Hobbit tar sands story is hoax

Turns out the Native Tar Sands = Mordor? story wasn't true after all:

One hoax to rule them all:  The Hobbit movie tar sands story revealed

By Judy RebickTravellers at Terminal 3 in the Toronto airport were astounded Tuesday morning to see Gandalf the Grey and several hobbits march their handcuffed prisoner Stephen Harper, dressed as the evil lord Sauron, into a Syncrude Ltd. recruiting meeting. They demanded that Synacrude take him back to Mordor aka the Alberta tar sands, "the hell on earth that he created."

The performance was the culmination of a series of media reports that director Peter Jackson is shooting scenes from "The Hobbit" film in the tar sands. In a press release issued today, a troupe of Toronto activists calling themselves Black Flood, working alongside the infamous pranksters of The Yes Lab, confirmed their role in the events for "the purpose of stirring up some hot and bubbly controversy on the Alberta tar sands."Comment:  As this article notes, Mordor doesn't appear in The Hobbit. I thought that was the case, but I wondered if Peter Jackson might have rewritten Tolkien for his movie.

Alas, the whole story was a hoax. But my point still stands: that comparing a Native-owned wasteland to Mordor is ironic.

For more on the subject, see Cameron Criticizes Oilsands "Curse" and Canada's Avatar Sands.