny the science.
Looks bad but advertising Greta and celebrities as if they have any merit, you lost my interest. I am unable to tolerate fake ignorant Greta or those fake ignorant celebrities pretending like they even care.
Oh, you poor soul. Your delicate sensitivities were upset by the appearance of none other but the Greta OMG
I agree this is a load a propagandist over simplification and slander. I am part first nations myself and Canada needs economic output. We have to have opportunities as well. And let's be realistic most aboriginals don't live off the land anymore. Many more aboriginal people are benefitted from the economic development than the lack thereof.
If you lost your interest over a fragment that you dislike, of a bigger picture, don't know why you'd think your type of care would matter.
Oh yes, the true villains are "celebrities" who volunteer their time to stop environmental destruction. It always amazes me how executives and share holders of oil companies are treated like the good guys, and people who gain nothing by protesting environmental destruction are treated as the bad guys.
@@yegfreethinker Environmental abuse and destruction are not necessary for opportunities to exist. Economic development is worthless to someone who has died of cancer.
The oil industry has proven over and over again that it is a ruthless beast with absolutely no regard for human life or the environment.
Well done Brandi much respect
The poisoning of our Mother Earth and Water by Humans needs to stop
Ecocide 😡🥲
Climate change?!...No.
😢