All posts by Common Sense Canadian

Leaked Memo Shows Cancer Foundation Facing Criticism Over Enbridge Sponsoring its “Ride to Conquer Cancer”

January 14, 2012Energy and Resources, Oil&Gas, Pipelines and SupertankersBC Oil Pipelines and Supertankers, Enbridge, Oil and gasCommon Sense Canadian

Read this story form The Georgia Straight online, which reveals a leaked internal talking points memo at the BC Cancer Foundation to address growing criticism its title sponsor for the annual “Ride to Conquer Cancer” – controversial oil pipeline builder, Enbridge. (Jan 12, 2012)

Critics of Enbridge and its title sponsorship of the Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer like to note that petroleum, which is the company’s business, is a source of carcinogens, such as benzene. And the B.C. Cancer Foundation is obviously hearing about these concerns.

The Georgia Straight has obtained a revised draft of talking points about the Enbridge sponsorship set to be circulated by the foundation to its staff. The Q&A is intended to help foundation staff deal with questions from the public on its acceptance of money from a “cancer-causing organization” and other related matters.

Read memo: http://www.straight.com/article-583381/vancouver/talking-points-show-bc-cancer-foundation-facing-tough-questions-enbridge-sponsorship

Premier Christy Clark Taps Ex-Enbridge Lobbyist as New Chief of Staff

January 13, 2012Canada, Energy and Resources, Pipelines and Supertankers, Politics, Western CanadaBC Oil Pipelines and Supertankers, Enbridge, PoliticsCommon Sense Canadian

Read this story form the Vancouver Sun, reporting that BC Premier Christy Clark has replaced her Chief of Staff Mike MacDonald with career lobbyist and federal Conservative adviser Ken Boessenkool – whose former clients include controversial pipeline builder Enbridge Inc. (Jan. 13, 2011)

Flagging in the polls, and with just 16 months to go before the next election, Premier Christy Clark has replaced her chief of staff with an influential Conservative strategist who has lobbied on behalf of Enbridge.

Ken Boessenkool, who has served as a senior adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, will start as Clark’s chief of staff on Feb. 15, and is expected to make just under $200,000.

The move not only provides new leadership in Clark’s office, but also helps bolster her Conservative credentials at a time she faces attacks from the upstart right-wing B.C. Conservative Party.

Boessenkool worked on three federal campaigns with Harper, reportedly playing a key role in the campaign’s inner sanctum during 2011.

He has been a key adviser to Reform party founder Preston Manning and to Stockwell Day, former leader of the Canadian Alliance Party.

Boessenkool is also an influential federal lobbyist, having worked on behalf of dozens of top-flight clients including Enbridge, which is now pushing for a major pipeline across B.C.’s north.

Groups Opposing Enbridge Worried They May Lose Their Charitable Status

January 13, 2012Canada, Energy and Resources, Oil&Gas, Pipelines and Supertankers, PoliticsBC Oil Pipelines and Supertankers, Enbridge, Oil and gas, PoliticsCommon Sense Canadian

Read this story form The Globe and Mail about the fears some environmental organizations face of losing their charitable status as a punishment for speaking up against the controversial proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline. (Jan 13, 2012)

Environmentalists are fearful that the Conservative government is planning to limit their advocacy role after Prime Minister Stephen Harper complained that groups flush with “foreign money” are undermining a controversial pipeline review.

Mr. Harper and Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver stoked activists’ fears in recent days by lashing out at environmental groups that have taken money from U.S. donors to build opposition to the $6.6-billion Northern Gateway pipeline that would carry oil-sands bitumen to the British Columbia coast.

The Conservative-dominated Commons finance committee is set to begin a review of the charity sector, and several activists say government MPs have told business groups that the committee will look at the environmental sector’s transparency, its advocacy role and the flow of funds from outside the country.

PMO spokesman Andrew MacDougall dismissed as “speculation” the concerns that the government is targeting the environmental sector. He said Ottawa is focused on streamlining the environmental-review process so that groups can’t employ delaying tactics, echoing Mr. Oliver’s pledge to introduce new rules in the coming months…

…But John Bennett, executive director of the Sierra Club of Canada, isn’t reassured.

“I’m quite convinced that we’re the next on the hit list of this government that doesn’t know how to find compromises but only bully people,” Mr. Bennett said.

Why the Tar Sands are a Net Job Loser for Canada

January 11, 2012Energy and Resources, Oil&Gas, Tar SandsAlberta Tar Sands, Oil and gasCommon Sense Canadian

Read this piece in the Huffington Post Canada which makes the case for why, despite all the rhetoric about jobs from the Tar Sands, Canada’s oil economy actually costs us more jobs in other areas. (Jan. 5, 2011)

Just because something is a bit complicated, it doesn’t mean you can ignore it, especially when it’s hurting you.

And yet, this appears to be the case with the loss of hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs in the past several years — 627,000 by one measure — mostly in Ontario and Quebec where these jobs have historically existed.

The phenomenon even has a name already: “Dutch Disease.” Canada now has a bad case of it, yet you won’t hear the government in Ottawa talk about it, since that would run counter to its blinkered agenda of accelerating the strip mining of Northern Alberta to push more oil through pipelines to China and America.

The term “Dutch Disease” was coined in the 1970s after the Netherlands discovered a large natural gas field. The country’s exchange rate became tied to the rising price of natural gas, pricing its manufacturing goods out of international markets and leading to job losses.

In 2011, the Canadian dollar traded on average above the U.S. dollar for the first time since 1976. This puts an extra burden on Canadian companies who export, since it makes their products less competitive versus products from other countries.

Enbridge oil… why it’s insane

January 11, 2012UncategorizedNorthern Gateway PipelineCommon Sense Canadian

Eagles are swarming to the dumps on Vancouver Island by the thousands. Killer whales are being found dead in Alaskan rivers, never known to happen before, starvation the cause. Widespread deaths of grizzly bears on the central and northern coast occurred last winter due to starvation. It is believed that all of these vulnerable predators have been triggered by the collapse of the salmon runs.

Whatever the cause of the collapse that is being debated, from over-fishing to the ISA virus, sea lice, pollution and the recent leak of million of gallons of radioactive water from Fukishima into the ocean, the fact remains that the salmon are on the brink and very close to extinction. Since they are the backbone of our coastal ecosystem, as well as the lifeblood of first nations cultures, everything that depends on them will die. Including the forests who are fed by them. Then I ask the proponents of Enbridge and the government of Canada, how can we afford a pipeline project that puts this damaged ecosystem at risk of beyond repair? To put it more fairly, given the nature of pipelines, oil spills will happen… In waterways. In fish habitat. Enbridge admits that there will be spills, that they can be “managed” but not eliminated.

The Polaris Institute calculated 804 spills occurred on Enbridge pipelines between 1999 and 2010. How soon can one find the beginning of a leak in this vast stretch of wilderness, a stretch of 1170 km that cross over 800 fish bearing rivers and streams? Three are important for salmon spawning. Enbridge admits that steel can corrode with water, bacteria and various chemicals. How do you clean up corroded pipelines in a distant future? They would have to be consistently maintained or dealt with… indefinitely. Factor in room for human err in their construction.

Factor in that scientists have been saying that the west coast is due for the Big One. From northern Vancouver Island, to the Haida Gwaii, the Pacific plate is sliding to the northwest at about 6 cm/year. The boundary between these two giant plates is the Queen Charlotte fault – Canada’s equivalent of the San Andreas fault. The active Queen Charlotte Fault has generated three large earthquakes; in 1929, a magnitude 7 occurred, in 1949, a magnitude 8.1 (Canada’s largest recorded earthquake) causing nearly a 500 kilometer long segment of the Queen Charlotte Fault to break and a magnitude 7.4 in 1970. Since 2001, four earthquakes have occurred from 6.3 to 6.8. How would pipelines resist an earthquake? How would a super tanker stand up to a tsunami? It is not possible to clean up a mess of this scale. I haven’t heard anyone bring up this specific risk. I can believe it because there are just too many other reasons why not to build the pipeline.

Stephen Hume’s Must-Read Dissection of the “Ethical Oil” and Foreign Intervention Argument

January 10, 2012Energy and Resources, Oil&Gas, Pipelines and Supertankers, Tar SandsAlberta Tar Sands, BC Oil Pipelines and Supertankers, Enbridge, Ethical Oil, Oil and gasCommon Sense Canadian

Read this outstanding piece by Stephen Hume in the Vancouver Sun, dissecting the argument from the Harper Government and oil lobby, which alleges “foreign billionaires” are unduly influencing the opposition to Enrbidge’s proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline and influencing the National Energy Board’s review of the project. (Jan 9, 2012)

EthicalOil.org, founded by conservative gadfly Ezra Levant, adopts this argument, declaiming against “foreign puppets” like West Coast Environmental Law, Alberta’s Pembina Institute and others challenging expansion of oilsands development, transportation infrastructure and diversified global markets for synthetic crude. Even Prime Minister Stephen Harper is on the bandwagon, claiming that foreign money seeks to subvert Canada’s regulatory process.

American foundations have donated about $300 million to such organizations over the last decade or so, therefore these groups must be part of a sinister conspiracy by Americans seeking to influence Canada’s policy agenda.

But wait a minute, if this crude nationalism applies to a few environmental groups, shouldn’t it also apply to other organizations that receive funding from “foreign billionaires?” Enbridge, for example, says it has organized about $100 million in backing from oil industry interests, some of them foreign-owned corporations. Are they trying to hi-jack the regulatory process?…

…The Fraser Institute reports nine per cent of its funding from non-Canadian sources — about the same amount of non-Canadian funding reported by the Pembina Institute — although exactly who the foreign donors to the Fraser Institute might be isn’t listed in annual reports. However, according to a report by Greenpeace using U.S. sources, some comes from American foundations. Another puppet?

Shell Canada, Imperial Oil, British Petroleum Canada, Ultramar Fuels, Enbridge, Sinopec International and so on are all owned and controlled offshore. Are they puppets of foreign billionaires?

If foreign control is a genuine concern for EthicalOil.org, should it turn its attention to Canada’s oil industry? More than 35 per cent of all the assets and more than 40 per cent of the profits from oil and gas extraction and related activities in Canada are under foreign control.

Watch CTV Debate on “Ethical Oil”, Enbridge

January 10, 2012Energy and Resources, Oil&Gas, Pipelines and Supertankers, Tar SandsAlberta Tar Sands, BC Oil Pipelines and Supertankers, Enbridge, Ethical Oil, Oil and gas, VideoCommon Sense Canadian

Watch this video from CTV, featuring a discussion with federal industry minister Joe Oliver and a lively debate between representatives of First Nations, environmental groups and the organization “Ethical Oil.” (Jan. 8, 2012)

Watch video: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20120108/Northern-Gateway-pipeline-hearings-to-start-in-BC-120108/#ixzz1itu47dVh

Peter Ewart on Recent Enbridge-Ipsos Poll and Disinformation Tactics

January 6, 2012Energy and Resources, Oil&Gas, Pipelines and SupertankersBC Oil Pipelines and Supertankers, Enbridge, Oil and gasCommon Sense Canadian

Read this column form Peter Ewart on Opinion250.com about the recent Ipsos poll for Enbridge claiming to show more British Columbians support the company’s controversial proposed pipeline from the Alberta Tar Sands to Kitimat than oppose it. Ewart sets this poll within the larger context of a disinformation campaign in which Postmedia has played a critical roll – including its much criticized recent handling of the Gitxsan story. (Jan 6, 2012)

One of the aims of disinformation campaigns is to shake the resolve of people. And we are seeing ample evidence of this in the campaign to sell the Enbridge pipeline which, if constructed, will stretch across the lands and waterways of Northern BC and result in major oil tanker traffic in the ocean waters off BC’s Pacific coast.

Recently, an Ipsos-Reid poll, released exclusively to the Postmedia News chain, is alleging that, by a whopping 48 to 32 percentage, most people across the province are now in favour of the controversial pipeline. This poll, of course, was commissioned and paid for by the Enbridge Corporation. The results are almost the exact opposite of another poll conducted by the Mustel polling group in 2010 and commissioned by pipeline opponent group “Forest Ethics”. That poll showed a 51 to 34 percent margin against the pipeline. The gap between the two polls is stunning.

Nonetheless, despite the huge disparity in poll results, the Postmedia News chain was quick to punch out headlines such as: “New poll points to pipeline support”, as well as articles claiming that the poll could be a “game changer” for project opponents. For its part, Enbridge has issued a statement that the “new poll” will set a “’proper context’ for the launch of National Energy Board hearings into Northern Gateway that begin this month in northern B.C.”

Earthquake Prompts Closing of Ohio Gas Fracking Wells

January 3, 2012Energy and Resources, Fracking, Oil&Gasfracking, Oil and gasCommon Sense Canadian

Read this story from CNN on Ohio’s KTBS.com regarding the closure of fracking wells in the state following a 4.0 earthquake that may be linked to nearby shale gas operations. (Jan. 1, 2011)

(CNN) — State leaders have ordered that four fluid-injection wells in eastern Ohio will be “indefinitely” prohibited from opening in the aftermath of heightened seismic activity in the area, an official said.

Ohio Department of Natural Resources Director James Zehringer had announced on Friday that one such well — which injects “fluid deep underground into porous rock formations, such as sandstone or limestone, or into or below the shallow soil layer,” the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency explains — was closed after a series of small earthquakes in and around Youngstown.Then on Saturday, a magnitude 4.0 earthquake struck that released at least 40 times more energy than any of the previous 10 or more tremors that had rattled the region in 2011.

Read article: http://www.ktbs.com/news/30113791/detail.html

Vancouver Sun Op-ed: Fraser Sockeye Dying of Politics

January 3, 2012Canada, Fisheries, Oceans, Politics, Salmon Farming and AquacultureAquaculture, cohen commission, Politics, SalmonCommon Sense Canadian

Read this op-ed in The Vancouver Sun by Dr. Craig Orr and Stan Proboszcz of Watershed Watch, which provides a compelling summary in the wake of the Cohen Commission of the political dynamics threatening Fraser River sockeye. (Dec 27, 2011)

Sockeye are plagued by a lack of food, lax pollution standards, ineffective habitat protection efforts, archaic water laws, harmful hydro impacts, unjustified riverbed mining, a “modernized” Fisheries Act, illegal fishing, subpar catch monitoring, and debilitating climate change. Unlucky Oncorhynchus nerka must also swim a gauntlet of non-selective nets, predators, toxic algae blooms, and pathogen-bearing fish farms — all for an increasingly slim chance to spawn and die.

If these stresses weren’t troubling enough, the federal review of Fraser sockeye woes recently reopened to testimony about positive tests for the infectious salmon anemia virus (ISAv) in wild and farmed salmon. Indeed, despite vigorous government assurances to the contrary, compelling evidence suggests this virus has been here for some time. Governments’ reaction to the news — and to leaks that they had known of a possible virus for nearly a decade — prompts one to fear that wild salmon ranked disturbingly low on their list of priorities.

Reaction to reports of a virus associated with salmon farms predictably meant strident denial among Canada’s regulators, followed by something more insidious. Governments seemed less inclined to act on disease and public concerns, and more intent on firing back at the scientists who reported ISAv positives. Judge Bruce Cohen was told scientists felt “intimidated,” “attacked,” and “alienated.” Samples were seized, methods publicly questioned, labs audited. Fisheries ministers unleashed media releases chastising highly accredited academics for “reckless behaviour” and “unsound science.”

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