Our Captured Oil and Gas Regulators: Institutional Racism at Work

Recent months provide fresh evidence that despite Canada’s formal support of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), racist decision-making permeates the practices of oil and gas regulators and their political masters.

Colonialism: The Home Front – Bay du Nord

Much has been made of the UN’s International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC’s) acknowledgement in its Sixth Assessment Report that persistent colonialism is a causal factor (with “high confidence”, no less) for catastrophic climate change. And it is a noteworthy addition. However, both the wording in the report and much of the positive reaction to it underestimate the pervasiveness of colonialism and colonial relationships beyond the obvious geopolitical level.

Bay du Nord: The Avoidable Fiasco

The Trudeau Liberals decision to approve a massive new oil and gas development in the deep and stormy waters of the North Atlantic off Newfoundland and Labrador is a perfect illustration of corporate colonialism at work. Big Oil has had its way. The rest of us be damned! From the disingenuous impact assessment process behind… Continue reading Bay du Nord: The Avoidable Fiasco

Bay du Nord: Just Say No!

Equinor, Norway’s giant state-owned oil company and the Canada’s Husky want to drill dozens of oil wells in the massive $6.8 billion Bay du Nord project in very deep water in the stormy Atlantic 500 kilometres east of Newfoundland and Labrador. Quite apart from the fact that the project’s planned production of 200,000 bbls of… Continue reading Bay du Nord: Just Say No!

Nova Scotia Needs an Alternative, Sustainable Economic Strategy

Opposing Offshore Oil Exploration is an Essential Part of an Alternative Economic Strategy for Nova Scotia “investments in fossil fuel industries create far fewer jobs than green economy investments” (Marc Lee and Amanda Card, “A Green Industrial Revolution”, CCPA, 2012) My thesis is that the long-run returns to the province from investment in a restored… Continue reading Nova Scotia Needs an Alternative, Sustainable Economic Strategy