EthicalOil
 

EthicalOil.org launches ad campaign that reveals foreign interests sabotaging Canada’s economy

January 2nd, 2012  |  By: Kathryn

VANCOUVER–Foreign special interests are paying millions of dollars to local front groups to sabotage Canada’s energy industry, according to an advertising campaign launched today.

“The federal government’s hearings into the Northern Gateway Pipeline begin next week,” says Kathryn Marshall, spokesman for EthicalOil.org. “Canadians will be shocked to learn that anti-oilsands lobby groups opposing the project have taken millions of dollars from foreign special interests.”

The ad campaign started this morning on more than a dozen radio stations across northern B.C., and will also appear in ten weekly newspapers over the month of January. Each ad in the series highlights a different Canadian front group being paid by a foreign special interest. Factual documentation for the ads, as well as an audio clip of the first of five radio ads, can be heard at the website www.OurDecision.ca.

“Whether or not Canada decides to build this pipeline is a Canadian decision, based on Canadian interests — not the political interests of foreigners or their Canadian puppets,” said Marshall. “Let’s have a national discussion about this — but foreign billionaires and their local lobbyists should butt out.”

Some of the foreign backed anti-oilsands groups highlighted in the ads include:

  • The West Coast Environmental Law Foundation
  • Corporate Ethics International
  • Pembina Environmental Foundation
  • Environmental Defence Canada
  • Ecojustice Canada Society

This ad campaign is 100% Canadian, paid for through grassroots donations by Canadians only,” noted Marshall. “We’ll never take foreign money to undermine our country’s national interests.”

  • James

    “Ethical Oil” isn’t.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Wyatt-Ironbridge/100002122973043 Wyatt Ironbridge

      No source of energy is perfect – but companies operating in Canada do their utmost to minimize environmental damage and they function according to the principles of the democratic state they are located in. “Clever” you ain’t.

    • Rob_biggs

      What a stupid comment. “James” is a bought and paid for political tool. Alberta has labor laws, Saudi Arabia stones women to death for being raped. Alberta has unions, Iran hangs men for being homosexual. “James” you don;t know what ethical means because you aren’t.

  • JD

    Do not beleive this at all, big oil company from Europe, USA and not to mention other country are most likely to blame! They have invested so much in the NON ETHICAL oil countries already!! Do you think they want Canada to compete with their Non Ethycal oil already in place infrastructures? No!!!! Doesn’t make sense to them, they rather slow down or even try to stop Canada’s Oil by donating money to these greennish institutions… This way they don’t have to spend more billions of dollars to build new infrastructures in Canada’s Ethical Oil Sands and can still make Billions with the Non Ethical Oil from the Middle east, Venezuella etc… This is a back door and cheap, cheap and very easy way for them to manipulate and maximize their investments. On the other hand the greenish organizations will never turn away millions of dollars, their survival depends on it!! Oh and these same guys will never admit receiving money from oil companies also, why????

    • BN

      JD:
      If what you say is true, why is ESSO / Exxon building a brand new plant ($10 Billion) in Fort MacMurray and has announced an immediate phase 2 expansion ($8 Billion).

    • Dave12

      Do you realize how little the Big Oil companies control of the world’s oil? It is less than 10%, the rest is controlled by countries mainly in Opec like Saudi Arabia. Canada is an easy target for these countries as they lose billions in sales to the US because we are democratic and these foreign funded activist organizations are able to attack Canada’s oil industry without fear of personal danger as they would in most of the other oil suppliers.

      These mostly leftist organizations like Tides, Suzuki, Greenpeace are not just interested in making sure our excellent environmental controls are maintained, they want to shut our oil industry down, disrupt our pipelines and have many leftists allies, in my view traitors, like McGuinty and Charest working along with them.

    • WTF55

      JD Obviously you have no idea what you are talking about. BN is absolutely right. Did you know that Exxon/Esso had two hundred plus prefabricated modules- that’s how they build plants these days – of their plant built in South Korea, shipped them to the United States and that they are now held up in the States because they are too big to ship by road to Ft Mac?. Did you also know that they are spending an average $500,000.00 per unit to cut them in half, then ship them and reassemble them in Ft Mac? Believe me JD, there is a lot more foreign investment in our Oil Sands than you can fathom or want to believe. Please do some reading on the subject before writing further.

  • James

    ethicaloil.org was registered to Ezra Levant of Calgary on 01-Aug-2011

  • James

    Fascinating is the only word that describes ourdecision.ca

    and by fascinating I mean who else is registered with the ourdecision.ca site.

  • Robmax

    These oil companies need to stand up and fight. By fight, I mean they need to start shutting off fuel to those who are trying to destroy them. The government needs to get off their butt are start going after them as well.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Wyatt-Ironbridge/100002122973043 Wyatt Ironbridge

    It’s great to see this kind of fight, hitting them with their own tactics. Canada needs these revenue to survive – this is a direct assault on our standard of living and ability to fund our health care system.

    • Dgoalder

      So is an oil spill in salmon waters.

  • DMorris

    Yes,it’s time the Yankee billionaire’s club stayed the hell out of Canada and Canadian politics.

    They hide behind our environmentalist organizations, but couldn’t care less about our economy or environment. Suzuki and rest of the Enviros are useful idiots at best,co-conspirators at worst.

    • James

      Totally agree DMorris.

      Canadian owners in the Canadian oil patch benefiting only Canadians!

      1.) Nationalize all the foreign owned oil companies and sell them to Canadians only.
      2.) Keep ALL the oil in Canada – no exports.
      3.) Refine ALL the oil in Canada – just say ‘NO’ to exporting jobs.

  • Lskdfjldk

    Alberta Culture and Community spirit, a provincial ministry gave the Pembina Foundation between $20,000 and $50,000 in 2010.

    In 2009, Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development gave the Pembina Institute over $200,000.

    Why is the Province of Alberta sabotaging our livelihoods by funding these people with my tax dollars?

  • Fred

    You need to hire the person who has done all the hard slogging work to expose all this American financial corruption & influence.

    That person is Vivian Krause and she should be recognized for being the first to get on this case . . .

    http://fairquestions.typepad.com/rethink_campaigns/

    Thank you Vivian.

  • Sdfsdfdf

    The Pembina Institute does “consulting” and “advocacy” and as such cannot give tax receipts. However they refer donees via a link on their donor page directly to the “Pembina Foundation” which does give tax receipts.

    Of course, greenies, the misled and the stupid will conflate “The Pembina Institute” with the “Pembina Foundation” and respond to the political invective from the “Institute” with a donation to the “Foundation”.

    Now, I wonder if any money from the charitable Foundation returns to the Institute in the form of payments disguised as consulting fees?

    Let us check and see….

    From Page 1 of the 2010 Annual report of the Pembina Foundation:

    “Pembina at Work: Building a Sustainable Future
    The Pembina Foundation for Environmental Research and Education supported a variety of innovative environmental research and education
    initiatives in 2010. These initiatives, carried out through agreements with the Pembina Institute…”

    So there you have it. Domations received from the tax receipting Pembina Foundation Charity funnel right back to the Pembina Institute which cannot issue tax receipts.

    Unethical at worst or a pretty slimy legal loophole at best.

  • Sdfsdfdf

    The Pembina Institute does “consulting” and “advocacy” and as such cannot give tax receipts. However they refer donees via a link on their donor page directly to the “Pembina Foundation” which does give tax receipts.

    Of course, greenies, the misled and the stupid will conflate “The Pembina Institute” with the “Pembina Foundation” and respond to the political invective from the “Institute” with a donation to the “Foundation”.

    Now, I wonder if any money from the charitable Foundation returns to the Institute in the form of payments disguised as consulting fees?

    Let us check and see….

    From Page 1 of the 2010 Annual report of the Pembina Foundation:

    “Pembina at Work: Building a Sustainable Future
    The Pembina Foundation for Environmental Research and Education supported a variety of innovative environmental research and education
    initiatives in 2010. These initiatives, carried out through agreements with the Pembina Institute…”

    So there you have it. Domations received from the tax receipting Pembina Foundation Charity funnel right back to the Pembina Institute which cannot issue tax receipts.

    Unethical at worst or a pretty slimy legal loophole at best.

    • James

      When will EthicalOil.org release a list of its funders?

      • Asfdsdsf

        Typical leftard deflection tactics. You dummies have no idea how you are being played by US interests who ultimately don’t give a damn about the environment but are really after controlling who exports Canadian Oil by funding wingnut enviro lobbies. You are what Lenin calls useful idiots.

        • Anonymous

          They love the environment so much they would send more production to the very places that care the least about it…HYPOCRITS!!

  • James

    When will “Ethical Oil” stop sabotaging Canada’s environment with its foreign fricking fracking?

    • Robmax

      Typical left wing nonsense.

      • The Twain Shall Meet

        Typical right winged nonsense

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  • Andreas Krebs

    You guys are hilarious! How about the fact that the Tar Sands are largely owned by Chinese petroleum companies?

    • Robmax

      and you expect to gain what, by telling those lies.

    • WTF55

      You have it partly right.China does have a large stake in the oilsands as does Japan, the United States -read Exxon or Esso as well as many others through partnerships and operating and development agreements. What I find difficult is that you are unable to make a key distinction between oil and tar. tar is actually a derivative of coal.Though the in-situ bitumen may resemble tar that is only due to its viscosity

  • Calgary Geologist

    You can access the Forest Ethics report here which elsewhere on this site blackballed as a non-Canadian interference http://forestethics.org/downloads/HUGHES_Northern_Gateway_Pipeline_November_2011.pdf . It is a report done by Canadians for Canadians. The conspiracy theory implications purported by this site are just that – conspiracy theories.

  • Calgary Geologist

    At least this site has the honesty to post where they get their money from “We do accept donations from individuals and companies, including those working to produce ethical oil.” They are blatantly doing the bidding of their masters. A real pile of hogwash and an embarassment to rational discourse – especially the radio campaign. If I was a so-called producer of “ethical oil” I’d avoid this site like the plague.

    • James

      Not really.

      The Pembina Foundation lists their donors by name; not something this site seems capable of.

      When will EthicalOil.org release a list of its funders?

  • ray

    and the foreign oil companies are not special interest?

  • Whyshouldihavetogiveanemail

    By this logic, foreign investment into the oil sands undermines Canada’s national interests, too.

    I am a Canadian and a BC coastal resident and I don’t want the Northern Gateway Pipeline. I also oppose further development of the oil sands. It is a national embarrassment. There is NO ONE paying me to say this.

    Please add my comment to the “national discussion” you have alluded to. Although, the “discussion” I am hearing sounds a lot like the decision has already been made by Joe Oliver and Steven Harper.

  • Fort st john

    go pound sand! This is a good project providing good jobs

  • http://www.facebook.com/jonathan.waldie Jonathan Waldie

    Last time I checked, Canada is a democratic nation, in fact, we just had an election and Harper was elected with a majority, what gives the enviro nut cases the right to suggest they know better than our elected leaders. Talk about arrogance!! I wouldn’t blame Harper if he just cancelled the hearings and unilaterally approved the pipeline in the interest of the Canadian economy. In reality, it’s elected officials who are on the line….these foreign funded enviro nuts have no legitimate standing, and are a threat to our way of life….good riddance to you all.

    • Dial 1 800 Oil Spill

      likely because our fearless leader has less than 40% of the population of this country on his side… that’s 60% who don’t want anything to do with him… seems a bit odd the math on this one but hey…

  • Bartholomew

    “Ethical Oil” is nothing more than a public relations smokescreen. Oil extracted on Canadian soil is no less polluting than oil extracted from Saudi Arabian soil. “Ethics” do not magically cleanse oil of its intrinsic filthiness. “Ethics” will not reduce the amount of pollutants that refined oil products emit when they are burned. The laws of physics and chemistry are not affected by “ethics”.

    Tobacco is grown on Canadian soil as well. Perhaps we should start marketing Export A, Du Maurier, and Peter Jackson as “ethical” cigarettes. Why worry about lung cancer, emphysema, heart disease, strokes, etc. when you’ve got “ethics” on your side?

    • smcleod

      Sa-matter Bart.. don’t like light showing the little corporate scam the green industry has become..

      Hows about telling us how much Saudi and cancerous Hugo has shiiled out to your little astro-turf organizations…

  • Tarik Belarbi

    Can someone tell me who the “Foreign special interests” are, who “are paying millions of dollars to sabotage” Canada Energy’s Industry” ???

  • Mackaypi

    I just returned from holidays and have been busy reading old newspapers that piled up while my wife and I were away. I ran across your add in the Smithers Interior News dated Jan.4th,2012 and like what I saw. Its to the point and tells those who don’t seem to understand that it is OUR decision, not one tarnished with what outside interest seem to think is best for us. thank you for telling it how it is. I am donating to your cause because I feel so strongly. Thank you again.

    Dennis MacKAY, Smithers, B.C/

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