The Oscar short-listed documentary Downstream is giving Alberta a little silver screen treatment, but it isn’t casting the province’s multi-billion dollar oil industry in a golden glow. Instead the short documentary by director Leslie Iwerks is putting the spotlight on the health issues of the small First Nations community of Fort Chipewyan.

With a population of 1, 200, Fort Chip rests next to the Athabasca River, downstream from the oilsands. The film explores the claims first made in 2006 by family physician Dr. John O’Connor that Fort Chip has higher than expected incidences of rare cancers and other diseases by speaking with local leaders, environmentalists and residents about the changes they see in the river.

Health Canada filed a compliant against O’Connor for raising ‘undue alarm’ after he made his concerns public. While the situation has been stressful for O’Connor, he says he is far more frustrated with the lack of action regarding the community’s health. He called on the provincial government to take responsibility.

“Enforce environmental laws,” he said after the Edmonton screening at Metro Cinema. “Get rid of the tailings ponds. Do things in a more clean fashion and just do the right thing by Fort Chip.”

The Alberta Cancer Board recently released a report saying cancers were higher than expected in Fort Chip, but Dr. Tony Fields, head of Alberta Cancer Services, was quick to throw caution on the numbers, saying that more research must be done before concrete conclusions can be drawn.

Dr. Kevin Timoney, an ecologist from Treeline Ecology Research, was also at the Metro screening. He conducted a water study in Fort Chip in 2007, and found the levels of arsenic, mercury and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons concerning. He was also troubled by the recent Cancer Board’s findings.

“The researcher looked at two six year periods, so she only had 12 years of data, but she found that the cancer rate appeared to be higher in the second period,” explains Timoney. “That’s a worrisome find in the sense that the cancer rate may be elevated to begin with and now it appears to be rising.”

Duncan took the opportunity to urge Albertans to get the federal government involved.

“There seems to be a common misunderstanding that this is totally the Alberta governments legislative responsibility ... We are triggering every conceivable responsibility of the federal government,” Duncan said, citing parliament’s responsibility to oversee the protection of the First Nations, the fisheries and trans-boundary water and air pollution.

“They simply passed the buck to Dr. O’Connor and they investigate him.”