Say what you will about Alberta’s United Conservative Party Government, you have to admire their sheer brass.
Consider the impassioned protests of the province’s so-called environment minister, Rebecca Schulz, whose job apparently principally involves enabling and even encouraging environmental destruction by fossil fuel extraction corporations, at the prospect of federal legislation that would try to hold Big Oil to the alien concept of truth in advertising.
Quelle horreur!
On Thursday, under the headline “Bill C-59 gag order must be stopped,” Ms. Schulz, or more likely someone in the UCP strategic brain trust, published an overwrought screed on the government’s official web page claiming Ottawa’s Fall Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2023, is a major attack on free speech.
What is proposed is not a gag order, of course, and the bill contains a long list of what could be referred to as housekeeping items. As for the utility of the truth-in-advertising measures included in its pages, there’s probably not much given the short time likely remaining to the Liberal federal government.
Still, the bill, tabled last fall and not to be confused with the 2017 national security bill with the same number, has been amended to include a provision to try to prevent “greenwashing” by requiring corporations to provide evidence to support their environmental claims.
Greenwashing is usually defined as a form of marketing spin intended to persuade members of the public that a product, service or activity is more environmentally friendly than it really is.
The bill has been barely reported by mainstream media, and what little analysis there is tends to be hidden on specialty political publications behind expensive paywalls. So this has provided an opportunity for the UCP to make outrageous claims about the legislation that are more difficult to challenge than they would have been had the media done its job.
Ms. Schulz’s hysterical broadside fingers NDP MP Charlie Angus for amendments to the implementation legislation inspired by his unsuccessful private member’s bill that managed to “sneak” into C-59 “through the back door.” Well, OK …
After complaining that the bill is supported by Bloc Québécois, NDP and Liberals – pretty broad support given Parliament’s current makeup – she complains that it will allow environmental activists (bad) to sue oil and gas companies (good) “over ‘misleading environmental benefits.’”
“Companies that wish to defend their environmental record will have to prove that their claims can be substantiated by an ‘internationally recognized methodology,’ a vague and undefined phrase that creates needless uncertainty for businesses,” she continues.
“Any company not willing to risk millions of dollars in fines and legal fees will be forced to stay silent. And that is exactly the outcome that Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault and the federal Liberal-NDP-Bloc Québécois alliance wants to happen.”
The “Liberal-NDP-Bloc Québécois alliance”? Meaning in this case support for the same bill. I’m frankly surprised the UCP’s screed writer didn’t call it an “axis of evil.”
In a statement published yesterday, the Environmental Defence advocacy organization accused Ms. Schulz of trying “to create controversy out of legislation that simply demands companies tell the truth,” which under the circumstances seems fair.
“Greenwashing is a pervasive issue, and there should be consequences for companies lying about their green credentials,” the Environmental Defence statement continued. “The important amendments made to Bill C-59 will help protect consumers from greenwashing and help tackle misinformation about the causes of and solutions to climate change.
“Alberta should not be siding with big polluters over the public.”
Well, as to that last sentence, perhaps Environmental Defence missed how siding with big polluters over the public, even when the public includes traditionally conservative voters, is embedded deeply in the DNA of the UCP. If you doubt me, just consider the party’s approach to coal mining on the eastern slopes of the Rockies.
Mr. Angus, who plans to retire from Parliament after the next election, said much the same thing on X.
“Having rules to prevent corporations from engaging in false advertising is a basic tenet of consumer protection,” the MP for Timmins-James Bay observed in response to a copy of the minister’s statement published on social media, which includes a laughable graphic of a well-fed white guy with a nice necktie and a piece of duct tape slapped over his mouth. “You can tell that Big Oil is feeling the heat when they need to call on the UCP to protect their longstanding tradition of false advertising. tsk. tsk.”
This, in turn aroused a riposte from Ms. Schulz. Mr. Angus and Mr. Guilbeault “like to pretend this is about corporate advertising, but it’s really about shutting down dissenting opinion,” she huffed. “They will fine, jail & bankrupt anybody who disagrees with them. If they had any integrity, they’d let their ideas be debated without putting their thumb on the scale.”
The bill is now headed to the Senate. No one will ever be jailed or bankrupted as a result of its provisions, even if the Liberals miraculously hang onto power.
But let’s give the last quote about this to Sarah Elmeligi, MLA for Banff-Kananaskis and the Alberta NDP’s environment critic, who also weighed in yesterday on X.
“Did a UCP Minister just complain about limiting debate? Wow. Considering that ALL UCP MLAs just voted for the most time allocations in Alberta history, limiting debate on several important bills to a couple of hours, I find that a bit rich.”
Readers will recall that the UCP has used “time allocation” – closure, that is – to shut down debate more than 50 times since the party came to power in 2019. The NDP used it four times over four years.
And squelching debate in the Legislature is only part of the story with the UCP – they also want to silence dissenting voices on campus, in municipal councils, in academic research, and independent agencies. The list of ideas the UCP doesn’t want debated is very long indeed.
So, yes, Ms. Schulz’s drum-beating is pretty rich.
But the UCP has no shame, and hence it cannot be shamed. Which is a shame.
All mouth and no brains is the best way to describe the UCP and their supporters, who simply cannot discern between a phony Conservative, a Reformer, and a real Conservative, like Peter Lougheed was. It’s now been a year since the UCP were re-elected and what have they done that is so impressive? Nothing. Phony Conservatives and Reformers will say anything to get re-elected, and those who are easily fooled, fall for it. We still have a $260 billion orphan oil well mess in Alberta, which Ralph Klein gave us. Danielle Smith is throwing $20 billion of our money away to address this problem. Peter Lougheed never let this get out of hand. The media goes right along with the UCP, and spreads their lies. In newspapers, such as Postmedia owned ones, they won’t publish any letters that criticize the UCP, or even Pierre Poilievre. Even other newspapers in Alberta don’t publish letters that criticize the UCP anymore. Our hospitals, schools, the elderly and the needy are the ones who suffer because the UCP only cares about their rich friends. Where’s the sense in that?
“Ms Schultz’s hysterical broadside………etc. etc. ”
Intentional or not LMAO, and can’t wait to read it to my sister. Laughter really is a good medicine— and we really need it right now.
Seriously though, the greenwashing was also brought up by, ironically, Green party leader Sonia Furstenau in March ( article in the Tyee– “Leaked decision slams LNG ads for greenwashing “__May 31st..
I don’t follow Alberta newspapers these days…has it really gotten that bad?
Expat: In my opinion, worse, actually. DJC
Expat – there are no newspapers in Alberta, just UCP propaganda.
If “truth in advertising” was a thing in Alberta, the UCP would be run out of gthe province for campaigning on one set of promises and governing with an entirely different one.
A whole year and what have they got to show for that year? Massively overcrowded classrooms and no plans for more schools, clawed back ‘help’ for electricity users and no plans for rules regarding rate increases, some vague notion of limiting renewable investments in Alberta, an attempt to steal the pension of Canadians, oil companies still not cleaning up their own abandoned wells……wow, the list is long! I could go on and on and not one thing is a positive!
Of course the UCP have no problem with dissenting opinion, just ask the students protesting at the U of A and the U of C. The only thing missing from the police clearing the protests was the goose step.
Yes, the UCP has become shameless under Smith. So when they try to limit debate, which they have done too often, they claim because it is to get done what they have a mandate to do. Of course they are doing many things not discussed in the last election and have shifted positions on other things discussed.
Kenney at least made an effort to seem respectable at times, the current bunch has largely given up any pretence.
I suppose this should not be surprising for a bunch that constsntly complains about being bullied by the Feds, but then goes on to bully those it has power over.
Ms. Schulz: “And that is exactly the outcome that Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault and the federal Liberal-NDP-Bloc Québécois alliance wants to happen.”
Her friend Mr. Peepers appeared on CTV News, May 29, 2o24. “It used to be that people would flee from countries to come to Canada, but now people are fleeing from Canada to Nicaragua, because they can’t afford nine years of Trudeau.”
Travel.gc.ca, the Government of Canada’s website is unequivocal. “The political situation is volatile in Nicaragua. The country has experienced periods of political unrest since 2018, resulting in hundreds of deaths and detentions. According to UN reports, Nicaraguan authorities undertake arbitrary arrests and detentions, censure media, prevent certain individuals from departing the country for political reasons, arbitrarily seize and search private property for anti-government content, arbitrarily charge individuals with terrorism, money laundering and organized crime offences for political reasons.”
Is Mr. Peepers suggesting a Peepers-Nicaragua alliance?
To—- Mr Peepers needs better script writers.
He said –he was “talking” to this woman who had moved her family to Nicaragua; but she was from Cape Breton, and he’s talking to her in Ontario….really?
And given that the government of Nicaragua is on such reciprocal status with Russia, I would think a certain investigative body would be doing some homework.
And Mr Peepers comments about people leaving because of the politics here, were almost a direct quote from the NBC interview with the gentleman that was moving from Florida back up north; I believe it was Maine(?) because of the politics in Florida.
Just like his little speech in the HoC: Legendary businessman leaving Canada…yada yada, he wrote me a letter; then proceeds to read it– Dear Victor— oops, well the letter was to his friend, but I got it….
By this time ,I feel like I’m having a Linda Blair moment.
Green washing from Mr Peepers involves alot of anti nausea medication .
IMHO, he is a walking/ strutting poster child for AI…
false advertising by an Alberta government!!
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/apr/25/ottawa-northumberland-advert
Trailblazer: This was simply a dumb mistake, something of which I have made my share, as have we all. This would have been no big deal at all if the government of the day had simply admitted the error, apologized, and fixed it. Instead, they compounded the stupidity to the point of idiocy by claiming it was all part of the plan. When the UCP came along, the person ultimately responsible for the mistake was made the boss of the Energy War Room. Well, some people always fail up. DJC
Ah, memories of the UCP leadership race are fading. Days when there was slight hope that a relatively sane candidate would replace Kenney. Before batshit lady swooped in to take the ultimate prize, Schulz positioned herself as one of those “decent” candidates. Flash forward to day and she has thrown that image down the toilet. She has shown herself to be nothing more than the stereotypical UCP opportunistic pig at the trough. Pulled into line by her Dear Leader. True colours, as they say. I think a new nickname is in order: Rebecca “Sergeant” Schulz. She hears nothing, she sees nothing, she knows nothing.
Readers will need to be as old as you and me, Firth, to get that Sergeant Schulz reference. DJC
As ‘young’ as us….lol
Moi aussi….
Wasn’t it the current leader of the UCP, Danielle Smith, who once claimed that cigarette smoking has health benefits, decades after scientific evidence and common sense conspired to push the outrageous claim, based on many, many years of scientific studies and evidence, that smoking is very, very bad for you?
https://pressprogress.ca/danielle-smith-claimed-smoking-cigarettes-had-positive-health-benefits/#:~:text=United%20Conservative%20Party%20leadership%20candidate,also%20had%20special%20health%20benefits.
“The evidence shows moderate cigarette consumption can reduce traditional risks of disease by 75 per cent or more,” Smith wrote. “Shouldn’t smokers be told?”
Who needs scientific evidence? Not Smith and her UCP, that’s for sure. Perhaps they’ll start a free cigarette distribution program for children.
As a political spin doctor for the fossil fuel industry, the ‘job’ for the Alberta Environment Minister is to both protect the image of her clients and to influence or manage public opinion and perception by applying information management techniques and processes, that is for example, “If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without them knowing it.” Why that is both the order of things and accepted wisdom in a neo-liberal corporate (petro) state should be obvious both generally and specifically.
Therefore it is no coincidence that both the political spin doctor as corporate PR manager (as above) and the represented corporate client(s) use the same tactics in order to achieve similar desired outcomes. For example, “. . . beyond outright disinformation, ExxonMobil has used language to subtly but systematically shape the way the public thinks about climate change, often in misleading ways. That study demonstrates how the company has selectively emphasized some terms and topics in public while consistently avoiding others.”
Speaking of spin doctors…I wonder if Danielle Smith has been giving lessons in projecting moral outrage to her cabinet.
The UPC is correct in being worried about “truth in advertising” for those companies and eliminating “green washing”. Horrors of horrors!
What would be next: A bill demanding political parties tell the truth? That could be a problem. Sort of like, governments approving certain projects such as oil wells, dams, mining for whatever because there would be no harm to the enviornment or animals. After the damage has been done, what if voters sued the government.
I know it was tried here back in the 1990s and got no where, but times change. (a voter sued Glen Clark when he was Premier because he did not provide all promised in the election. Judge threw the case out) As time changes and the impacts of things become more serious, who knows. In North Vancouver they have a waste water plant being built and its $3B over budget–ya you have to work on that. Now home owners are going to have to pay for that, starting with North Shore residents to the tune of $500 and change per year for 30 years.
Truth in advertising is a concept which needs to be enforced. Governments ought not to be exempted. Politicians lie, or rather one could say its their version of the truth but if I lie, I could wind up in jail depending upon the lie or having to pay out a lot of money.
e.a.f.: It certainly could turn out to be a problem that they set up the Alberta Energy War Room, official known as the Canadian Energy Centre, as a private company, now, couldn’t it? DJC
The Hogan’s Heroes when applied to the UCP is highly instructive. A quick look at the villains among the cast leaves from interesting parallels to the real life characters in Queen Danielle’s government …
Colonel Wilhelm Klink. The commandant of Stalag 13 is an often befuddled character who is in a situation that he doesn’t care for, working we people he doesn’t particularly like, toward and end that he has no interest in. As for what is happening under his nose, he would be thrown into panic at the thought that he will look bad if the truth is ever discovered. In the current UCP cabinet, the person fitting this profile is Rick McIver. I mean this guy makes himself available to do the dirty work, but does he really want to?
Sergeant Hans Schultz. The long-suffering Schultz wants no part of the machinations that are occuring around him. Schutz’s job is to guard the camp and keep the prisoners secure, but he can always be bribed with apple strudel in exchange for his willful ignorance. The only things that Schultz fears is his wife and serving on the Russian Front. In the UCP, Rebecca Schultz is someone who has taken willful ignorance to performance art. I mean ever announcement she delivers has her tongue firmly stuck in her cheek.
Major Wolfgang Hochstetter. Gestapo officer Hochstetter is a fearsome raving lunatic, ready to dispense punishments and bouts of maniacal screaming for the sake of his ideological and moral purity. David Parker of TBA fits this one pretty nicely.
General Burkhalter. Burkhalter is Klink’s commander, but he’s rather not let any crisis get in the way of his easy way of life. He’s a lazy officer and leader, and he enjoys that very much. And if something embarrassing does happen, Burkhalter is always quick to blame someone else for whatever failed. Danielle Smith fits this role nicely. She is lazy and has no intention of doing her job well. If anything, she’s determined to break everything and drop some kind of blame on PMJT. She has no intention of sticking around, and the moment R Star (whatever it is now) is in place, she’s as good as gone.
JM: Well done. I read “Colonel Wilhelm Klink,” and thought: Ric McIver. You nailed it, IMO. DJC
DJC and Just Me….
2 thumbs up…LOL