NEWS: Tarnishing our image: the Maple Leaf Report

December 9, 2009
Canadian Youth Delegation to Copenhagen News Release

Canadian Youth Speak out Against Tar Sands

(Copenhagen, Denmark) - A new report released today by Equiterre, Environmental Defence, Forest Ethics and Climate Action Network (The Maple Leaf Report) fueled the frustration of the Canadian Youth Delegation's first Copenhagen action.

"Canada once has an international reputation as a clean, green country with progressive environmental policies. But when it comes to the positions and actions of the Government of Canada on global warming nothing could be further from the truth," states the report.

"The tar sands are the single largest contributor to growth in Canada's emissions, and are preventing us from meeting our Kyoto obligations or making any meaningful progress on the climate front," said Danial T'seleie, a member of the Canadian Youth Delegations from the K'asho Got'ine Dene First Nation located in the Northwest Territories. "Canada's failing record on the climate and human rights, is not only hurting First Nations, Metis and Inuit, it is also damaging our reputation internationally."

"Toxic Tar Sands are disproportionately effecting the health and well being of First Nations and Metis communities and people," said Lynzii Taibossigai, a First Nations youth from M'Chigeeng First Nation. "For a country that talks about defending human rights internationally, Canada is failing to protect the rights of First Nations, Metis and Inuit peoples from the impacts of dirty fossil fuels."

"Canada is failing behind not just in our emission reduction targets, but also our investment in clean renewable energy and the new green economy," says Taibossigai. "The United States has invested 14 times more per capita on renewable energy, and our only energy efficiency program, ecoAction, has officially spent its last dollar with no plans for renewal.

"Canada needs to stop putting the interests of the oil companies ahead of people and the planet. We need to act now and invest in a clean, green future for Canada's youth", she goes on to mention.

"Canada's Aboriginal peoples have profound knowledge about sustainable economies and must be full and meaningful partners with Canada in the building of a new economic paradigm that does not sacrifice one segment of the population for the economic benefit of others," says T'seleie.

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