Neil Young landed in Toronto this past weekend to kick off his four-city Honor The Treaties tour at Massey Hall to raise funds for a legal battle raging in Alberta over the expansion of the Jackpine Mine and what he considers to be runaway tar sands expansion. Young, who has never had a problem speaking out against perceived injustices, sat down with the CBC's Jian Ghomeshi for a rare interview that aired this morning. Ghomeshi, despite suffering from the effects of serious wisdom tooth troubles, held his own against the cantankerous activist whose strong opinions and insightful arguments proved quite persuasive.
Here are our 10 favourite quotes, a clip from his performance and details on how you can find more information:
On his arrival in Fort McMurray, Alberta:
"When I got to Fort McMurray, I'd driven my electric car up there using an alternative renewable fuel to get there because that's what our film was about. When I got out of the car, the first thing I smelled was fuel. But then I realized that was the air."
On Canadian values:
"It all surprises me. This is Canada. This is a huge surprise for me. I'm from Canada, I'm Canadian, so I'm proud of Canada. I speak as a Canadian…. I always have felt that Canada was a different place, where the values were different and that we cherished the natural surroundings that we're in. But my visit to Alberta changed a lot of that for me."
On Ghomeshi doing his homework:
"Have you ever been to the tar sands?" Young says to Ghomeshi. "Maybe you should go see what you think. I recommend a trip there. I recommend watching a little film called Petropolis and taking a little trip there. I think it would be really good for your show."
On criticism for the Hiroshima comment:
"A man in a position like that who is elected by the people of the province of Alberta should be able to tell the difference between a metaphor and a direct quote. If he doesn't understand that Fort Mac stands for the oils sands then he doesn't even know where he lives. That was a ridiculous thing to do."
On musicians staying out of politics:
"What line did I cross? Musicians should stay out of politics? Is that right? Did somebody say that? Is that a great Canadian belief? Is that it, that your provision should be considered and weighed carefully when deciding whether you have freedom of speech? That just doesn't make sense to me; those are ludicrous comments that have nothing to do with reality."
On lying liars telling lies:
"This is not a myth. This is true. You can either believe me and the First Nations people or you can believe the oil companies and the Canadian government. And you gotta look at the motivation. Why would anybody say anything? Why would I say anything and why would the First Nations people say anything if there wasn't something wrong, and then look at the motivation of the Canadian government and the oil companies they are working with."
On the ethical oil argument:
"The Canadian oil coming out of the ground and being bled out of the ground and pushed out of the ground and burned out of the ground at an immense cost in CO2, that Canadian oil is going to China. This whole rap we're in, it makes no sense. This oil, it isn't going to Canada, not to the United States…. The Keystone pipeline, the people in those States, they have no idea the oil is going to China. it is ridiculous. I'm speechless sometimes when I hear the things some people say."
On the tour:
"It is a tour of broken promises across Canada. This government is trading the integrity of Canada for money. Make no mistake about it. It is a bunch of lies. It is not true. They are breaking a treaty that they made with the First Nations people when it went down years and years ago when the country started."
On the workers:
"I have a lot of respect for the workers, but I can't get behind workers who are digging a hole that my grandchildren are never going to be able to climb out from under. They'll never be able to get back to the blue sky. That's what's happening right now.
On the point of it all:
"First of all, I would like them to make up their own minds. They have the god-given gift to think for themselves. All I am saying is, this is what I'm seeing. I've been there. I've studied this. I couldn't believe it, so I got more into it. This is all I can say about it."
To find out more about Honor The Treaties go to www.honorthetreaties.org.
