Tar Sands: Life and Death Downstream

Interview with George Poitras

by Courtney Kirkby (CKUT)Alex Briggs (McGill Daily)

George Poitras is a former Chief of the Mikisew Cree First Nation, one of two First Nations located in Fort Chipewyan, 200km downstream from the largest tar sands operations. In the last decade, the community has faced a cancer epidemic that many believe is connected to Tar Sands operations.
Until recently, Poitras worked for Mikisew Cree's Industry Relations, but left after extraction companies put pressure on the First Nation to stop him from speaking publicly about the impacts of the tar sands on his community. He now works full time as an Indigenous rights activist, speaking out about the global consequences of the tar sands internationally.
The media has offered superficial accounts of the tar sands industry, but Poitras' deep knowledge of the social and ecological impacts of the tar sands on Indigenous communities offers Montrealers a rare unfiltered look at life at ground zero of the world's largest industrial project.
Poitras will speak about the ecological and human costs of tar sands extraction, Indigenous rights, and how Montreal is involved in the destruction that is taking place.

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