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Native Children Decry Tar Sands in New Film

Date: 07/13/2010

A new film by director Ayelén Liberona focuses on the devastating impact on Indigenous communities caused by processing tar sands in Canada, through the eyes of affected children. The film, called Keepers of the Water, features comments from children aged 9 to 12 in Ft. Chipewyan, Alberta, where there has been a 30 percent increase in cancer rates among Native people, including many cases of very rare cancers. The children describe how their drinking water has become lethal due to toxic chemicals leaching out of tailings ponds at the oil-processing center (extracting oil from tar sands requires enormous amounts of water), and how their fingernails turn yellow, among other things. To watch the film click here.  To learn more about the film and the issue, click here.

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