CANMORE – United Conservative Party leader Jason Kenney said he will legally challenge the status of charities and non-profit organizations that have engaged in a “campaign of defamation” against the province’s oil industry if his party is elected in the spring.
He made his comments during a Bow Valley Builders and Developers Association luncheon in Canmore on March 14.
“I respect entirely the freedom of speech of organizations including environmental groups, many of whom who have absolutely legitimate issues to raise with respect to energy development, but they cannot lie about what we do here,” said Kenney.
“We will put the folks who have been engaged in this campaign of defamation, make them accountable for what they do and say.”
He said these organizations apply a double standard to Alberta’s energy and resource development sector that they apply nowhere else in the world.
“That’s why our government would challenge the charitable status of some of these organizations that are in flagrant violation of Canadian charities laws, funneling foreign money into Canadian politics and courts.”
He took aim at Greenpeace and said his government would sue the non-profit organization for $300 million for defamation in U.S. courts for its campaign against Alberta’s forestry industry.
Greenpeace rejected his accusations.
“Anyone, whether corporations or politicians, trying to silence civil society will not succeed to criminalize free speech as it is vital for the protection of our communities and the planet. We will fearlessly fight and prevail because our work is grounded in the best available science," wrote Marie Moucarry, a communications officer with Greenpeace Canada.
Kenney's comments were part of a larger speech about Alberta’s economic woes. During that speech, he claimed Alberta’s energy sector is the target of an intensive lobbying campaign to land lock the province’s oil.
“We all know the economic consequences of being landlocked, but we need to drill down and look at what’s really happening, because I think while governments, and frankly the energy industry, have in some respects been playing checkers, the opponents of our prosperity have been playing chess and are several moves ahead of us,” said Kenney.
He pointed to a group of anti-fossil-fuel organizations that got together in 2008 to establish a Tar Stand Campaign to land lock Alberta’s energy.
“That campaign has been massively effective,” said Kenney, pointing to the canceled Northern Gateway Pipeline, the scuttled Energy East Pipeline, and the delayed Keystone XL pipeline.
“The challenge for us is to move from a tactical, passive and apologetic posture to an assertive and strategic posture as a province and as industry,” said Kenney. “That’s why I have a plan that involves a well-funded communications war room with the government of Alberta that will respond in real time to all of the lies and myths told about our province and our industries.”
For his full speech, see the video below, or visit the Outlook’s Facebook page.
[embed]https://www.facebook.com/rmoutlook/videos/338227723462321/[/embed]
