The BC Northern Gateway Pipeline 21

21 Con MPs from BC who apparently side with Enbridge rather than BC.

Kerry-Lynne Findlay : "NEB JRP conducted a rigorous/independent science-based review, heard from 1450+ parties & reviewed over 175K pages of evidence"

Mark Warawa : "Panel heard +1450 participants, reviewed +175,000 pages of evidence & 9,000 letters Concluded pipeline n public interest, can build safely"

Bob Zimmer : "The National Energy Board (NEB) Joint Review Panel conducted a rigorous, independent, science-based review, hearing from over 1450 participants in 21 communities and reviewing over 175 000 pages of evidence and 9000 letters."

Ok, enough of the wurlitzer ... but just for fun -- James Lunney : "Science settled? Think again! The Global Warming Hiatus..NP http://bit.ly/1i8A55F" 

So how's everyone doing with having elected MPs to represent Enbridge to them? From Nanos :

and yesterday's CBC Power and Politics Poll :

BTW, Evan Solomon, when frequent CBC  "power panellist" Alise MIlls tells you that the government's pipeline approval is "fair and balanced" and 

"internal polling that I've seen from the company that I work with" shows "a much more moveable vote", 

that's your cue to mention that the company she works with is the oil industry front group British Columbians for Prosperity.  
The group's founder, ex-oilman Bruce Lounds, has said their funding comes from "a combination of private citizens and corporate donations", but according to Mills, "he is no longer one of the key decision makers in the group"  :

Mills downplayed the executive director's statements regarding funding, saying he is no longer one of the key decision makers in the group.  She added that she is, along with a Board of Directors.  She said she would eventually disclose the board's names and full budget.

The best Northern Gateway Pipeline approval quote comes not from any of the above MPS but from the father of one of them, Enbridge lobbyist Chuck Strahl :

 “The federal government is loathe to go against expert opinion on science-based reports.”

*cough*  5 times Canadians were utterly misled about the Northern Gateway pipeline  *cough*

Write to the Enbridge 21 here :

Subject : You let BC down by siding with Enbridge

Your government just approved the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline and supertankers project. But the people of BC have already said no, and this pipeline will never be built. 

Over 130 First Nations have created a united wall of opposition and have launched numerous legal challenges. Eight out of eleven communities in the path of the pipeline and tankers have rejected it, including Kitimat, Prince Rupert, Ft St James, Terrace, and Charlotte City. Even the entire Union of BC Municipalities voted to oppose the project, twice.  

Only two responses out of 1,161 to the Joint Review Panel were in support of the project, and public opinion polls have consistently shown 2/3 of the province is opposed.
The Enbridge Northern Gateway project threatens our coastal economy, our land, water, First Nations, and our independence as a province to make our own decisions about our future. 

As an MP from BC, you let us down. You could have helped defend beautiful British Columbia from the Enbridge project, but instead you chose to gamble BC’s future.
You and your party will pay a steep political price in BC.
Northern gateway will be an election issue in 2015, and I pledge to vote for a candidate who will stand up for BC and stop this pipeline from being built. 

[Your name here]

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A National Prayer Breakfast for Israel, Pipelines, and Evangelicals

What an odd photo this is. 

Chuck Strahl -

•  former Aboriginal Affairs Minister and Chair of SIRC, 
• Enbridge lobbyist and Chair of the Manning Centre, 
• member of the Christian and Missionary Alliance along with Stephen Harper and Preston Manning 

is seen here wearing a FN headdress and giving a speech at the first Annual National Aboriginal Prayer Breakfast in Ottawa on June 21 last year. You'll notice he's speaking in front of the flags of Israel, Canada, and the U.S. - but none that I can see for First Nations.

Seated is Prayer Breakfast founder and former Cree chief Kenny Blacksmith of Gathering Nations International, a ministry to "promote a charter of forgiveness between First Nations and the government, churches and people of Canada".  In 2010 Blacksmith organized the National Forgiven Summit for First Nations, Metis and Inuit people to come to Ottawa to accept Stephen Harper's 2008 apology for residential school abuses. 
Harper's outreach to First Nations is looking a tad tattered recently in light of his determination to push his tarsands-to-tankers pipeline scheme through FN lands to the west coast whether they like it or not.

Blacksmith's 2006 Covenant of the First Peoples of Canada, which appears to have garnered more support among evangelicals than First Nations, has 12 signatory witnesses, of which one is anti-abortion crusader Faytene Kryskow Grasseschi who administered Blacksmith's National Forgiven Summit facebook page

Appearing on 100 Huntley Street, flagship of Christian broadcaster Crossroads International whose chairman accompanied Harper to Israel in January, Blacksmith explained why Article One of the Covenant proclaims to "bless Israel"

"We recognize the Jewish people as the first of all First Nations - they are a very tribal people and in fact you know I've always told our people that the Jewish people have a role in place to restore the integrity of the gospel of Christ back to our people."

Also speaking at last year's Breakfast was the co-host of The 700 Club Canada, and Christian Zionist Rev. James Goll from Tennessee, author of "Praying For Israel's Destiny : Effective Intercession for God's Purposes in the Middle East".

The breakfast was co-hosted by two anti-abortion crusaders, Con Senator Don Meredith - who received an honorary Doctor of Divinity from the a fore-mentioned 100 Huntley Street - and Enbridge pipeline booster Con MP James Lunney, who also accompanied Harper on his big trip to Israel in January, along with David Hearn, president of Strahl and Harper's church, the Christian and Missionary Alliance.

So - some peculiar links revealed in an odd photograph taken by Campaign Life Coalition  activist Paul Lauzon. 

All of which is just by way of my introduction to Amy MacPherson's brilliant The Granddaddy of Government Scandals, a research project that began investigating the federal government links to the anti abortion lobby and grew and grew and grew ....
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SIRC - the other board members

Big stink this week because in addition to being SIRC Chair, Chuck Strahl is also a registered lobbyist for Enbridge and for Alberta Frog Lake Energy Resources Corp, a First Nations firm that has partnered with a Chinese-company to drill for oil. This would probably never have blown up the way it did this week if ...

• if the Harper government as a whole didn't behave like pro-pipelines lobbyists and activists themselves,  
• if CSIS, the spy agency which SIRC oversees, didn't spy on anti-pipelines activists, and 
• if CSIS director Richard Fadden hadn't publicly expressed concerns in 2010 about "public officials and cabinet ministers in BC/Alberta being under the influence of China"

Strahl has stated he would recuse himself from any SIRC oversight of CSIS operations as they pertain to Enbridge - which not only doesn't seem very useful in a watchdog chair but could have been a useful reason to appoint Strahl to SIRC in the first place. Anytime SIRC is looking into whether CSIS is complying with the law in operations Strahl has a financial interest in, Strahl will be out in the hall.

Kady O'Malley pointed out that Strahl however is only one of five SIRC board members. 
Ok. How many of the other four of Steve's SIRC appointments also have grounds to be out in the hall when any oversight of CSIS operations re pipelines activities come up?

Denis Losier - appointed to SIRC from 2008-03-17 to 2014-03-16 is a member of the board at Enbridge Gas NB, a subsidiary of Enbridge Inc.

L. Yves Fortier - appointed to SIRC from 2013-08-08 to 2018-08-07 is a former director at TransCanada Pipelines

Deborah Grey - appointed April 2013 to April 2018
I don't know how former Chilliwack MP Strahl came to lobby for the First Nations Frog Lake Energy Resources in Alberta. Possibly through his contacts as Minister of Aboriginal Affairs or via the former SIRC chair till 2010 Gary Filmon, who is on the board of directors of Canadian Natural Resources Ltd which Frog Lake Energy Resources thanks as a partner. But fun fact - before Grey and Strahl led a Reform breakaway group together opposed to Stockwell Day in 2001 and prior to her distinguished career as a Reform MP, Deborah Grey was a high school teacher for ten years at Frog Lake Indian Reserve.

The fifth member, Frances Lankin's term is up this month. As CEO of United Way Toronto from 2001 to 2011, probably her partnership with Enbridge in the annual Enbridge CN Tower Stair Climb for United Way fundraiser would not be enough to put her in the hall.
It will be interesting to see who Steve nominates to replace her.


Additional ...
In his remarks to the Standing Senate Committee on National Security and Defence three weeks ago, Strahl tentatively endorsed a parliamentary oversight committee of intelligence agencies as recommended by Justices O'Connor and Iacobucci and like other Five Eyes partners have. "Not reinventing the wheel," he said, " just filling in the missing bits" - possibly alongside SIRC, with the proviso that such a body should retain independence of the minister. He did however mention this caveat if such a body is peopled by MPs: 

"... careful of what you ask for because you might actually get it. In this case, once you're privy to top-secret information, you can no longer stand for your constituents or your region or your province or anyone else and say, "I am appalled at what's happening in whatever," because now you are privy to top-secret information you're not allowed to talk about."

I blogged about his testimony at the time - which impressed me with its forthrightness - but I recommend reading the full transcript yourself, via Lux ex Umbra, your one-stop for all things spooky.
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The Manning Spy Watchdog Centre for Building Northern Gateway

The Vancouver Observer is reporting that last month former Reform/Alliance/Con MP Chuck Strahl added Enbridge "Northern Gateway Pipeline lobbyist" to the list of other part-time jobs he has accrued since leaving Harper's cabinet two years ago:

• Chair of  SIRC, the Security Intelligence Review Committee watchdog which oversees CSIS, for five years starting in June 2012
• Chair of the Manning Centre for Building Conservatives since April 2013
• two year election campaigner for Christy Clark, according to her, until the obvious conflict of interest went public a month before her re-election in May

It's a good article and I'm not going to rehash it here so go read.

A few additional notes :

In October 2011, the Vancouver Sun reported that Strahl had already bagged Enbridge as a client at his new private consultancy and quoted him as a self-described pipeline supporter.

G&M: CSIS, RCMP monitored activist groups before Northern Gateway hearings

"The National Energy Board worked with the RCMP and Canadian Security Intelligence Service to monitor the risk posed by environmental groups and First Nations in advance of public hearings into Enbridge Inc.’s Northern Gateway project."

So. Enbridge lobbyist and SIRC Chair Chuck Strahl monitors CSIS which in turn monitors the Canadians who don't want the Enbridge pipeline he is lobbying for.

Tim Groves at the Dominion, Oct 2012, before he moved to The Guardian : 

"The Canadian government has been orchestrating briefings that provide energy companies with classified intelligence from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the RCMP and other agencies, raising concerns that federal officials are spying on environmentalists and First Nations in order to provide information to the businesses they criticize.

The secret-level briefings have taken place twice a year since 2005."

In Nov 2010, the RCMP and CSIS assisted the department of Natural Resources in organizing a daylong event at CSIS headquarters in Ottawa. From a director of energy infrastructure security at Natural Resources :

"These forums provide excellent opportunities for energy sector stakeholders to develop ongoing trusting relations which facilitate the exchange of pertinent information 'off the record'."

Which hat would Strahl be wearing when he comes to review joint CSIS/energy sector stakeholder events like that? His Christy Enbridge lobbyist hat or his SIRC spy watchdog hat?

And what is SIRC's stance on closer ties being fostered between private sector tarsands giants like Enbridge and the spying agency it oversees? 

Strahl's predecessor at SIRC, disgraced fraudster Arthur Porter,  advocated for closer ties in 2011 :

"Today the Service [CSIS] is also reaching out to non-traditional partners, such as the private sector."

"In SIRC’s opinion, an effective strategy would involve identifying those sectors with the greatest potential to be of investigative value to the Service ... the Service strives to engage and support the private sector’s security needs in other ways. Efforts are also underway to increase the number of security clearances for individuals in the private sector."

Clearly, Porter saw the advantage in mining the private sector for intel in exchange for assurances regarding their security, as did former CSIS chief Jim Judd, head of the agency Porter was supposed to be monitoring, as quoted in the Review of CSIS's Private Sector Relationships (SIRC Study 2010-2012)


The ridiculous thing about Strahl registering as an Enbridge lobbyist with the BC gov in order to "arrange a meeting between Minister Rich Coleman and representatives from Northern Gateway Pipelines" is - does anyone really think Coleman and Enbridge need help finding each other?
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h/t : Strahl's 2012 by-election campaign ad at top via Jennifer Woodroff.
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Inside the Senate Committee on National Security

On Monday the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence heard from the watchdogs of both CSIS and CSEC - Chuck Strahl, Chair of the Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC), and CSEC Commissioner Jean-Pierre Plouffe.

Here Plouffe is explaining to Senator Romeo Dallaire why Justice Mosley slapped down CSIS for outsourcing their spying to their Five Eyes partners (US, UK, NZ, and Australia) via CSEC. Plouffe :

"CSIS has a jurisdiction which is limited to Canada, whereas CSE's jurisdiction reaches abroad. So CSIS, in accomplishing its activities, believes it has need of assistance from allies abroad and in order to obtain this, CSIS has to go through CSE because CSE deals directly with allies. In Justice Mosley's decision, CSIS asked for assistance from CSE because both individuals in question were abroad. And what happened is unfortunately CSIS did not disclose to Justice Mosley that they sought assistance from Five Eyes. So it is legal for CSE to call on the Five Eyes, however in this case there was a warrant from the court that specified it be within Canada not abroad. Mosley said CSIS was lacking in candor and good faith." 

Plouffe added this has "complicated" CSEC's relationship with the NSA and other partners.
The impression you get from listening to Plouffe is that the Five Eyes partners share just about anything and everything, with the Canadian contact being CSEC.

CSIS watchdog Chuck Strahl addressed this as problem for the privacy of Canadians, saying "we must put legal caveats on CSIS/CSE-generated intel" shared with Five Eyes partners and third parties :

 "CSIS is concerned with erosion of control of intelligence given to CSEC and by extension to the Five Eyes community." 

"CSIS has developed information privacy protocols with only one Five Eyes partner."

While Strahl doesn't reveal which Five Eyes partner it is we do have a privacy protocol with, a 2009 Memo of Understanding between the NSA and its Israeli counterpart does mention one between NSA and Canada. This was the Snowden-leaked doc which revealed an NSA agreement purporting to share raw unfiltered intelligence data with Israel, who is not a Five Eyes member, with the proviso that Israel weed out intel about Americans and other Five Eyes citizens .

Or as Strahl put it : "A Five Eyes partner may act independently on CSIS-originated info."

He said his office was limited to the oversight of CSIS and so his investigators were unable to follow threads that led into CSEC. Likewise Plouffe said his office could not stray into investigating CSIS. 

This was not, Strahl said, what O'Connor and Iacobucci had in mind when they each recommended a joint oversight, adding there is "no provision in current legislation, which is 30 years old, for parliamentary oversight", the only Five Eyes partner not to have any.

On Abdelrazik, Strahl said CSIS created an "exaggerated threat assessment" and "inappropriately disclosed classified information". 

The senators seemed far more concerned with what new measures had been put in place to prevent a "Snowden nightmare" in Canada than in the content his leaks revealed. They didn't ask a single question of Plouffe or Strahl about spying on the G20 in Canada and Brazil or allowing the NSA to build backdoors into internet encryption under our watch.

Not one.

For his part, Strahl said "Snowden has caused us to question how we work and that's good."

Asked what possessed him to come out of retirement last year to head up SIRC, Strahl laughed and said it was classified. 

I'll bet. SIRC has had an interim chair since the former SIRC chair and fraudster appointed by Harper, Dr. Arthur Porter, resigned in disgrace in 2011.

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Dec 20 Update : Plouffe's explanation above - on Justice Mosley chastising CSEC/CSIS for outsourcing their spying on Canadians to Five Eyes partners - goes public :

CSIS asked foreign agencies to spy on Canadians, kept court in dark, judge says

Canada's spy agencies chastised for duping courts

Canada’s spy agencies have deliberately misled judges to expand their eavesdropping powers unlawfully

Update : Senate Committee transcript up.
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Christy Clark and the Manning Centre for Building Conservatives

In March 2012, Christy Clark gave the opening remarks to the Ottawa Manning Centre Networking Conference, the yearly "conservative family reunion".

She was introduced by her then chief of staff, former senior Harper advisor, Enbridge lobbyist, and Alberta 'firewall manifesto' signatory Ken Boessenkool, who was her very first campaign manager back in 2010. 

"We have a duty to Canada" to easy the flow of products to Asia, she told her audience at the Manning Centre [a year ago]. "We support pipelines in British Columbia."

BC Conservative leader John Cummins was not invited.

Manning has in the past said he doesn’t support the political ambitions of Cummins, who was elected as a Reformer with Manning in the 1993 election, because vote-splitting on the centre-right always makes it easier for the NDP to assume power.

One-time Harper government cabinet minister, Jay Hill, also said Friday he’s backing Clark’s leadership. “I’ll do whatever I can to support her and support the B.C. Liberals."

Preston Manning, founder of the Reform Party and President of the Manning Centre, is also a senior fellow at the Koch-funded Fraser Institute.

Jay Hill was in charge of the Cons 200 page dirty tricks manual on how to disrupt and stonewall parliamentary committees back in 2007.

Also helping Christy's campaign was Chuck Strahl, former BC Reform and Con MP, now chair of the Manning Centre and chair of CSIS watchdog the Security Intelligence Review Committee since last June, at which time he had to give up working for Christy.

The only pollster to accurately predict Tuesday's election result was Christy's principal secretary and ADM in charge of "Intergovernmental Relations" till a year ago and now on contract to Christy, former Reform and Republican policy advisor Dimitri Pantazopoulos.

Premier’s Office targeted crucial election ridings for the B.C. Liberals — all on government time and your dime

"Premier Christy Clark’s former principal secretary, Dimitri Pantazopolous, and former deputy chief of staff Kim Haakstad were among those involved in a comprehensive strategy that used government staff and resources to try to win swing ridings for the BC Liberals ...  serious misconduct by government employees and misuse of government funds.   

“Dimitri was the driving force behind the swing teams, from its inception through to the operational phase."

Pantazoploulos also runs the Manning Centre Municipal Governance Project and is mentioned by Calgary developer Cal Wenzel in the now infamous cel vid about buying the campaigns of developer-friendly municipal candidates in order to defeat Calgary Mayor Nenshi.

On Ken Boessenkool's twitter account at Kool, Topp, & Guy Public Affairs - the political consultancy firm formed in February - Christy's former chief of staff Ken Boessenkool and Christy's election advisor Don Guy are busy congratulating Nick Kouvalis of Campaign Research on Christy Clark's federal ConservaLiberal campaign win.  
The third partner in the firm is BC NDP campaign director Brian Topp.

and a quick tweet from Rob Ford's chief of staff Mark Towhey:

You do remember Nick Kouvalis from Campaign Research,  don't you ? 

In addition to being Rob Ford's election architect, Kouvalis is a regular speaker at ... wait for it ... the Manning Centre yearly bunfest.

Fun fact :  Founding directors of the Manning Centre for Building Democracy :

• Nigel Wright, Harper's chief of staff, currently in the news for cutting Con senator Mike Duffy a $90,000 personal cheque to cover money the Duffster owed to the Senate for inappropriately claimed living expenses for the past four years while Duffy was being investigated for it,  and 
• Gwyn Morgan, Chairman of the Board of SNC Lavalin til May 2 this year, the company being investigated for fraud in four countries on three continents, was Steve's choice for heading up his brand new Accountability commission in 2006.

Manning Centre : "Congratulations to Christy Clark on a spectacular victory. The election of a non-socialist government in BC is in the best interests of BC and Canada."
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The Preston Manning Centre for Building Buildings

Covert cell phone video catches a Calgary developer homebuilder referring to buying the campaigns of development-friendly local candidates. In his speech to 150 Calgary industry nobs in November, his remarks about Preston Manning, who also attended and spoke at the meeting, appear at the 1:54 mark: 

"... keeping in mind, in order to bring Preston on board, 11 of us put up 100 thousand - so $1.1-million. So it's not like we haven't put up our money you know, and we are also going to be there to put up it again and yet we're also supporting the candidates."

Hey, those Manning Centre free marketeer courses put on for those Calgary municipal councilors don't pay for themselves, you know. 

They are run by Manning Centre Municipal Governance Project manager Dimitri Pantazopoulos, a former Republican pollster and Harper policy advisor, who was also Christy Clark's Trade and Intergovernmental Relations ADM and former principal secretary, now listed at his Manning Centre bio as one of her key advisors.  A "Dimitri" is mentioned by Cal Wenzel in the video above, asking Wenzel if anyone can beat Mayor Nenshi.

Even before seeing the vid, Mr Pantazopoulos had talking points circulated advising that Preston would be unable to respond to media questions because he was out of the country, however : 

"Incoming Manning Centre chair Chuck Strahl is prepared to respond to media as needed in Preston’s absence."

Chuck Strahl? Former BC ReformaCon MP Chuck Strahl is chair of the Manning Centre and chair of CSIS watchdog the Security Intelligence Review Committee since last June, and, along with Stockwell Day, helping Christy Clark with her BC election campaign ?

Another developer CEO at the conference said that it's : 

“up to Preston” if he needs more money beyond the $1.1 million. 

“He really appreciated getting funding. It helped to finish off the offices and other things, their training facilities.”

Ah yes, the brand new Manning Centre offices in Calgary ... home of the Manning Centre For Building Democracy Buildings. 

You know, you're really better off reading the locals on this one :
Alberta Diary and Daveberta
h/t Holly Stick
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Update : Calgary Mayor Nenshi tonight : 

" This has to do with the Manning Centre and I don't want to get into an enormous amount of detail on this but this is a challenge. I think the Canada Revenue needs to take a look at this.  

We've had the Manning Centre say over the last couple of days that the donors did not intend to enrich themselves, that they were giving the money generally to the work of the Manning Centre, but we have the donor himself saying on tape that he gave the money to bring Preston Manning onboard and to hire an employee for his campaign. In law, if the donation benefits the donor, it's not a donation. And a tax-exempt organization may not be a tax-exempt organization if it's working to the benefit of its donors. Now we understand that Preston Manning was in the room, another employee of the Manning Centre was in the room, so they cannot now claim they didn't realize that that was the donor's intent."

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Attawapiskat still being ignored

After waiting eight years for a new school, 700 students at Attawapiskat First Nations in Northern Ontario will instead be evacuated from the community to protect them from further toxic exposure to a 30-year-old diesel-oil spill under the old school. The demolition of the old school in March - nearly a decade after it was closed down due to contamination - has released noxious fumes causing nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea in the local residents.

Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada Chuck Strahl doesn't see what all the fuss is about.

I just cannot believe this is still going on.
Let Chuck know you are watching. Send him a cluebat at ottawa@chuckstrahl.com and cc it to NDP MPs Charlie Angus - AngusC@parl.gc.ca. and Gilles Bisson -GBisson@ndp.on.ca who have made a video of the people in this community telling their story.
That video is up at Cam Holstrom's who has been on this for months now.
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