Northern Pipelines and Southern Assumptions

Abstract

Two commissions of inquiry were appointed by the Canadian government to investigate the likely consequences for the land and peoples of northern Canada affected by pipelines proposed for the delivery of Alaskan natural gas to American markets. The author compares these two commissions which were chaired by Mr. Justice Thomas Berger and Mr. Kenneth Lysyk respectively. He sees them as together illustrating that the problems of northern development do not begin in the north, but rather in the minds of white people from the south because of their assumptions.