British Co-Operative Creates a Fund for Alberta Cree Sue Over Tar Sands

The Co-operative Financial Services have set up a fund of almost $100,000 (£53,000) to back the Beaver Lake Cree Nation in their legal battle over their traditional lands which are being developed for tar sands.

United Kingdom residents are also being urged to support the Beaver Lake Cree in their endeavour to preserve their lands. The situation is being described as an environmental disaster that “could help push the world into a climate disaster,” according to The Guardian newspaper.

The co-operative has donated almost $100,000 and is encouraging donations from the general public after the community’s Elders appealed to the group stating that the strip mining, drilling for oil and prospecting for fuels through the forest has been harmful to their health.

Though the community had made a deal with the oil developers, the deal stipulated that the community’s guaranteed right to hunt, fish and gather plants in the territory would be undisturbed, the situation has become dire. The community is also saying that their health has become compromised as a result of the pollution stemming from the development.

The co-operative has made the decision to back the Crees as a means of also potentially stopping further tar sands development.