REGINA – Neil Young says he’s very proud to be Canadian and doesn’t want to see the country — in his words — “trashed and plundered” for oil money.
The musician made the comments ahead of a concert in Regina tonight to raise money for an Alberta First Nation that lives downstream from the oilsands.
The band has filed a lawsuit to try to protect its traditional territory from further industrialization.
Young says he was taught as a boy to clean up his mess and keep his word, but those rules have been broken when it comes to the oilsands and First Nations treaties.
Eriel Deranger from the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation was at the news conference with Young and said the oilsands region is being irreversibly damaged.
Since kicking off a four-city tour in Toronto on Sunday, Young has traded barbs with politicians and oil executives, who say he doesn’t understand the oilsands or their economic benefit.