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Canadian firms upset with oilsands-slamming ad in Variety
News Articles | Edmonton Journal | March 04, 2010
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EDMONTON — Oil producers are giving two thumbs down to an ad in Variety magazine comparing Alberta’s oilsands developments to the environmental devastation caused by humans in the blockbuster movie Avatar.
“We invite these activists back to planet Earth to discuss the appropriate balance between environmental protection, economic growth and a safe and reliable supply of energy,” said Janet Annesley, vice-president of communications for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), in a news release.
The ad, which is signed by 50 non-governmental organizations, environmental groups and some First Nations, and features the headline “Canada’s Avatar Sands” over a photo of an oilsands mine, appeared as Hollywood gears ups for Sunday’s Academy Awards presentations.
Avatar, directed by Canadian James Cameron and the top grossing film of all time, is nominated for nine Oscars.
But unlike the movie where Sky People plunder the planet Pandora in ruthless pursuit of the mineral unobtainium, Annesley said “aboriginal people are the oil and gas industry’s neighbours, employees, contractors and stakeholders.”
More than 1,500 aboriginal people are directly employed by the oilsands industry and aboriginal contractors were awarded more than $500 million in tenders in 2008, CAPP said.
Environmentalists said the movie and development in northern Alberta have a lot in common.
“There’s a lot of themes in Avatar that parallel what’s happening in the oilsands,” said Mike Hudema, spokesman for Greenpeace in Alberta.
“What the Canadian Petroleum Producers fail to understand is that community members from tar sands impacted areas desire more than just a job to get by,” said Sheila Muxlow, interim director, Sierra Club Prairie. “Clean water, fresh air, and bountiful wildlands are all necessary elements for a dignified life; and the tar sands are antithetical to this outcome.”
Eriel Deranger of the Rainforest Action Network and a member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation in Fort Chipewyan, said the industry has refused to acknowledge the environmental devastation caused by oilsands development.
“The Canadian Petroleum Producers probably feel like they are benefiting First Nation’s people because they are offering them jobs — but what good is a job if it involves killing your own community?”
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