The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and the Mikisew Cree First Nation want to tell oil consumers south of the border just how dirty Canada’s oil sands products are.
Northern Alberta’s Aboriginal communities took out a full-page ad in USA Today, the largest-circulation newspaper in the U.S., in an attempt to change public opinion on Canadian oil. The ad appeared on Tuesday, February 17.
The ad addresses U.S. President Barack Obama and states, “you’ll never guess who’s standing between us and our new energy economy . . . Canada’s Tar Sands: the dirtiest oil on Earth.”
The Aboriginal groups teamed up with American environmental group, ForestEthics, and the graphics show Canada smeared in oil with the oil dripping down into the U.S.
George Poitras, a former chief of the Mikisew Cree, said that they went ahead with the ad after watching the degradation of their traditional lands over the last 30 years.
The move itself was in many ways reminiscent of the Cree Nation’s effort in the ’90s to stop the Great Whale project.
