LISTEN: UNDUE ALARM: Dr. O'Connor & AB TARSANDS

LISTEN: UNDUE ALARM: Dr. O'Connor & AB TARSANDS

Postby Oscar » Wed Sep 04, 2013 11:31 am

Undue Alarm: documentary on Dr. John O'Connor and Alberta's tarsands

A very good documentary on Dr. John O’Connor and the tar sands. Just released, well worth listening to and distributing/posting.

[ http://www.rte.ie/radio1/doconone/docum ... octor.html ]

Click on PODCAST or DOWNLOAD on right-hand side of page . . .

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First Broadcast August 31st, 2013 - 37 minutes, listen at link above.

Undue Alarm

Syncrude Oil Mining operation, Alberta Canada
The biggest known oil reserve in the world. A tiny community of aboriginal Canadians. And a Limerick GP.

"Undue Alarm" is the story of how Dr. John O'Connor became a tireless campaigner on behalf of the First Nations communities - and found himself at the centre of a nationwide controversy in Canada.

When Limerick man Dr. John O'Connor went to Canada to practice medicine, he had little idea how his life would unfold.

The Alberta Oil Sands is the biggest industrial project on the planet. The area currently being mined for oil is the size of Ireland. Downstream from this on the shores of Lake Athabasca lies the tiny native community of Fort Chipewyan.

A breathtakingly beautiful place, 'Fort Chip' is on the far northeastern tip of the province of Alberta. In winter it is accessible by the 'ice road' - a road that is constructed from the harsh northern climate. In summer access is by way of a small plane.

Most of the people that live here are either Méti or First Nation - that is, native Canadians who have lived on the land through traditional methods of trapping, hunting, fishing and gathering berries for generations.

In 1993 Dr. O'Connor - or Dr. O as locals call him - became family physician to the tiny community of 1,200 people. When he started hearing concerns among the community about elevated rates of cancer in the community he did something that no outsider had done before: he listened to them. Then he spoke out about it. And what happened next is not what he expected.

A raft of professional complaints were made against him by the Canadian health authorities. And he would live with one of these - 'causing undue alarm' among the community - for five years.

Dr. O'Connor went from being a simple GP to a tireless campaigner and activist on behalf of native communities in Canada.

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"Undue Alarm" was made with the assistance of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland Sound and Vision Fund

Narrated and produced by Nicoline Greer.

Sound Supervision by Mark Mc Grath.

First Broadcast August 31st 2013

'Documentary on One is the home of Irish radio documentaries and the largest library of documentary podcasts available anywhere in the world. We tell stories in sound, mostly Irish ones, and each documentary tells its own story'
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Re: LISTEN: UNDUE ALARM: Dr. O'Connor & AB TARSANDS

Postby Oscar » Mon May 18, 2015 11:59 am

Alberta Health Board Fires Doctor Who Raised Cancer Alarms

[ http://thetyee.ca/News/2015/05/11/John- ... ign=180515 ]

'I am stunned,' says Dr. John O'Connor, a veteran presence in First Nations community.

By Andrew Nikiforuk, 11 May 2015, TheTyee.ca

EXCERPT:


Since 2000, O'Connor has served as the on-call physician for the remote community of Fort Chipewyan, as well as physician back-up for the community's nursing station.

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In 2007, members of Health Canada and the Alberta Cancer Board, assisted by Alberta Health, charged O'Connor before the Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons with causing "undue alarm" among the public and the people of Fort Chipewyan about environmental pollution in the region. The bureaucrats also accused O'Connor of over-billing and "irresponsible practices."

After years of delays, a 2009 Alberta Cancer Board study found that the northern community had a 30 per cent higher cancer rate than public health models would predict, and a higher than expected rate of cancers of the blood and lymphatic tissue, as well as bile duct cancers. The community expressed concerns that the study was not comprehensive enough.

In 2009, the Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons absolved O'Connor of wrongdoing.

Would return 'in a heartbeat'

Since then, more cases of rare bile duct cancer have appeared in the region. In 2014, John Chadi, a former councillor for Fort Chipewyan, was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma. Last March, a 58-year-old aboriginal woman died of the disease.

O'Connor said he remains committed to the people of Fort Chipewyan and still wants to see a comprehensive health study done for the region.

"I have a close relationship with the community. Whenever we meet, it's not handshakes but hugs we exchange. I'd return as the on-call physician in a heartbeat, now with conditions. The first one would be transparency, which doesn't appear to exist at the level of the [health board]."

O'Connor still serves as health director for the community of Fort McKay First Nation. [ http://www.fortmckay.com/residents_health.html ]

"I am at a huge loss to explain this," he said. "The staff at the nursing station are furious. They were given no advance warning. I feel like I've lost a family member."

Dr. Esther Tailfeathers, who had worked in Fort Chipewyan for the last three years, abruptly left her job last month with no explanation.

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Full disclosure: In 2009, Dr. John O'Connor and Andrew Nikiforuk travelled to Norway at the invitation of Greenpeace to encourage a national debate in Norway about that nation's tarsands investments. [ http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/Blo ... blog/3879/ ]
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