{"id":94730,"date":"2025-07-14T08:52:56","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T12:52:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=94730"},"modified":"2025-07-14T08:53:25","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T12:53:25","slug":"investigation-are-the-oil-sands-killing-first-nations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/14\/investigation-are-the-oil-sands-killing-first-nations\/","title":{"rendered":"Investigation: Are the Oil Sands killing First Nations?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Jacob Cardinal, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Alberta Native News This is Part 2 of an investigative series on the Impact of Oil Sands on First Nations People On December 3, 2024, representatives for the First Nations of Mikisew Cree, Fort Chipewyan Metis Nation, and Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) provided testimony to the House of Commons. They alleged that the Governments and Departments of Canada were engaging in environmental racism against their Nations. Most notably, they claimed that the Government of Canada had attempted to offload ownership of a \u201cdock\u201d \u2014 and therefore fiscal responsibility and liability \u2014 onto the Nations without notifying them of the potential\/confirmed environmental risks associated with the surrounding waters. COVER UP ALLEGATIONS They would cite a 2017 report, in which representative Taylor Bachrach stated:&#8230; <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription &#8211; Corporate, Print Subscription Only, and Canada Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2025%2F07%2F14%2Finvestigation-are-the-oil-sands-killing-first-nations%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Jacob Cardinal, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Alberta Native News This is Part 2 of an investigative series on the Impact of Oil Sands on First Nations People On December 3, 2024, representatives for the First Nations of Mikisew Cree, Fort Chipewyan Metis Nation, and Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) provided testimony to the House of Commons. They alleged that the Governments and Departments of Canada were engaging in environmental racism against their Nations. Most notably, they claimed that the Government of Canada had attempted to offload ownership of a \u201cdock\u201d \u2014 and therefore fiscal responsibility and liability \u2014 onto the Nations without notifying them of the potential\/confirmed environmental risks associated with the surrounding waters. COVER UP ALLEGATIONS They would cite a 2017 report, in which representative Taylor Bachrach stated:... <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\"><div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\"><div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription - Corporate, Print Subscription Only, and Canada Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div><div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2025%2F07%2F14%2Finvestigation-are-the-oil-sands-killing-first-nations%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Investigation: Are the Oil Sands killing First Nations? - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/14\/investigation-are-the-oil-sands-killing-first-nations\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Investigation: Are the Oil Sands killing First Nations? - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Jacob Cardinal, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Alberta Native News This is Part 2 of an investigative series on the Impact of Oil Sands on First Nations People On December 3, 2024, representatives for the First Nations of Mikisew Cree, Fort Chipewyan Metis Nation, and Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) provided testimony to the House of Commons. They alleged that the Governments and Departments of Canada were engaging in environmental racism against their Nations. Most notably, they claimed that the Government of Canada had attempted to offload ownership of a \u201cdock\u201d \u2014 and therefore fiscal responsibility and liability \u2014 onto the Nations without notifying them of the potential\/confirmed environmental risks associated with the surrounding waters. COVER UP ALLEGATIONS They would cite a 2017 report, in which representative Taylor Bachrach stated:\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/14\/investigation-are-the-oil-sands-killing-first-nations\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TurtleIslandNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-14T12:52:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-14T12:53:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/facebooklogo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"725\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/07\\\/14\\\/investigation-are-the-oil-sands-killing-first-nations\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/07\\\/14\\\/investigation-are-the-oil-sands-killing-first-nations\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lynda Powless\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b188fd7503577895ef8b306988cd458\"},\"headline\":\"Investigation: Are the Oil Sands killing First Nations?\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-14T12:52:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-14T12:53:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/07\\\/14\\\/investigation-are-the-oil-sands-killing-first-nations\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1628,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"National News\",\"ticker\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/07\\\/14\\\/investigation-are-the-oil-sands-killing-first-nations\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/07\\\/14\\\/investigation-are-the-oil-sands-killing-first-nations\\\/\",\"name\":\"Investigation: Are the Oil Sands killing First Nations? 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