Tuesday started out sunny for me, but hail fell out of the sky in the afternoon. It was a Victoria day like any other until I found out the Canadian government has been vigorously spying on Canadian organizations that work for environmental protections and democratic rights.
听I read the news in the online Vancouver Observer. There, front and centre, was the name of the organization I worked for until recently: Victoria-based Dogwood Initiative.
听My colleagues and I had been wary of being spied on for the past couple years, but having it confirmed still took the wind out of me.
听I told my parents about the article over dinner. They鈥檙e retired school teachers who lived in northern Alberta for 35 years before moving to Victoria.
听I asked: 鈥淒id you know the Canadian government is spending your tax dollars to spy on your daughter?鈥�
听Then I told them how one of the events detailed in emails from Richard Garber, the National Energy Board鈥檚 鈥済roup leader of security,鈥� was at a workshop at a Kelowna church run by one of my colleagues. About 30 people, mostly retirees, attended to learn about storytelling, theories of change and creative sign-making. (Sounds threatening, right?)
听In the emails, obtained under the Access to Information Act, Garber marshals security and intelligence operations between government operations and private interests and notes that his security team has consulted with sa国际传媒鈥檚 spy agency, CSIS.
听To add insult to injury, another set of documents shows CSIS and the RCMP have been inviting oil executives to secret classified briefings at CSIS headquarters in Ottawa, in what the U.K.鈥檚 Guardian describes as 鈥渦nprecedented surveillance and intelligence sharing with companies.鈥�
These meetings covered 鈥渢hreats鈥� to energy infrastructure and 鈥渃hallenges to energy projects from environmental groups.鈥� Guess who is prominently displayed as a sponsor on the agenda for May鈥檚 meeting? Enbridge.
I asked my folks: 鈥淚sn鈥檛 that scary? CSIS is hosting classified briefings sponsored by Enbridge?鈥�
No answer. My parents are not the type to get themselves in a flap, but I prodded them: 鈥淒ad, this is scary, right?鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 scary,鈥� he admitted.
It鈥檚 unclear how much information is being provided to corporations such as Enbridge and state-owned Sinopec, the oil company that has a $10-million stake in Enbridge鈥檚 Northern Gateway pipeline and tanker proposal.
What kind of country spies on environmental organizations in the name of the oil industry? It seems more Nigerian than Canadian. I felt one part indignant, one part sad for my country.
听I鈥檓 not what you might think of as a typical 鈥渆nvironmentalist鈥濃�� I grew up in northern Alberta playing hockey and going to bush parties. Before my stint in the non-profit world, I worked at the Calgary Sun and Calgary Herald.
听I believe oil and gas deposits, including the oilsands, are a great asset 鈥� if developed in the public interest. A big 鈥渋f,鈥� but Canadians own these resources and the No. 1 priority when developing them should be that Canadians benefit.
For speaking out against increasing oil exports off sa国际传媒鈥檚 coast, hundreds of people like me have been called radicals and painted as enemies of the state, as somehow un-Canadian. That last bit bothers me the most.
听I love my country. And in my eyes, there isn鈥檛 anything much more patriotic than fighting for the interests of Canadian citizens.
I鈥檝e argued that after 25 years of oilsands development, Albertans should have something to show for it听鈥� not be facing budget crises and closing hospital beds. Canadians should develop resources at a responsible pace that doesn鈥檛 cause rampant inflation and unduly harm the environment, and should prioritize national energy security, instead of allowing half our country to depend on foreign oil.
听I don鈥檛 expect everyone to agree with me, but it鈥檚 a stretch to portray any of those statements as unpatriotic or radical.
听It saddens me that sa国际传媒 has been reduced to spying on its own citizens when they speak out against certain corporate interests, and then shares that intelligence with those corporations.
Wherever you stand on natural-resource development, I鈥檇 hope we could all agree sa国际传媒 should be a country where we can debate the most important issues of our time 鈥� without fear of being attacked or spied on by our own government.
听
Emma Gilchrist of Victoria is deputy editor of DeSmog sa国际传媒, a news site dedicated to sensible public conversations about the environment, social justice and the economy.听
