AGM explores tar sands and public justice

How are the oil sands affecting Alberta? What are some of the explosive issues emerging from this development? How are we to understand these deep-rooted and complicated economic, social, environmental and political issues?

These were some of the questions that featured speaker John Hiemstra, political studies professor at The King’s University College in Edmonton, posed to CPJ members, board, staff and friends at CPJ’s Annual General Meeting on June 9. John showed devastating images of the environmental impacts of oil sands development, telling of the irreversible effects the oil sands have already had on surrounding communities and ecosystems in northern Alberta.

John then went on to outline the dominant modernist approach to analysis used to understand the tar sands. It focuses on narrow issues, he argued, thus failing to address “the context of the larger dynamics and deeper influences driving the whole set of developments.” In doing so, this approach obscures the underlying ideologies determining the government’s role in the development.

He then suggested we use a public justice approach to delve into issues around the tar sands. This approach, he stated, can peel away the layers of the debate, exposing the central values at the heart of the issues. It can be a deeper, integrated approach, one that realizes meaning can be found in “interconnections, relationships, communities, and wholes.”

John left us with a challenge, urging “CPJ and Christians worldwide to develop and use comprehensive, integral approaches to analyzing problems, and to discern [the] government’s public justice role in these issues, including the ‘awesome and awful’ tar sands boom.”

CPJ’s new executive director, Joe Gunn, was inspired by John’s words.

“I was moved to remember how I first heard of CPJ back in the 1970s when the issues were similar: frontier energy development in the MacKenzie Valley, Aboriginal rights, southern consumption pushing northern environmental destruction, and Christians' prophetic, unwavering and ultimately successful calls for a moratorium.”

It was fitting to hear John’s speech while reflecting on CPJ’s 45 years of history. His challenge reiterated the importance of continuing to work for justice in Canada, and the need for us all to actively respond to God’s call for love, justice and stewardship.

the Catalyst, Summer 2008, Vol. 31 No. 3