‘Have to spread the message:’ Jane Fonda lends ear to First Nations on oilsands
FORT MCMURRAY, Alta. — Actor and longtime environmental activist Jane Fonda says Canada should listen to the concerns of indigenous people about resource development.
“First Nations people are again telling us, ‘You can’t keep doing this, because it’s going to destroy everything, not just human beings, all different species,’” Fonda said Tuesday during a visit to the oilsands hub of Fort McMurray in northern Alberta.
The U.S. film star and Oscar winner said she made the visit to learn about the impact of oilsands development on First Nations and to support their opposition to pipelines that would export bitumen to the United States or overseas.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government recently approved the Kinder Morgan pipeline to move bitumen to the B.C. coast and hearings are about to resume on the Energy East proposal for a line heading the other way. And U.S. president-elect Donald Trump has said he will revisit an American decision against the Keystone XL pipeline that would go all the way to Texas.