Loading articles...

Neil Young: "Fort McMurray stands for disease"

Neil Young is standing by his controversial comments about Fort McMurray as he gets set to launch an anti-oilsands concert tour.

At a media conference in Toronto today, Young said his comparison of the city to Hiroshima, Japan after its nuclear bombing in 1945 was “mellow.”

“I still stand by what was said about Fort McMurray and the way it looks,” he said. “Not because the houses in Fort McMurray look like Hiroshima, but because Fort McMurray stands for disease that these First Nations people are getting.”

Young is playing four concerts in Toronto, Winnipeg, Regina, and Calgary to support the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation’s legal challenge to Shell’s expansion of its Jackpine mine.

ACFN Chief Allan Adam was also at the media conference, where he once again threatened to shut down Highway 63.

Adam has repeatedly made that threat in media appearances, but has never followed through.