Roundup: Open letters and complications

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Alberta premier Jason Kenney took the next step in his performance art when it comes to demanding the approval of the Teck Frontier mine, and released an open letter to Justin Trudeau, which reiterated his points for the approval of the project. Of course, he didn’t actually tell the truth with all of those points, which is kind of awkward. (And hey, CBC, you could have done more than just retype Kenney’s letter and actually include some of the pushback, like Andrew Leach’s fact-checking).

Leach also has some problems with the lack of a viable reclamation plan for the project’s end-pit lakes, which is kind of a big deal, because it does seem like they’re trying to handwave away the problem, and hope that maybe in the future they’ll have a magic new technology that will solve the problem. That’s not a good thing. (Thread here).

Meanwhile, the federal decision on the Teck Frontier mine may be complicated as at least one affected First Nation says their concerns aren’t being addressed by the province, which is kind of a big deal. In fact, he said that the federal government has been doing their part, but the province under Kenney’s government has pretty much walked away after the previous government was doing the work with them – hence why they’re calling for the project to only be conditionally approved, with the condition being that the province be given a deadline to complete their talks with the First Nation and addressing their concerns about the impacts that the project (if it goes ahead, which it likely won’t anytime soon) would have on their local environment. It would seem to me that it’s a problem that Kenney keeps insisting they have full Indigenous sign-off on the project if in fact they actually don’t – but the truth hasn’t stopped him at any point thus far.

Good reads:

  • While in Kuwait with the prime minister, François-Philippe Champagne said that Canadian troops wouldn’t return to Iraq without an explicit invitation.
  • Bill Morneau warned that the novel coronavirus outbreak will have an economic impact – particularly given the drop in the price of oil as a result.
  • The federal government has come to some kind of agreement with Newfoundland and Labrador about helping offset costs for the Muskrat Falls hydro project.
  • The backlog at Veterans Affairs continues to grow as the process of hiring new caseworkers can’t keep pace with the demand for services.
  • After 12 years and major expropriation dramas, the federal government is abandoning the plan to relocate the Joint Task Force 2 headquarters.
  • Foreign affairs experts are pessimistic that China would budge on releasing the two Michaels after Canada’s aid with the novel coronavirus.
  • More protests erupted across the country in solidarity with those protesting the Coastal GasLink pipeline, including at several ministers’ offices.
  • Dominic LeBlanc talks about battling a rare form of cancer during the election.
  • Liberal MP Julie Dabrusin has been public about her opposition to the Teck Frontier mine, one of the rare backbenchers to speak out.
  • Here’s a look at Peter MacKay’s relationship with a lobbyist who has been instrumental in SNC-Lavalin’s efforts to get a remediation agreement.
  • Marilyn Gladu is calling for the report into Andrew Scheer’s expenses be made available to party members.
  • Steve Paikin got to moderate a closed-door session with senators to hear about how hung parliaments work, and he writes up the assembled wisdom.
  • Susan Delacourt wonders if the tone in the House of Commons is getting any better in the new parliament.

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2 thoughts on “Roundup: Open letters and complications”

  1. “And hey, CBC, you could have done more than just retype Kenney’s letter and actually include some of the pushback, like Andrew Leach’s fact-checking”

    M$M got out of the fact-checking business a long time ago. Reality has a liberal bias, and conservatives cried foul that the media wasn’t being “fair and balanced” when challenging them on their propaganda. Enter the era of access journalism, the both-sides fallacy, and Orwellian untruthiness. The stenographers know where their bread is buttered, and petulant tyrants like Kenney, Harper and Trump know very well how to work the refs. Lying as a mere “difference of opinion” arguably plays as much of a role in the climate crisis as fossil-fuel pollution itself. Unchecked emissions from a bullsh!t factory.

  2. One should never trust the CBC to vet what is the truth or not. Their editorial staff are unfortunately not in many cases knowledgeable about the facts, their job is mainly to ensure there are no statements of offence or of a racial nature. To be fair they are the public broadcaster and work under some restrictive but sometimes archaic guidelines. That is why blogs like this one often provide the balance that the CBC or other major media struggle with.

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