Monday, May 27, 2013

Stevie's Tar Baby . . .


THE BEAVER LAKE CREE JUDGMENT: The Most Important Tar Sands Case You’ve Never Heard Of. That's what Carol Linnitt at DESMOG CANADA contends. Do click on the link for more.

Sure they’re bad for the environment, for human health, and for wildlife, but we rarely stop to wonder if the Alberta tar sands are in fact unconstitutional.

But the constitutional standing of the tar sands – one of the world’s largest and most carbon-intensive energy projects – is just what’s at stake in a treaty rights claim the Beaver Lake Cree Nation (BLCN) is bringing against the Governments of Alberta and Canada in a case that promises to be one of the most significant legal and constitutional challenges to the megaproject seen in Canada to date. 


It's been a slow, grudging process, but it's here, at last, in spite of everything the governments of Canada and Alberta have tried to do. Win or lose, may this be Stevie's Tar Baby.

— Song of the South, 1946 —

1 comment:

the salamander said...

.. Thanks for bringing this forward .. I'd come across it once via DeSmog and had a first read. I've also come across numerous posts in the previous years that note how litigious the Harper Government and Harper Party are.

The line is blurred between the two 'parties' in terms of firms, lawyers, files - cases.

Military veteran's, environmental law, electoral fraud, torture, First Nations Treaties, The Charter .. are among the areas and responsibilities where the so called government of Canada has engaged or defied the courts..

At what expense ? Why ? Who profits ?

Is it possible to tabulate an approx global amount of legal fees spent ? ie identify each particular case - the result or lack of result - the law firm or lawyers names and the approx legal fees paid - during each of the Harper Governments' elected periods ?

Do any of the cases reflect an election promise ? Or do they instead reflect policy, whim or legislation buried within omnibus budget/bills that Canadians simply do not support nor are they aware of ??