Has Big Oil Hijacked Democracy?

Canada's government spies on and harasses citizens who peacefully question petro-corporate aims.

By Murray Dobbin


Harper's general list of assaults, as bad as they are (and columnist Lawrence Martin has compiled a pretty thorough one here), is different from our prime minister's genuinely frightening decision to enlist the country's security apparatus in the direct and immediate service of the oil industry. Nothing like this has ever happened before in Canada.

Paranoid governments in the past have used the RCMP and CSIS to spy on political enemies, infiltrate activist organizations and have even sent in agent provocateurs to tarnish the image of political protest. But to arrange to have intelligence and police agencies, government representatives, a government agency supposedly responsible to Parliament and the Canadian people (the NEB) and corporate executives all sit around a table to explicitly violate not only our democratic rights but the law of the land is a grotesque step beyond.

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The rational for the collection of covert intelligence on environmental groups opposed to the gateway project was protection of the NEB hearings and the panel members conducting them. But clearly no one believed there was a threat. RCMP's Tim O'Neil, senior criminal intelligence research specialist, reported there was "no intelligence indicating a criminal threat to the NEB or its members... I could not detect a direct or specific criminal threat." Nonetheless, he delivered the desired, contradictory (and outrageous) prediction: "It is highly likely that the NEB may expect to receive threats to its hearings and its board members."

Let's be clear about who was being targeted as potential sources of these alleged threats: some of the most public, transparent and principled organizations in the country, including Idle No More, ForestEthics, Sierra Club, EcoSociety, Leadnow, Dogwood Initiative, the Council of Canadians and the People's Summit. None of these organizations have ever been cited for any activity except effective democratic engagement.

http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2014/02/10/Big-Oil-Democracy-Hijacked/