Fonda encourages Canada to heed First Nations’ fears
‘HAVE TO SPREAD THE MESSAGE:’ JANE FONDA LENDS EAR TO FIRST NATIONS ON OILSANDS
Actor and longtime environmental activist Jane Fonda says Canada should listen to the concerns of indigenous people about resource development.
“First Nations people are again telling us, ‘You can’t keep doing this, because it’s going to destroy everything, not just human beings, all different species,’” Fonda said Tuesday during a visit to the oilsands hub of Fort McMurray in northern Alberta.
The U.S. film star and Oscar winner said she made the visit to learn about the impact of oilsands development on First Nations and to support their opposition to pipelines that would export bitumen to the United States or overseas.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government recently approved the Kinder Morgan pipeline to move bitumen to the B.C. coast and hearings are about to resume on the Energy East proposal for a line heading the other way. And U.S. president-elect Donald Trump has said he will revisit an American decision against the Keystone XL pipeline that would go all the way to Texas.
“We don’t want these two new pipelines (Kinder Morgan and Energy East) and we don’t want any future agreements between Trump and Trudeau to go back into the issue of the Keystone XL,” Fonda said. “It’s not to the benefit of anyone except the oil companies.”
Fonda said she’s aware some First Nations support pipeline development and that many families depend on the industry for a livelihood.
“When people are very poor, they’re very vulnerable,” she said.
“I don’t pretend to be an expert, but I do listen carefully. And I come here with tremendous compassion for people who work in the tar sands and who will be laid off when the work is done or when the price of oil drops even more.
“We have to reach across class lines and see what we have in common and see how we can work together to find a solution where everyone will win.”
She suggested that renewable energy developments offer much greater economic spinoffs than what she calls a fossil fuel industry on its way out.
Fonda is the latest in a long string of prominent people who have visited the oilsands, including musician Neil Young, Hollywood director James Cameron, actor Leonardo DiCaprio and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.