Singer Neil Young speaks during a press conference for the Honour the Treaties tour in Toronto, Sunday January 12, 2014. Photograph by: Mark Blinch , THE CANADIAN PRESS
Neil Young announced he will perform a concert July 3 in Edmonton to benefit the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Legal Defense Fund.
Young will be joined at Rexall Place by Canadian band Blue Rodeo, according to Global News Canada.
Young has been a vocal supporter of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation in its fight to stop oilsands development.
Last year, he held similar Honour the Treaties concerts in cities across Canada, including Calgary, the article stated.
“It’s the greediest, most destructive and disrespectful demonstration of something run amok that you can ever see,” Young said of the Alberta oilsands in January 2014. “There is no way to describe it. It’s truly a disaster.”
In 2013, Young came under fire for comparing Fort McMurray, Alberta to the Japanese city destroyed by an atomic bomb in 1945.
Chief Allan Adam welcomed news of another benefit concert by Young.
“With the support of Neil Young and fans we are creating more accountability from our governments for the safe guarding of our lands, rights and future generations in Alberta, Canada and beyond,” said Adam, in a release.
“Our people, our climate and our planet can no longer afford to be economic hostages in the race to industrialize the earth. We must act now for the future generations.”
Tickets for the Edmonton concert start at $45 and go on sale May 1.
Folk singer Buffy Sainte-Marie is on Neil Young’s side when it comes to the tar sands in Alberta, Canada.
In an interview in Indian Country Sainte-Marie tells writer David Ball:
“Almost a year ago I went to Fort McMurray (Alberta) and I was just devastated with what’s going on there. Just devastated. I just told everybody I could: ‘You’ve got to take this seriously.’ Even since I was there, other people have really stepped forward in their own ways, Neil Young in particular. He’s caught a lot of criticism because he didn’t involve me, Susan Aglukark or other Native people. Neil came to the induction ceremony in Nashville, at the Musicians Hall of Fame, and I told him I’d seen some of the criticism and not to listen to it at all! Because it’s so important, it has to be everybody doing whatever they can, whenever they can, and being effective at whatever level they can be. You reach people your way, I do it my way and Neil does it his way. But people have to see it.”
“Good for Neil for stepping up,” she said.
Sainte-Marie lives in Hawaii, maybe she is Neil and Poncho’s neighbor.
As our Zuman friend Pat indicated, Canada forgot to muzzle their scientists.
Elizabeth Willoughby at Look to the Stars World of Celebrity Giving wrote that a Canadian federal government report by scientists working with Environment Canada estimated last week that Alberta oil sands are polluting ground water and toxic chemicals are seeping into the Athabasca River at rates higher than previously suspected.
Oil companies in Alberta’s oil sands create lakes, called tailings ponds, to contain the processed water and chemicals used to separate the bitumen from the sand. Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation has been complaining for years that their fish have become deformed and inedible, that wildlife has disappeared and that cancer in the community has risen dramatically since the oil sands began production.
The scientists took 20 groundwater samples from areas at least one kilometre upstream and downstream from development. They took another seven samples from within 200 metres of two of the tailings ponds. Samples were also taken from two different tailings ponds.
The analysis was focused on so-called acid-extractable organics, which include a family of chemicals called naphthenic acids. “Their enhanced water solubility makes them prime candidates for possible migration beyond containment structures via groundwater,” the report says.
Those toxins were found in groundwater both near and far from development. But their chemical composition was slightly different nearer the mines – closer to that found in the water from the ponds.
Today, the Toronto Star opinions about Neil and his recent activities in Canada, giving a summary about his longrunning political attitude and actions as a musician and artist.
As The Passenger says: The music we march to didn’t just show up on the radar last year sometime. They all know that. Consolidate your feces dark siders, Neil Young has proudly represented workers for decades. [1]
Referring to a recent poll in the Calgary Herald “Most Albertans object to Young’s remarks” it is written:
Today Young is outraged again, only this time it’s with his home country. He hates the oilsands. He thinks it’s the world’s greatest environmental disaster and he believes the health of First Nations peoples, who live near the projects, is threatened.
On a recent visit to northern Alberta, Young gave voice to these opinions. The oil industry and their supplicants summarily dismissed his views. The aging rock star was said to have his facts wrong (even though we lack a widely accepted set of facts about the environmental and health effects of the oilsands). He was characterized as just another in a long list of celebrity activists who uncritically accept the views of those opposed to the oilsands.
Oh yeah, musicians should just shut up and play. For the cool and calm summary of Neil’s reply to these critizisms, Neil replied wonderfully in his “Calgary Adress“. Like music is a place devoid of emotion or discussion or revolution.
A lot of the polled people disagree with Neil’s points of views about the Oil Sands, the climate change, the environmental destruction and the “greed” Canada sells out to the Big Oil players. However, a majority is very concerned and believe the oilsands are damaging the Alberta province’s ecosystems.
“No matter how you feel, there’s a discussion going on around the breakfast table. That’s real, that’s big, that’s Canada,” Young said.
The T-Star concludes:
Big oil has spent tens of millions of dollars in advertisements and public relations gimmicks to convince Canadians and Americans of the unambiguous merits of the oilsands. This has been done in part to pressure the Obama administration to approve the Keystone XL Pipeline project. Whatever positive effect this expensive PR effort has yielded, Neil Young could wipe out in an afternoon of inspired song writing.
The message to Big Oil should be clear. When an angry Neil Young shows up on your doorstep, don’t dismiss him the way you do all your other critics. Give him the respect he deserves and consider his views carefully, lest he train his formidable lyrical and melodic arsenal on you.
Here’s a little short and sweet. The link here is to a cut-down version of a film produced by Lawrence Carota through the NFB (National Film Board of Canada). It speaks to many of the issues under discussion here. It’s not easy to digest but it is right on the money:
Crude Sacrifice
I keep looking for indie films that shed a good light on the tar pit. Something produced by someone other that CAPP (Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers) or the Big Oil companies directly. So far it’s been very hard to find anything from independent sources. And the stuff produced by CAPP and Big Oil reminds me too much of the crap the tobacco industry spin machine flooded onto the marketplace when they were trying to convince us that smoking was a good thing.
Crude Sacrifice is the title of the film.
Onward The Passenger
More videos about this subect:
To the Last Drop: Canada’s Dirty Oil Sands
Residents of one Canadian town are engaged in a David and Goliath-style battle over the dirtiest oil project ever known.
– Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61X4IQqnmd0
Once pristine wilderness, Alberta is now a world of poisoned water, polluted air, and rare cancer. VICE travels to the oil sands of Canada to investigate the impact of digging for this previously unobtainable oil.
““One day, without no warning, Things start jumping up from the ground.”” by -- Neil Young
Neil Young on Tour
Sugar Mountain setlists
Tom Hambleton provides BNB with setlists, thankfully. His website is the most comprehensive searchable archives on the Internets about anything Neil Young related setlists. Goto Sugar Mountain.
memphish on 
Albert Stromann on 
liza on 
Baz on 
