Fort Chipewyan: Who's who?

Fort Chipewyan’s medical community

Dr. John O'Connor

The outspoken Irish medical examiner of Fort Chipewyan was the town’s only doctor between 2000 - 2007. He raised alarm bells in 2006 by speaking publicly to CBC Radio after noticing higher than expected rates of diseases, including liver, colon, blood and bile-duct cancers. O'Connor is under investigation for expressing his concerns, accused by Health Canada of raising "undue alarm."

Dr. Michel Sauvé

President of Fort McMurray’s Medical Staff Association and the first person to speak out about health concerns in Fort Chipewyan and against the rapid pace of oilsands development in the area. Sauvé is an internal medicine specialist who runs the intensive care unit in Fort McMurray.

Donna Cyprien
Former executive director of the Nunee Health Region. She echoed concerns of Dr. O'Connor and called the complaints against him an attempt to muzzle the community's only doctor. Cyprien commissioned the community-funded, independent Timoney water quality analysis.

Georg MacDonald

Head nurse of Fort Chipewyan's nursing station who echoed concerns of Dr. O'Connor with repeated calls for a thorough study of illnesses in the area.

First Nations leaders

George Poitras

The former chief of Mikisew Cree First Nation, Poitras was the main spokesperson on Fort Chipewyan’s environmental issues. He has traveled around the world talking about health problems in his community.

Roxanne Marcel

As Mikisew Cree First Nation's chief, Marcel was elected on a platform of solving the community's health problems and fighting the industry's effects on the region.

Alan Adams

Adams was recently elected as Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation’s chief on a platform of solving the community's health problems.

Archie Waquan

Former chief of the Mikisew Cree First Nation who forced oilsands operators Shell and Canadian Natural Resources Limited to agree to an industry-funded, government-led baseline health study. However, the study was never funded, and never carried out by the provincial government.

Alberta government

Howard May

Alberta health spokesperson appointed to the Fort Chipewyan file. May refused to release Alberta Health's complete health analysis to reporters when it was released at Suncor Energy's regulatory hearings in July 2006. He contradicted his own department when he said an offer of health study has always been open to the Fort Chipewyan, while Alex Mackenzie, in charge of disease surveillance at Alberta Health, refused to fund any more research.

Lee Elliot

Public relations director with the Alberta Cancer Board listed as a co-investigator for Fort Chipewyan's re-analysis of disease rates undertaken by the cancer board and Health Canada. There is one principal investigator, Dr. CHen, and six co-investigators, according to a document obtained by CBC News. Dr. Chen, however, says Elliot was asked to be a co-investigator, but declined.

Iris Evans

Alberta’s health minister between 2004 - 2006. As health minister when the Fort Chipewyan story broke in 2006, Evans promised the community any study it needed to determine whether there are health problems in the area.

Dave Hancock

Hancock was Alberta’s health minister, succeeding Iris Evans in December 2006. Hancock stood by the original Alberta Health study released in July 2006 for Suncor Energy’s expansion application at its regulatory hearings. That analysis said there were no health problems in Fort Chipewyan. Hancock refused to fund any further studies.

Ron Liepert

Leipert is the current Alberta health minister, and presided over the second 2009 study of cancer in Fort Chipewyan. Although the study compared Fort Chipewyan to other first nations communities and found elevated rates of cancer in Fort Chipewyan, Leipert believes it is the particular lifestyle of people in Fort Chip that is making them sick.

Government researchers

Alex Mackenzie

As Executive Director of Public Health Surveillance at Alberta Health, Mackenzie has visited the community on numerous occasions and at one point was shouted out of a community meeting. He refuses to fund or recommend a comprehensive health analysis of the community or a baseline health study because he considers the problems in Fort Chipewyan no different than any other community in Alberta's resource-rich communities.

Dr. YiQuan Chen

Leader of the health surveillance unit at Alberta Cancer Board, Chen led the effort to create Alberta Health’s first cancer study of Fort Chipewyan for Suncor Energy’s expansion hearings. Chen is also leading the Alberta Cancer Board's study into Fort Chipewyan's cancer rates, expected in late 2008. Chen has refused media interviews about the new analysis and won’t release its research protocol.

CBC News

Erik Denison

CBC Edmonton’s radio reporter who originally broke the Fort Chipewyan story in the spring of 2006 after receiving a tip from a business leader in Fort McMurray. That source was concerned about rumours of diseases in the small northern community.