Oh, the hypocrisy… Oilsands, EthicalOil.org and Foreign Funding

Wow. Talk about the hypocrisy. So EthicalOil.org which has been leading the charge about how foreign money is influencing environmental groups and the regulatory process. But… apparently it refuses to disclose its donor list.

The double truths get better. While they state on their website they only receive money from Canadian and Canadian companies they won’t reveal if any of those Canadian companies are owned by foreign entities.

From the New York Times:

While most Canadian environmental groups are charities and must disclose the major sources of their funds, Ethical Oil does not. Ms. Marshall said that the group accepted money from only Canadians and Canadian companies, although she declined to directly say if that included Canadian corporations controlled by foreign entities. Many of the large energy companies active in the oil sands are foreign-owned or -controlled.

So just to be clear: If an American or Chinese multinational funnels money through its Canadian subsidiary into ethicaloil.org that is okay. But if a US foundation gives money to a Canadian environmental non-profit, that’s foreign meddling?

Someone needs to talk to Minister Joe Oliver. If ethicaloil is going to be shaping government talking points and policy (Alykhan Velshi who helped run ethicaloil.org now works in the Prime Minister’s office) then it appears “foreign money” infiltrating the process than he already believed!

Let’s have a full debate about the pipeline – as someone who wants to learn more about it I’d like the process to be as open, participatory and transparent as possible.

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