Roundup: Spooking the oil sands companies

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The “Pathways Alliance” consortium of oil sands companies scrubbed their website as the bill that expands the Competition Bureau’s powers around investigating greenwashing gets royal assent, which seems to be suspiciously like a tell. I’m aware that they have been subject to particular legal claims around greenwashing, and when you add to that the parts in that Deloitte report that Alberta commissioned around the emissions cap, there was some specific language in there around the fact that carbon capture and storage is likely just an expensive money pit that won’t do much to lower emissions, it feels like Pathways is feeling the pressure, and that perhaps the oil and gas industry has reached its put-up-or-shut-up moment, that they can’t keep pretending that they can carry on as usual with the promise that CCS will come sooner than later, and we’ll have no more emissions problems (while the industry also makes up specific “cleanest” claims around oil and gas production, which also doesn’t stand up to scrutiny).

This being said, I will acknowledge that Andrew Leach has some specific reservations around the legislation and the enforcement of all green claims, because some of the burden of proof, even with companies that are actually doing clean or green things. It’s an issue to keep in mind in any case.

Ukraine Dispatch

A Russian attack in Donetsk killed three and injured four, while overnight missile and drone attacks have damaged yet another thermal power plant. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced new plans to mitigate those attacks, and part of it is transitioning to greener sources of electricity .

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1803435004866826530

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau went to Nova Scotia to announce the guidelines around negotiations with provinces for the school food programme, in the hopes it’s running next year.
  • Arif Virani says the RCMP already has all of the tools they need to deal with threats and harassment of politicians, and they need to empower their own units.
  • Diane Lebouthillier wants BC to be a model for closed-containment aquaculture, while William Shatner is profanely against open-net salmon farms.
  • The foreign agent registry bill has now received royal assent, along with a number of other bills including the budget implementation bill.
  • NSIRA is calling out the RCMP for sharing information with a foreign regime that had a high risk of engaging in torture.
  • Some civil servants are objecting to a “robot” prowling certain workspaces, which is supposed to be looking at space usage and environmental conditions.
  • The “no-fly list” survived a constitutional challenge brought forward by two suspected Sikh extremists.
  • The courts have agreed to an extension on the timeline to pass the bill to restore citizenship to “lost Canadians,” which didn’t pass this spring.
  • A judge found no documented evidence to support allegations made against Han Dong by a former Global reporter, and is allowing his defamation suit to go ahead.
  • National Security Advisor Nathalie Drouin told the Procedure and House Affairs committee that she has ensured Justice Hogue has documents she needs.
  • Not unsurprisingly, a number of unnamed Liberals are saying it’s time for Trudeau to go, with others ambivalent because they see him dragging the party down.
  • Tourism minister Soraya Martinez Ferrada talks about fleeing Pinochet’s regime in Chile when she was a child.
  • Liberal MP John McKay has decided not to run again next election (which may work out for neighbour Michael Coteau, whose riding is being lost to redistribution).
  • The Saskatchewan government has been ignoring requests from the provincial privacy commissioner to release public documents.

Odds and ends:

Surprising nobody, Ottawa’s mayor is trying to blame the federal government for municipal decisions around transit for Canada Day festivities. Of course.

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