On Monday afternnon a group of Montreal youth staged a die-in at complex Guy-Favreau to draw attention to the devastating effects the Alberta Tar Sands are having on people living downstream from the destruction. The action took place in solidarity with other similar actions across Canada, and a march on the Canadian embassy in Copenhagen organized by the Indigenous Environmental Network. 

This week, Stephen Harper will arrive in Copenhagen  for the ministerial talks, representing Canada, who have been one of the biggest stumbling blocks to an ambitious and binding climate deal – because Canada continues extracting oil from the most destructive project on earth – the Tar Sands.

Indigenous communities in Fort Chipewyan are facing a massive cancer cluster, which an extensive University of Alberta report released in early December links as a direct result of increased water pollution in the Athabasca River because of Tar Sands development.

“Fossil fuel extraction from the tar sands are killing our people with cancer, killing our culture by destroying our traditional lands, and killing our planet with CO2,” said Eriel Tchekwie Deranger, member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and Tar Sands Campaigner for the Rainforest Action Network. “It seems that Canada is more committed to fossil fuels than human rights or real action for the climate. Mr. Harper – We welcome you to Copenhagen because we want real action on climate, and that means shutting down the tar sands and a moratorium on new fossil fuel development.”

If completed, the Enbridge Trailbreaker project will bring 200,000 barrels of dirty oil through Montreal, 40,000 of which would be refined in the East end. 

"Stephen Harper is supposed to be headed to Copenhagen to represent Canadians, 75% of which are embarrassed by our government's action on Climate Change, yet his government continues to expand the most destructive project on the planet, the Tar Sands. As long as Tar Sands extraction continues on a massive scale, Canada will not meet any major emissions reduction targets," says Cameron Fenton, a member of Climate Action Montreal.

“Despite the crisis, the Harper government is obstructing international efforts to stop climate chaos, mainly to protect the expansion of the Alberta Tar Sands, the world’s most environmentally destructive project,” said Kawina Robichaud, another member of Climate Action Montreal, “Their continued failure to act constitutes an crime against humanity, against future generations, and against all forms of life in Canada and around the world.”