Apr. 30, 2008 - Issue #654: SNFU
Alberta energy minister forced to retract ‘slanderous’ statements
Energy Minister Mel Knight was forced to apologize for comments he had
previously made about the position of environmental group the Sierra Club
in the Legislature this week, as his government launches a $25 million
public relations offensive selling the tar sands as environmentally
responsible.
On Apr 24, the minister told the legislature that “it might be very
interesting ... to understand that one of the ... major forces working with
respect to environmental concerns globally, the Sierra Club, runs ads in
Europe in favour of nuclear energy, Mr Speaker, in favour of nuclear
energy.”
The comments raised eyebrows, and a demand for a public apology from the
Sierra Club, who called the comments “slanderous,” pointing out
that the Sierra Club does not have a European arm and the Sierra Clubs of
Canada and the United States both oppose nuclear energy.
On Apr 29, Knight rose in the legislature and apologized for his comments,
saying, “Mr Speaker, thank you very much for affording me the
opportunity here this afternoon to clarify a statement that I made in this
Assembly on Thursday last. The statement was regarding nuclear energy and
the Sierra Club. I have since learned it was incorrect. As soon as I
learned that the statement was incorrect, I called the director of the
Sierra Club and expressed regret for the error and assured her that it was
not done with intent. Today I just want to take the opportunity to correct
the record in the Assembly as well. I understand that the Sierra Club does
not operate in Europe and does not support nuclear energy.
My statement that this organization took out ads in Europe was, in fact,
wrong.”
Minister Knight’s comments came in response to questions about the
impartiality of the government’s new expert panel on nuclear
energy.
Sierra Club Prairie Director Lindsay Telfer says that the chair of the
panel, John Luxat, is a “past president of the Canadian Nuclear
Society, which is well known as a pro-nuclear lobby
organization.”
In his conversation with the Sierra Club, Telfer says the energy minister
declined to revisit the makeup of the nuclear study panel, insisting that
it was unbiased. Telfer adds that the minister also refuses to publicly
release the panel’s terms of reference.
The Energy Minister’s false statements about the Sierra Club were not
the first time last week that the Sierra Club was mentioned by a
high-ranking Conservative politician.
After Greenpeace activists dropped a banner at a $450 a plate Conservative
party fundraiser, Premier Stelmach told the news media that he wasn’t
“going to leave it up to Greenpeace, the Sierra Club or any of these
other groups ... to get the message out to other jurisdictions,” a
message he repeated the same evening Knight issued his apology. The Sierra
Club had nothing to do with the Greenpeace action.
Greenpeace tar sands campaigner Mike Hudema says the government has stepped
up its rhetoric against environmental groups—whether it was
Greenpeace in the wake of the banner action at the fundraiser, or comments
made about the Sierra Club—as environmentalists have been successful
in raising awareness about the effects of unchecked development in the tar
sands.
“All of this is a renewed attempt at discrediting us ... mostly
because many groups have been quite successful in talking about the
environmental and social consequences of this dirty source of
oil.”
The Stelmach Conservatives are spending $25 million of taxpayers’
money on a ‘branding’ exercise, attempting to paint the Alberta
tar sands as an environmentally responsible source of oil. Telfer says most
of the money will be spent in the United States.
Hudema says several opinion polls, as well as calls from labour, poverty
and landowner groups, have shown that there is considerable public appetite
for a slowdown in Ft McMurray amongst Albertans.
Still, Hudema says the battle is national and international in scope.
“Almost none of the oil coming from the tar sands is for us, as Albertans. Almost none of the companies are even based here, and the end product is all being shipped to the US. These new attacks and all this money they’re spending shows that we’re making some headway in telling the end consumer about the truth behind the tar sands.” V
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