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CBC
04-04-2025
- Business
- CBC
First Nation launches legal action over Alberta oilsands cleanup fund
Social Sharing A First Nation in northeast Alberta is challenging the provincial government in court over its approach to ensuring oilsands companies pay to clean up their operations. The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation filed an application this week for a judicial review of the province's 2024 decision to renew the rules for the Mine Financial Security Program (MFSP), saying it failed to meaningfully consult and is ignoring ACFN's concerns about infringement on Treaty rights. The program collects deposits from energy companies to make sure they cover the cost of remediating oilsands and coal mine sites after they're decommissioned. About a third of ACFN members live in the community of Fort Chipewyan, Alta., downstream from oilsands operations. The ACFN's legal application, filed on April 1, argues the MSFP is "grossly inadequate for achieving its intended purpose," and the province hasn't addressed recommendations and concerns raised during a recent review. "Without a properly funded program, industry will be able to walk away from their leases — leaving the mess behind for First Nations communities to live with," acting ACFN Chief Hazel Mercredi said in a statement. The MFSP was criticized in 2021 by provincial auditor general Doug Wylie, who found that the government holds just $1.5 billion in security on mining liabilities of $31.5 billion. A subsequent report from researchers at the University of Calgary's School of Public Policy in 2023 estimated liabilities at anywhere between $45 billion to $130 billion, with just $2 billion in reserve. Ryan Fournier, press secretary for Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz, told CBC News in a statement that the province made "effective changes" to the MFSP last year. "These were designed to ensure mine operators provide security to cover reclamation without unfairly targeting the energy sector." Fournier said the government is reviewing ACFN's legal action, but can't comment further while it's before the courts. Environmental law organization Ecojustice is representing ACFN. Ecojustice lawyer Matt Hulse said their position is the government is failing in its obligations to ACFN under Treaty 8. "We're also saying the decision is unreasonable because keeping such a flawed program does not actually uphold the purposes of Alberta's environmental legislation." The legal application asks for action including a declaration that the province breached its duty to consult ACFN, and an order to amend the MFSP within six months, addressing the Nation's concerns. It also seeks a judge's order requiring the province provide ACFN "an independently verified estimate of total oilsands liabilities and supporting analysis." The judicial review is scheduled to be heard in the Fort McMurray Court of King's Bench on May 21. ACFN also filed a lawsuit last year against the Alberta Energy Regulator, alleging negligence and a failure to live up to Treaty obligations after multiple tailings leaks at Imperial Oil's Kearl facility.
The National
04-04-2025
- Health
- The National
Make-up's ancient history discovered in Omani shells
Archaeological research near the Hajar Mountains in Oman has shed light on the history of cosmetics and proved there is nothing new about people wanting to enhance their appearance. A study, based on the analysis of half a dozen shells found at the Salut archaeological site, has revealed Iron Age people used black and green pigments that were kept in shells. Many of these were discovered in burial sites, indicating that the make-up may have been considered important in the afterlife. 'In the same way they were burying pots, stuff they used in daily life, maybe they were also burying them [cosmetic shells] to accompany the dead,' said first author of the study, Dr Michele Degli Esposti, from the Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. Historically, pigments such as kohl have been regarded, not necessarily with scientific evidence, as being of medicinal value, perhaps because they were thought to prevent infection. 'It might be possible that ancient people reckoned kohl to have some curative property, so they wanted to give their dead some way to protect themselves,' Dr Degli Esposti said. 'This can just be speculation. The farther back we go in time, the more so, because you don't find literary sources.' The shells were also found around dwellings, a sign that the use of cosmetics was part and parcel of daily life. The paper 'A First Glance at Pre‐Islamic Pigments in Shells From Salut (Sultanate of Oman)' is published in Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy. Researchers looked at six cosmetic shells, three from an Iron Age settlement dated between 1300 BCE and 100 CE, and three from graves thought to be from the second or first millennium BCE. Archaeologists have found much earlier evidence for the use of cosmetics in the Middle East, with red ochre having been unearthed at a site in Umm Al Quwain dating back at least 6,000 years. Traditionally, both men and women in the region have used the black cosmetic kohl, especially around the eyes, so Dr Degli Esposti said it was possible the pigments found at Salut were used by anyone. 'Projecting what we see now in the past, we could suggest that both men and women were using it, especially if it was also endowed with medical properties,' Dr Degli Esposti said. 'It happens quite a lot that we project modern ethnographic observations into the past. Often you must be cautious with that, but in many cases it's the only way we have to build things into a broader context and into a narrative.' A central part of the research was discovering the chemical composition of the colours. The shells were sent to Italy, where researchers at the University of Milan found that the green pigments included minerals containing copper, while the black pigments had minerals containing manganese. The pigments also tend to contain calcite and quartz along with, probably, water and oil, although the recent research did not test for these. Another of the paper's authors, Prof Andrea Zerboni, of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Milan, said the region's arid environment was good for preserving archaeological materials, including pigments. 'In this case, the pigments have been preserved thanks to the low presence of water in the sediments that hosted them, which prevented extreme alteration and the removal of the material,' he said. 'Earth science investigation techniques were used to study the mineralogical composition of the pigments and to understand how they have been preserved over time." Prof Zerboni added that the geology of the area influenced the development of the funerary landscape of the Salut region. 'It is interesting to observe how communities of the Iron Age and later periods consistently sought to take advantage of the landscape's natural forms to construct their funerary monuments, placing them on hilltops, or slopes, or associating them with large boulders present in the area,' he said. As well as looking at the pigments, the researchers who carried out the study were interested in the shells themselves, which they identified as coming from species of bivalve mollusc commonly found in the area. The paper offers initial results from a wider project that will analyse about 30 cosmetic shells from several locations, including some in the UAE, such as Tell Abraq, a site on the border of Sharjah and Umm Al Quwain where Dr Degli Esposti is currently working. Other samples in this larger follow-up study come from Siniyah Island in Umm Al Quwain and date from the sixth to the eighth centuries CE. 'This is nice because it extends the samples and also it comes closer to the modern day, which shows the continuity,' Dr Degli Esposti said.
