Censorship to protect the oil sands? Alberta Culture Minister Lindsay Blackett caused a stir this week when he suggested considering ‘taking a closer look at the way films get funded’ after hearing of the Academy Award nominated documentary Downstream because it is critical of the oil sands. The film had received support through the Alberta Film Development Fund. “The whole idea is to show Alberta in a better light, to create an economic diversification to help them, so anything that’s going to be negative is only going to be a negative impetus on this province…” said Blackett when describing his feelings on the purpose of the fund he oversees. While he has since retracted his remarks, saying he now realizes his ‘job is to protect free speech’, not to act as a creative director for the province, his initial remarks shed light on what seems to be a prevalent attitude in the Alberta government to silence voice of criticism on oil sands operations.
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"We are creating an environmental catastrophe that will take centuries to recover from…if we recover at all"
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"The great economic boom is going to be the great economic disaster and devastation to our land and people"
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"There are a number of us who feel this is the biggest unsustainable development on the planet right now."
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2-5 barrels of fresh water are used to produce one barrel of oil. Tar sands operations are draining the Peace-Athabasca Delta, which is the collector of more than 1/6 of Canada's fresh watersheds.