Indigenous peoples fear toxic leaks from oil industry

Alice Rigney was born on the northern shores of the Athabasca River, a mighty body of water that flows from Canada's western ice fields to the far reaches of Alberta province

- Leyland Cecco TORONTO

Alongside her 16 siblings, she spent her youth harvesting berries and drying white fish in a tiny village known as Jackfish Lake. Despite living without electricity or running water, Rigney feels lucky to have been born there. "What more could a child want?" 

All of that has changed. The village and the whitefish are gone, displaced by a dam built in the 1960s. Global demand for oil saw a rush to mine the region and the waters that had long sustained the Dene, Cree and Métis peoples became something to fear.

"We don't drink from the river any more. We stopped drinking, as soon the oil industry started," said Rigney.

A recent string of leaks from tailings ponds at oil sands operations upstream has again drawn attention to the profound transformation the industry has had on the region - and the distrust that comes with it.