VICTORIA 鈥� Neil Young鈥檚 anti-oilsands concert tour was the perfect distillation of the American enviro-assault on its dependent northern neighbour that鈥檚 been going on for a decade or more.
After touring Fort McMurray in his electric car with , the 68-year-old Young covered all the big propaganda hits and added his own fantasy facts.
It looks like a war zone up there! Hiroshima! If it keeps going it will be like the Moon! There鈥檚 no reclamation! Tar sands oil is all going to China, and that鈥檚 why their air is so bad!
All of those statements are false.
And then Young dropped his own nuclear bomb, claiming cancer rates in Fort Chipewyan are 30 per cent higher than, well, somewhere else. Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation has cited a discredited study by former community doctor John O鈥機onnor to press the same claim.
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta reviewed O鈥機onnor鈥檚 claims in 2009. It concluded that 鈥淒r. O鈥機onnor made a number of inaccurate or untruthful claims鈥� about cancer patients, and then refused to provide patient information after his claims made international news.
The cancer claims were then debunked by a in 2010.
Retired professor David Schindler toured with Young and continued to push the health scare, referring darkly to newer research showing increased mercury and PAH (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon) contamination.
When you peel back the propaganda and journalistic hype, these studies mainly reveal that such toxins are on the rise, but are found in much higher concentrations around large cities where fuel is consumed.
This cancer scare is the most damaging and dishonest part of the selective attack on Alberta. The oil industry, politicians and most of the media seem unwilling to examine it critically.
Climate scientist-turned-politician Andrew Weaver was at Young鈥檚 Toronto news conference. He says there were no questions for him, Adam or Young鈥檚 other validator, David Suzuki, who previously worked with Schindler on a slanted oilsands documentary for the CBC.
Weaver calculates that Young鈥檚 claim about greenhouse gas emissions is substantially correct, if you include emissions from the finished fuels. Weaver refused any comment on the cancer claims.
Young included the obligatory sneering comparison between Stephen Harper and George W. Bush, which is another sign he鈥檚 lived in California too long. He seemed unaware that the NDP鈥檚 Thomas Mulcair and Liberal leader Justin Trudeau support continued oilsands development.
As for moonscapes, Young could have driven his famous electric Lincoln from his Redwood City mansion on a hill to nearby Bakersfield, to view the , still expanding due to hydraulic fracturing.
Young could have visited North Dakota, where luckily didn鈥檛 kill anyone. It seems there will be no remake of Young鈥檚 classic Kent State lament dedicated to 47 Dead in Old Quebec. That鈥檚 American oil, so no protests.
Chief Adam was frank in an interview on CTV about using the 鈥淗onour the Treaties鈥� tour to strengthen his legal position. Young鈥檚 concert tour put $75,000 in his fund to pay lawyers. Oil isn鈥檛 the only thing being extracted here.
By the end of the tour Sunday, Young and Adam conceded they weren鈥檛 trying to shut the Athabasca oilsands down, just start a dialogue.
Thanks to uncritical media coverage, there will no doubt be discussions at dinner tables and in classrooms all over the world about the terrible Alberta tar sands and the cancer they don鈥檛 actually cause.
Tom Fletcher is legislature reporter and columnist for Black Press. Twitter: @tomfletcherbc
