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 Teck has withdrawn its application for the Frontier oilsands mine.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.
KITCHENER, Ont. – Prosecutors are arguing a man who stabbed a professor and two students in a University of Waterloo gender studies class last year should face a lengthy sentence because of the attack’s lasting impact on campus safety and security.
Federal prosecutor Althea Francis says a sentence in the upper range is appropriate not only because Geovanny Villalba-Aleman wanted to send a message about his views but also because he sought to make those with different beliefs feel unsafe.
The Crown has said it is seeking a sentence of 16 years for Villalba-Aleman, who pleaded guilty to four charges in the June 2023 campus attack.
The sentencing hearing for Villalba-Aleman began Monday and is expected to continue all week.
Federal prosecutors argued Tuesday that Villalba-Aleman’s statement to police, and a manifesto that was found on his phone, show his actions were motivated by ideology and meant to intimidate a segment of the population.
Villalba-Aleman pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated assault, one count of assault with a weapon and one count of assault causing bodily harm.
A video of his statement to police was shown in court earlier in the sentencing hearing.
In the video, Villalba-Aleman told police he felt colleges and universities were imposing ideology and restricting academic freedom, and he wanted the attack to serve as a “wake-up call.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2024.
OTTAWA – The Bank of Canada cut its key policy interest rate by 50 basis points on Wednesday to bring it to 3.75 per cent. Here’s what people are saying about the decision:
“High inflation and interest rates have been a heavy burden for Canadians. With inflation now back to target and interest rates continuing to come down, families, businesses and communities should feel some relief.” — Tiff Macklem, Bank of Canada governor.
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“Activity in Canada’s housing market has been sluggish in many regions due to higher borrowing costs, but today’s more aggressive cut to lending rates could cause the tide to turn quickly. For those with variable rate mortgages – who will benefit from the rate drop immediately – or those with fast-approaching loan renewals, today’s announcement is welcome news indeed.” — Phil Soper, president and CEO of Royal LePage.
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“This won’t be the end of rate cuts. Even with the succession of policy cuts since June, rates are still way too high given the state of the economy. To bring rates into better balance, we have another 150 bps in cuts pencilled in through 2025. So while the pace of cuts going forward is now highly uncertain, the direction for rates is firmly downwards.” — James Orlando, director and senior economist at TD Bank.
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“The size of the December rate cut will depend on upcoming job and inflation data, but a 25 basis point cut remains our baseline.” — Tu Nguyen, economist with assurance, tax and consultancy firm RSM Canada.
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“Today’s outsized rate cut is mostly a response to the heavy-duty decline in headline inflation in the past few months. However, the underlying forecast and the Bank’s mild tone suggest that the future default moves will be 25 bp steps, unless growth and/or inflation surprise again to the downside.” — Douglas Porter, chief economist at Bank of Montreal.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2024.
