First Nations to Shell: Tar Sands Devastating for Boreal Forest http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/05/first-nations-to-shell-tar-sands.html

George Poitras, former Chief of the Mikisew Cree Nation situated 250km downstream of major tar sands development has serious concerns about the unrestricted development. “Our people have inhabited Canada’s Athabasca region for thousands of years. In a short 40 years we have seen unfathomable environmental degradation coinciding with the onset of tar sands development. We have seen the waters of the Athabasca River polluted by heavy trace metals with cancer-causing carcinogens which according to prominent scientists are up to five times worse than what is being reported.

Our waters and our lands are all intrinsically linked to our ability to survive, are all intrinsically linked to our ability to pass on our cultural and traditional ways of our lives. When you remove the land and pollute our waterways you are in effect causing the extinction of my people’s way of life, you are in effect causing cultural genocide of my people.”