The other day I wrote a post about the dark lord's frustration over the democratic expression of opposition to the Northern Gateway oilsands pipeline. It seems 'dear leader' feels that environmental groups appearing at public hearings are in the sway of 'foreign money' out to hijack the process. It appears that Harper will now abrogate another democratic safeguard to end his pout.
According to a story in The Globe and Mail, because the hearings have been infiltrated by 'radical groups':
The Conservative government will bring forward new rules to greatly shorten environmental reviews of pipelines and other major projects, arguing that “radical groups” are exploiting the reviews to block proposals vital to Canada’s economic future.
Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver has written a letter, released to the Globe (Hmm, I wonder why that particular organ of big business?) warning of “environmental and other radical groups” including “jet-setting celebrities” funded by foreign special interest groups who “threaten to hijack our regulatory system to achieve their radical ideological ends.
Despite the Harper propaganda, the story reveals that it isn’t outside interests who are raising the greatest objection to the project. Canadian environmental and aboriginal groups are also strongly opposed, claiming that spills from the pipeline and from ships carrying the oil from B.C. could wreak enormous environmental damage to fish and wildlife.
Natural Resources Minister Oliver concludes his letter by saying that the environmental hearings system “is broken,” ... “It’s time to take a look at it.”
Oliver is right about one thing. The system is broken, but it's not the one that he and his master are so upset about.
Update: Environmentalists sound alarm over Tory stand on pipeline review
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