As the global demand for fossil fuels rises consistently, year over year, Canadians are told yet again, we should leave ours in the ground. This week, environmental activists celebrated the death of the Teck Frontier mine. Environmentalist David Suzuki promptly tweeted “AWESOME news! Teck has withdrawn its application for the Frontier oilsands mine. BIG thanks to each and every one of you who spoke up to say #RejectTeck.”
Of course, many westerners have a different take on the subject. That includes First Nations who had signed on to the project and were hoping to profit from it. Ron Quintal, president of the Fort McKay Metis, told APTN that the political treatment of the project had been “deplorable,” adding that “this is a black eye for Canada. This is a blow to Canada’s global investment competitiveness.”
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Even arch-central Canadian Michael Ignatieff, former federal Liberal leader, saw fit to add his two cents to the conversation at an event at Cambridge University earlier this month.
“If you don’t believe that’s a process you have to go through, if you just think, oh, forget about Alberta and Saskatchewan, forget about the energy-producing provinces because the mortal threat is so great, we just read out a whole constituency of our country from consideration, you get away from democracy.”
Indeed. You hew closer to mob rule, or cancel culture, or whatever passes for consensus-building these days. It’s where the loudest voices — the radical environmentalists, anarchists and anti-capitalists successfully piling on to Indigenous protests — call the tune, and the prime minister dances as fast as he can. As for the silent majority, desperately trying to take the last functioning GO train home to pick up their kid from daycare, or hoping to get a job at one of the projects now on the scrap heap, they’re out of luck.
Watching this sad circus from the sidelines is the Canadian and foreign investment community, and their takeaway is clear: this is too much trouble to be worth it. This is, of course, exactly the “win” the protesters are looking for. Their goal is not reconciliation, but repudiation: a rejection of the project that is the Canadian state.
What better way to do so than to strike at the heart of what built the country in the first place, the extraction of natural resources? It’s not just an economic attack, but a philosophical one. It repudiates what Canada has traditionally stood for: a triumph over the hardships of an unforgiving landscape, where pioneers forged a life for themselves and future generations, where they went to escape poverty, war, famine or rigid class structures. Until recently, to have been a “settler” was a brave thing; today, the term is burdened with shame by those who equate it with dominance and an ongoing “colonization” designed to oppress Indigenous Peoples.
Of course, this wasn’t why settlers came here at all. Contrary to what protesters would have you believe, colonization wasn’t a centuries-long conspiracy to oppress Indigenous people, but a resource extraction and trading opportunity. If the landscape hadn’t been teeming with furs, fish, timber, minerals and, later, oil, the colonizers would never have stuck around. And though our economy has diversified, resources still lie at its core: resources that, ironically, stand to finally benefit the Indigenous societies.
And there are a substantial number of Indigenous communities that wish to profit from those resources. Twenty First Nations signed on to the Coastal GasLink project, a deal that would have paid out hundreds of millions of dollars to communities that need them. Fourteen nations wanted to participate in the Teck Frontier mine, for the same reasons. In just two years, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, 399 Indigenous companies did business with oilsands operators in Alberta. Six per cent of the workforce in the oil and gas industry identify as Indigenous. According to the Montreal Economic Institute, their average wage is $150,000 a year.
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2:39 Teck Resources drops $20.6 billion Alberta oilsands project
Teck Resources drops $20.6 billion Alberta oilsands project
The division fuelling protests today isn’t between “Indigenous” people and “settlers.” It is between two groups represented both inside and outside the Indigenous community. One rejects the development of an industrial economy, the exploitation of resources, and the profit motive, and uses the fight against climate change and the delegitimization of the Canadian state to literally “shut down Canada.” The other seeks to continue the wealth-building exercise of industrial development and resource extraction that has served Canada for hundreds of years, while ensuring that it is more equitably shared by all people living here, including Indigenous communities whose ancestors predate the Canadian nation.
Which Canada will prevail? That depends on our political leadership, notably our prime minister, and how they manage this conflict. If Ottawa does not stand up for the energy sector, champion new technologies like carbon capture, and defend the interests of thousands of workers, then new projects will die on the vine. But if it sends the message that Canada’s resource sector will not be wholly sacrificed on the twin altars of climate change and anti-colonialism, then maybe, just maybe, both democracy and prosperity stand a fighting chance.
1:54 Politicians jump all over Teck pulling out of Alberta mine
Politicians jump all over Teck pulling out of Alberta mine
Tasha Kheiriddin is the founder and CEO of Ellipsum Communications and a Global News contributor.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
