How Oil Lobbyists Pressured Canada to Allow Drilling in a Marine Park
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- Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00
- Written by editor
Please delete this email after reading
Just kidding! You can keep it.
But wouldn't that be a weird and suspicious thing to say? Well, it's more or less exactly what a DFO representative said to an oil lobbyist after sending over an advance copy of a presentation on marine conservation. James Wilt got the whole email chain — and, well, did the opposite of delete it.
Lots more cool stuff happened this week.
We took a look at what's inside the diluted bitumen that's piped through the Trans Mountain pipeline from Alberta, and what it does to salmon.We compared policies around saving species at risk in Canada and the U.S. under Trump. Can you guess who fared better?
We talked to Fort McKay First Nation, which is fighting to preserve its sacred heartland from oilsands development.
We got the lowdown from legal experts about the likelihood of victory for the First Nations fighting Site C.
We questioned whether B.C. should be relying on industry-funded professionals to make environmental decisions.
And we did a deep dive into bike lanes, concluding that they're good for everyone — even drivers.
Read on to see some more!
How Canada is Driving Its Endangered Species to the Brink of Extinction
By Emma Gilchrist
Canadian governments are sitting by and watching as endangered species disappear, in what one environmental lawyer calls a “slow moving catastrophe.”
The latest blow comes as a deadline for provinces to outline plans to protect threatened caribou habitat blew by without a single province meeting the deadline.
“This is 13 years after this species was listed as threatened. There’s been 13 years of decline of caribou, 13 years of deterioration of their habitat,” Ecojustice lawyer Sean Nixon told DeSmog Canada. Read more.
Why New Bike Lanes Are Good For Everyone — Yes, Even Drivers
By Jimmy Thomson
Protected bike lanes are a favourite punching bag for Canada’s pundits and politicians.
Lawrence Solomon recently called for Toronto to “ban the bike” in one of his three columns on the subject in the span of a month. Rob Ford made a career out of condemning the “war on the car” and ripping out bike lanes.
Fortunately, while they may be entitled to their opinions, that privilege doesn’t extend to facts. Countless studies have been published over the years to test the impact of bike lanes — and the results are pretty clear. Read more.
How B.C. Outsourced Environmental Protection
By Emma Gilchrist
If you look closely at almost any major environmental controversy in B.C. in the past decade, you’ll find one common denominator: industry-paid “professionals” were trusted with our province’s environmental protection.
This, folks, is what is often called leaving the fox to watch the hen house. But, if you’re the B.C. government, you come up with one of the greatest euphemisms of our age for it: “professional reliance.” Read more.
We Exposed Sockeye Salmon to Diluted Bitumen. Here's What We Found.
By Sarah L. Alderman
Amid continued controversy, Kinder Morgan is poised to break ground on its $7.4 billion Trans Mountain Expansion Project. When the pipeline is complete, it will triple the volume of diluted bitumen, or Dilbit, that reaches Canada’s Pacific shoreline to 890,000 barrels per day.
The Trans Mountain pipeline has been in operation since 1953. It crosses numerous waterways as it snakes its way from Edmonton to Burnaby, B.C., including the lower portions of the Fraser River — North America’s primary salmon-producing river system. The pipeline expansion has raised concerns about how its failure might have an impact on these fish. Read more.
Fort McKay First Nation Fights for ‘Last Refuge’ Amidst Oilsands Development
By James Wilt
Nobody could ever accuse Chief Jim Boucher of being anti-oilsands.
But now, a proposed 10,000 barrel per day oilsands project is threatening to infringe on a nearby sacred region called Moose Lake that serves as the First Nation’s “key cultural heartland” and is shared with the local Métis community for traditional activities. And Boucher is speaking out against the project. Read more.
‘Deck Stacked’ Against First Nations Seeking Site C Injunction, Experts Say
By Sarah Cox
Can the Site C dam still be stopped?
It all boils down to one B.C. Supreme Court judge who will decide whether or not to grant First Nations an injunction against the project this spring, according to legal scholars who are keenly watching a new legal case against the $10.7 billion dam.
This week West Moberly First Nations and Prophet River First Nation filed notices of civil action claiming that the Site C dam — along with two existing dams on the Peace River — infringes on rights guaranteed to them in Treaty 8, which promised they could continue their traditional way of life. Read more.
Site C’s Shaky Economic Justification Is Proof It’s Time To Make Decisions Differently
By Seth Klein
There is no question that the new B.C. government’s decision to proceed with the Site C dam was a very difficult one. The previous government left them with a poison pill.
With $2 billion already spent, the Horgan government faced a no-win choice, with substantial political and economic costs for either terminating or proceeding with what is one of the largest and most expensive capital projects in B.C. history.
I don’t envy them. Read more.
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