EthicalOil.org TV ad premieres exclusively on Oprah Winfrey Network (Canada)

It was not in fact the Irish but the French and English who initiated European rule over these stolen lands, and my family did not immigrate here until after 1900, but that is to put too fine a point on it because I do in fact belong squarely within the dominant white culture. There is no blood on my hands, I did not commit those acts of violence. But it is upon me to be cognizant that those acts established white dominance and the social structures and cultural milieu to keep it firmly in place. Unrecognized, this creates the discrimination and marginalization of minority groups, including aboriginal people, who in Canada identify as First Nations, Inuit, and Metis. I make mistakes all the time because it is indeed difficult to separate oneself from one’s culture. But I do try. As a white person, I am a minority both in my neighbourhood and even the building in which I reside, so I am confronted by my discriminatory thoughts and attitudes far more often than are most; I’m sure I don’t catch them all but I do catch them. And it was for those reasons that I self-identified in my original post, because I need to take responsibility for the things that I say and the attitudes that I project.

The new racism has changed qualitatively in that it’s no longer in your face as it was in the bad old days. It’s still there built into our social institutions and hidden in our language but it’s much more covert.

Haefen, you have similarly made a desperate but failed attempt to remain hidden, covert, and unaffiliated with any identifiable group while pointing a bloodied finger in my direction to separate yourself from any guilt. People who are truth-telling do not make mistakes similar to yours, your inconsistent use of pronouns gives you away consistently: “we” indicating belonging to an aboriginal group; “us” indicating Canadian citizenry; “you Canadians” indicating non-Canadian citizenry; establishing an imaginary division between west and eastern Canada to distance yourself from the Riel rebellions (a leader of one of those “European tribes” made extinct with my Irish bloodied hands, who remain very much politically active and vibrant today); you even go so far as to align yourself with women by trying to distance me from my own group in your last sentence. None of that was about me, Haefen, it was all about you and who you wish to project.

Your language reveals just about every covert discriminatory attitude possible. An “us:them” stance; denial of racism in the current context, placing it in the distant past as far away from yourself as possible; a patronizing attitude; exaggerating inalienable, equal democratic rights into great gifts from big business; and an acceptance of omission vis a vis marginalization.

This post is far too long already, but this is an important issue so I’m going to be long winded, sorry for that.

Aboriginal populations, the First Nations, Metis, and Inuit, form the majority in most northern regions of Canada. These are the people most affected by tar sands oil extraction. If you really care about making an informed, ethical choice about how to meet your future energy needs, please take the time to listen to them, hear their voice. I cannot and do not speak for them, nor does anyone else need to, these are intellectual, informed, and eloquent people who are speaking loudly and clearly about this issue:  http://www.ienearth.org/tarsands.html

To my way of thinking, now that there is a crunch for future energy needs, it is the perfect time to pressure governments to invest our funds, American or Canadian, into safe, renewable, and sustainable energy sources, not trade the unjust situation of one minority for another, and destroy an increasingly fragile ecosystem.

The poverty of aboriginal people in Canada is not a product of my ignorance and I would invite you to please read this current information from the federal government here: http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ai/mr/is/sdpr-eng.asp

And to quote: “Current Reality

On the Human Development Index, First Nations on-reserve would rank 62nd, some experiencing Third World conditions, while Canada as a whole consistently ranks near the top.
Almost half (47%) of First Nations people on reserve live in poverty, with an income of less than $10,000; three out of five Aboriginal children under six years of age live in poverty.
Unemployment and poverty rates are three times those in the non-Aboriginal community.
Suicide is now among the leading causes of death among First Nations children and youth.
The suicide rate is 40 per 100,000 among First Nations as compared to the national average of 13 per 100,000.
The First Nations population is increasing by 2.3% annually.
Aboriginal children die at three times the rate of non-Aboriginal children.
First Nations birth rate is two times the comparable rate for Canada.
Canadians have one of the world’s highest life expectancies but Aboriginal people can expect to live a decade less on average.”

Potable water is the key difference between a third-world and first-world country. In this region of the north (primarily populated by aboriginal people remember), the Athabaska is the primary potable water source for everyone. This is what is required for *current* extraction and as you can well imagine, the requirements will spike with a pipeline: “Currently, tar sands operations are licensed to divert 652 million cubic meters of fresh water each year, 80% from the Athabaska River. In comparison, this amounts to approximately 7 times the annual water needs of the city of Edmonton. About 1.8 million cubic metres of this water becomes highly toxic tailings waste each day.” (from: Indigenous Environmental Network, link above). Nature’s cleansing system is the rain and it will wash toxins directly into the local water supply. And if thats not institutional racism then I don’t know what is.

Haefen, you got one thing very right: “Any poverty that exists within *their* community is not due lack [sic] of funds and is much more likely outside most of Canadian law.” That vague and unidentifiable (for you) thing to which you refer? That would be multinational oil, big money engaged in sanctioned marginalization, supported by the social institution of capitalism which is setting the wheels of current genocide and environmental destruction in motion.