tar sands doc; junk mail; Al Gore; fed budget; drugs; tobacco

Wed Mar 5 16:25:56 EST 2008

White Pine Pictures & Clearwater Media
present:

TAR SANDS
THE SELLING OF ALBERTA
What price is Canada willing to pay for a stake in this century’s greatest
energy bonanza?

Director Tom Radford
Producer Peter Raymont
World Premiere broadcast on Doc Zone
CBC TV - Thursday, March 13, 2008 – 9:00pm

Tar Sands: The Selling of Alberta captures the intersecting storylines of
a remarkable cast of characters eager to cash in on the oil boom in Fort
McMurray, Alberta.  Washington lobbyists, Newfie pipefitters, Chinese
investors and Norwegian industrialists descend on tar-soaked “Fort
McMoney”, a modern-day Eldorado, where rents are sky- rocketing and
cocaine abuse is four times the provincial average. Up for grabs - a stake
in a $100 billion energy bonanza and Canada’s economic sovereignty.

This one-hour documentary, commissioned by the CBC, tracks the growth of
the world’s largest reserve of ‘unconventional’ oil.  A Florida-sized
“environmental sacrifice zone” has become Canada’s contribution to U.S.
energy security in the post-9/11 world.  But for many, the Tar Sands are a
global warming disaster.

As Fort McMurray bursts at the seams, children from Thunder Bay to Cape
Breton are made tar-sands orphans by their migrant-worker parents. 
Canada’s petrodollar breaks the back of the manufacturing economy in the
East.  Cancer rates skyrocket downstream of Fort McMurray while Rocky
Mountain glaciers melt and disappear.  And all the while, Alberta crude
goes south to US markets while Eastern Canada pays ever more for insecure
Middle East oil.

In an isolated region of the north, Canada’s future is being carved out of
the forest at a breakneck pace. Tar Sands: The Selling of Alberta
questions how much Canada is willing to sacrifice for a stake in this
century’s greatest energy bonanza.

Tar Sands features interviews with stake-holders from all sides including
former Alberta premier Peter Lougheed (1971-1985); journalist and author
Andrew Nikiforuk; General (retired) Charles Wald, Former Deputy Commander,
USAF; oil broker Paul Michael Wihbey, President of the U.S. company GWEST
Consulting; Jeff Wiscombe, welder  from Newfoundland and Stig Bergseth,
Senior VP, STATOIL, Norway’s largest company.

After co-directing the award-winning Arctic Dreamer in 2004, two of
Canada’s most respected documentary filmmakers reunite as Director and
Producer of Tar Sands: The Selling of Alberta. Edmonton-based director Tom
Radford’s career spans thirty five years, portraying the distinctive
character of the West and North to Canada and the world.  Producer, Peter
Raymont is celebrating the 30th year of White Pine Pictures, having
traveled to Ethiopia, Nicaragua, India, Rwanda, Chile and the High Arctic
to direct and produce over 100 documentary films, including the Emmy
Award-winning Shake Hands with the Devil: the Journey of Romeo Dallaire.

-30-

Running Time: 41:38                
<http://www.whitepinepictures.com/>www.whitepinepictures.com    
<http://www.clearwatermedia.com/>www.clearwatermedia.com

Images available at:  <http://www.vkpr.ca/press.html>www.vkpr.ca/press.html
login: images
password: vkpr

USEFUL WEBSITES:

<http://www.oilsandswatch.org>http://www.oilsandswatch.org/
<http://www.oilsandsdiscovery.com>http://www.oilsandsdiscovery.com/
<http://www.tarsandswatch.org>http://www.tarsandswatch.org/
<http://www.capp.ca/default.asp?V_DOC_ID=688>http://www.capp.ca/default.asp?V_DOC_ID=688
<http://www.oilsandsreview.com>http://www.oilsandsreview.com/
<http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/recent/tarsandsfaq>http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/recent/tarsandsfaq
<http://oilsandstruth.org>http://oilsandstruth.org/

For further information, screener and to book interviews:
Virginia Kelly, V Kelly & Associates, 416-466-9799,
 <mailto:info at vkpr.ca>info at vkpr.ca

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Red Dot Campaign!
http://www.reddotcampaign.ca

The Red Dot allows postal carriers to better identify homes that don't
want junk mail.

The site also has a link to the Canadian Marketing Association where you
can submit a 'Do Not Contact' request by email, to discourage unwanted
junk mail, and also faxes and phone calls.

• If after opting out, you still receive unaddressed mail you can contact
Canada Post by email at
https://ssl.postescanada-canadapost.ca/business/corporate/about/contact_us/default-e.asp
or by phone at 1-866-607-6301.

• They do not sell and distribute individual 'Red Dot' stickers, but they
say you should be able to get them directly from your postal carrier (or
you can just make your own)

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Al Gore’s Climate Project

As part of his Climate Project commitment, former US Vice-President and
Nobel Laureate Al Gore has trained 2,000 around the world (including 21
Canadians) to present a personalized and localized version of the
slideshow on which the Academy Award-winning film An Inconvenient Truth is
based. Following the initial U.S. training sessions, similar trainings
have been held in Australia, Spain and the United Kingdom with more
planned for India, China – and now Canada.

>From April 4-6 people across Canada from all walks of life will gather in
Montreal, Quebec for a rare opportunity: to be trained by Al Gore to
become one of 200 climate change presenters. If you are interested in
applying, please see
<http://www.climateprojectcanada.org/indexen.html>http://www.climateprojectcanada.org/indexen.html

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Federal Government Delivers “Polluter Gets Paid” Budget

The Harper government has rejected BC’s lead on taxing carbon-polluting
activities in its third budget, but will hand out $300M to the ailing
AECL, $250M to Ontario carmakers and $240 to bury carbon in Saskatchewan. 
“This is not an environmental budget," says the Green Budget Coalition.

News Coverage:
<http://www.financialpost.com/money/taxes/story.html?id=324780>http://www.financialpost.com/money/taxes/story.html?id=324780
<http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Science/2008/02/26/4878335-cp.html>http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Science/2008/02/26/4878335-cp.html

Read the Budget:
<http://www.budget.gc.ca/2008/home-acceuil-eng.asp>http://www.budget.gc.ca/2008/home-acceuil-eng.asp

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 Antidepressant drugs don't work – official study

By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor, The Independent
Tuesday, 26 February 2008

They are among the biggest-selling drugs of all time, the "happiness
pills" that supposedly lift the moods of those who suffer depression and
are taken by millions of people in the UK every year.

But one of the largest studies of modern antidepressant drugs has found
that they have no clinically significant effect. In other words, they
don't work.

The finding will send shock waves through the medical profession and
patients and raises serious questions about the regulation of the
multinational pharmaceutical industry, which was accused yesterday of
withholding data on the drugs.

Read full article here:
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/antidepressant-drugs-udontu-work-ndash-official-study-787264.html

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Depression drugs don’t work, finds data review
The Times
February 26, 2008
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article3434486.ece

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Complete published study in PLOS here:
http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0050045

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The Creation of the Prozac Myth
The Guardian, Feb. 27, 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/feb/27/mentalhealth.health1

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Playing with Children's Lives: Big Tobacco in Malawi
Pilirani Semu-Banda
February 25th, 2008

Cigarettes may be damaging not only your own health, but also that of some
of the world's poorest children. Much of Malawi's thriving tobacco
industry rests on the backs of exploited children, some as young as five
years old.
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14947

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