About a week ago, JohnnyRook posted a diary which touched on the death of 500 ducks, earlier this year, in one of the tailings ponds at a bitumen-extraction site in northern Alberta, Canada. The mine is run by Syncrude, which is one of the larger operators in the Athabasca tar sands.
The death of those ducks made national (and international) headlines, and came at a bad time for the Albertan provincial government, which had just launched an expensive "greenwashing" PR campaign to try and improve the tar sands' poor environmental image. The death of those ducks arguably helped to derail the province's effort at spin, and in a very public way.
But, now, it looks like there's to be further public scrutiny of the World's Dirtiest Oil because of our feathered friends.
Ecojustice - formerly the Sierra Legal Defense Fund - yesterday launched a private prosecution against Syncrude over the dead ducks, charging that the oil company has broken Canadian federal environment laws;
Ecojustice launched the private prosecution, on behalf of Custer, in provincial court this morning against Syncrude under the Federal Migratory Birds Convention Act, which prohibits the deposit of a harmful substance in an area frequented by migratory birds. The prosecution is also supported by Sierra Club Canada and Forest Ethics.
"It is important that environmental infractions are prosecuted in a timely manner in order to protect both humans and wildlife from prohibited activities," said Ecojustice lawyer Barry Robinson in a press release. "We hope the private prosecution sends a message that the needless death of 500 ducks is unacceptable."
Alberta Environment - the provincial agency charged with investigating the matter and determining whether Syncrude had broken any laws - is found (seemingly) dragging its feet by the above article's writer.... maybe, one would guess, in the hope that the whole thing goes away and is forgotten about.
Perhaps that should really be no surprise, given that those who are calling the shots - the long-reigning Progressive Conservative Party government - have taken thousands of dollars in political donations from Syncrude over the past years - nearly $9000 in 2007, alone.
Thanks to Ecojustice, the Sierra Club of Canada and Forest Ethics for not letting corporate money defeat the public interest in having this mess get swept under the rug.