By Brady Tighe When I fly up to Fort McMurray for a seven-day shift in camp, there are some things I expect: Bad coffee, salty food, miserable weather that ranges from vicious heat to teeth-shattering cold, profanity, talk about sports teams that suck, bugs the size of Buicks, country music that makes me want to […]
Hey Boo-Boo, we’re in big trouble
By Montreal Simon Well it must have been a grim scene in the PMO bunker this week. For years the Con propaganda machine has tried to brainwash Canadians into believing that Stephen Harper is a Great Economist Leader. The steady hand on the wheel, steering us to prosperity, the only leader who knows ANYTHING about economics. […]
Kinder Morgan: A little uncoordinated
By Montreal Simon They have gathered on Burnaby Mountain to try to prevent the giant energy company Kinder Morgan from drilling a hole through its heart. Dozens of young and old activists have been arrested. But today they won a big court victory, and Kinder Morgan got a big slap in the face. A […]
“The Province”: Doing it right for the petroleum producers
By Alison@Creekside h/t Waterbaby That’s very good, isn’t it? “Kinder Morgan has solved the NIMBY problem by taking the backyard.” I also liked his debunking of the attempt to de-legitimize protest itself — the argument that “protesters undermine the rule of law by claiming to speak for the whole community.” Hey, here’s one now from […]
The Vogons assess FIPA
By Alison@Creekside Prior to the enactment of the Canada-China FIPA, the Canadian government pushed two omnibus bills through the HoC which included provisions designed to substantially weaken environment policies and regulations, some of them at the behest of a pipeline lobby group: G&M : Pipeline industry pushed environmental changes made in omnibus bill The Canadian Energy Pipeline […]
Harper and FIPA: Sell-out on a Friday afternoon
By Montreal Simon He waited until late Friday afternoon to announce that the Cons had ratified their controversial trade deal with China. Hoping that most people wouldn’t notice. Ottawa confirms it has ratified a foreign investment treaty with China, more than two years after the controversial agreement was signed, as CBC News first reported Friday. […]
Kenney’s new “Labour Minister Missing in Action” program
By Alison@Creekside This week Employment Minister Jason Kenney replaced the old LMOA, Labour Market Opinion Assessment, with the brand new LMIA, or Labour Market Impact Assessment — henceforth to be known as the LabourMinister Missing in Action program for its accelerated 10-working-day approval process to put TFWs in skilled trades. Remember those 270 unionized welders and pipefitters laid off from a Husky […]
You’ve seen the ads — now play the game!
By Drew McLachlan If you live in British Columbia, odds are you’ve seen the video below about a million times. It’s not a Tourism BC advertisement or the new video for that chillwave band your coworker told you about — it’s one of the many ads produced for Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline, which are constantly […]
Northern Gateway: Time to build a firewall around B.C.
By Frank Moher In 2001, Stephen Harper was famously one of the signatories to an open letter encouraging then-Alberta Premier Ralph Klein “to build firewalls around Alberta.” The idea was that Alberta had to protect itself against the encroachments of the federal government. This morning it is BC’s turn to defend itself against a predatory […]
Immersed in the oil sands
By Rachelle Stein-Wotten “Fort McMurray, city of excess,” says the voice-over in the trailer for Fort McMoney. The documentary video game, produced by the National Film Board and the Montreal-based game developer TOXA, allows users to take control of the boomtown, and determine the virtual fate of the oilsands. Combining real footage and interviews with […]
