TURKEY VEGANS: Activists charged by police for coop sit-in 

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney announced his plan to table what will be “Bill Number One” of the next session of Alberta’s next legislation.

The bill, which Kenney called the Critical Infrastructure Defense Act, will create “new, and stiff critical penalties for anyone who riots on, or seeks to impair critical economic infrastructure in the province of Alberta.”

“We need national leadership to ensure that Canada is a country characterized by the rule of law, and we are pleased to see that action is finally being taken by police services to enforce court orders, but Alberta will do its part,” said Kenney, before announcing the bill.

Kenney’s statements came on the same day that Ontario Provincial Police moved in on blockaders on Mohawk territory after calls from the federal government to clear the railways of blockades and protestors.

Blockaders had stopped trains from running for the previous three weeks in support of anti-pipeline activists.

The announcement came during a lengthy address to media after the Alberta provincial court’s decision to strike down the Trudeau Liberals’ federal carbon tax—a fate opposite than that in Ontario and Saskatchewan.

Kenney went on to say that his government would “not back down” to hostility from the federal government, pressure from special interest groups, or regulatory uncertainty that could potentially inhibit investment in Alberta resource development.

Kenney also reached out to the federal government, requesting that Ottawa work together with Alberta in developing Alberta’s “rich” natural resources, “to generate that wealth in a responsible way.”

A 4-1 decision in the Court of Appeal of Alberta has found the Trudeau government Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act unconstitutional.

The decision made Monday found the act to be unconstitutional due to it posing intrusion on provincial jurisdiction. The appeal court decision rejects Ottawa’s arguments over there being a national crisis over greenhouse emissions.

The Alberta Court of Appeal is the first province of any’s superior court to rule against the legislation, as the decision is likely seen as a victory of the Jason Kenney-led United Conservative Party, who have led a strong campaign against the proposed tax.

In a tweet posted shortly after the decision was made, premier Kenney said that it was his government’s plan to take action, without punishing Albertans.

“We promised to take meaningful action on climate change without punishing Alberta families for driving to work and heating their homes,” said Kenney.

Judges in the majority of the decision include Chief Justice Catherine Fraser, and Justices Jack Watson, Elizabeth Hughes and Thomas Wakeling. Justice Kevin Feehan was the sole vote.

Appeal courts in both Saskatchewan and Ontario upheld the law in split decisions.

Kenney addressed media after the announcement, saying: “This is a great victory for Alberta, and a great victory for Canadian federalism. We will take this decision with us as we stand for our allies in Ontario, Saskatchewan, and Quebec at the Supreme Court of Canada next month,” said Kenney.

“The appeal court referred to the effort to impose this punishing tax on families who fill up their gas tanks and heat up their homes… They referred to it as a ‘constitutional trojan horse.’ The trojan horse ended today.”

“The question is not whether or not the world will continue to need energy, the question is where will the energy come from? and the question for us as Canadians is very simple: Will that energy come from this rights-respecting, liberal democracy with the highest environment human rights and labour standards on earth, or will we surrender the global energy markets to the worlds worst regimes, with little transparency and radically lower environmental standards with little or no respect for human rights. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, because it’s true, that the world needs more Canadian energy.”

Kenney went on to announce that his government would be moving forward with tabling “Bill 1 of the next session of Alberta’s legislature,” the Critical Infrastructure Defense Act, which Kenney says will ensure stiff penalties for those who attempt to impair critical economic infrastructure throughout Alberta.

Recent trouble in Wild Rose Country

The province has been the centre of ongoing controversy as of late, as just yesterday, The British Columbia-based Teck Frontier decided to pull out from a proposed $20 billion oil sands mine.

“Teck put forward a socially and environmentally responsible project that was industry-leading and had the potential to create significant economic benefits for Canadians,” said CEO Don Lindsay in a letter released late Sunday night.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney reacted by saying “The withdrawal of Teck’s Frontier Mine application is more devastating news for the Canadian economy, especially for Albertans & indigenous people. This decision is clearly the result of federal regulatory uncertainty & the current lawless opposition to resource development.”

Former Director of Policy to Prime Minister Stephen Harper Rachel Curran pulled also had choice words for the decision.

“There’s no way Teck would be making this decision now unless they’d been given a heads up that a negative decision was coming from the Trudeau government.

I wonder if @realDonaldTrump will let us apply to the U.S. as economic refugees,” the tweet concluded.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government gave nearly $10,000 of taxpayer money in 2019 to an organization that has funded and organized anti-pipeline movements.

Environment Canada, which was headed by Liberal minister Catherine McKenna at the time, made two separate payments to Tides Canada—coming to a total of $9,761.

These two payments were made in January and October of 2019.

Although it is unclear how Tides Canada chose to allocate this money, the organization has a noted history of financing anti-oil campaigns in Alberta.

Tides Canada, for instance, funded the Tsleil-Wauteuth First Nation so that they could “stop and oppose the Kinder Morgan pipeline and tanker project.”

Tides Canada has also funded and organized a campaign to save the Great Bear Rainforest, which led to Trudeau’s decision to kill the Northern Gateway Pipeline.

In January, data revealed that Alberta’s economic activity was at its lowest since the 2015-16 recession. As well as this, the province lost more than 18,000 jobs in January, despite the rest of the country adding over 34,000.

Much of Alberta’s economic troubles derive from the federal government’s inanition and inaction in building pipelines. As a result of this, a deep discontent has grown amongst Albertans towards Ottawa—culminating in both a growing separatist movement (Wexit) and the new “Buffalo Declaration“.

A list of 41 Nobel Prize winners have signed a petition urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to stop the Teck Frontier mine in Alberta.

The petition, published in an open letter via The Guardian, is signed by Peace Prize winners, made up of 10 winners in chemistry, three in literature, 12 in medicine, nine Peace Prize winners, and seven physicists.

The letter argues that the enabling of the fossil fuel industry’s growth is “an affront to our state of climate emergency,” going so far as to call it a “disgrace” that Canada is even “considering them.”

“The response to the climate crisis will define and destroy legacies in the coming years, and the qualifications for being on the right side of history are clear: an immediate end to fossil-fuel financing and expansion along with an ambitious and just transition away from oil and gas production towards zero-carbon well before mid-century,” the letter argues.

When asked about whether or not the Teck Mine Project would come to fruition, the PM told reporters that his government was deciding whether or not the mine would be in the nation’s best interest.

The mine is set to bring in roughly 7,000 workers during construction, as well as 2,500 full-time workers upon its completion.

Additionally, Finance Minister Bill Morneau revealed that a potential aid package was in the works if the Trudeau government were to decide against the mine.

“I would never think to characterize this as anything other than creating opportunities… Alberta is a province where we have great entrepreneurs who have built a strong economy and I think what we need to do is address the economy as challenged right now and create a path forward that will have hope for this generation and the next generation. I look at it very differently,” said Morneau on CBC’s Power & Politics.

The mine’s potential construction has caused somewhat of a schism within the Liberal Party, as environmentally-minded MPs rally against the project.

“There will be a big fight inside cabinet over this,” said the source familiar with the difficult situation to Reuters. 

The mayors for both Edmonton and Calgary made their ways to Ottawa recently, calling for the mines to be built. Alberta premier Jason Kenney also backed the mine, citing the job creation and the project’s backing by Indigenous communities. Kenney stated that there was no reason to reject the mine, as there had been ten years of reviews to green-light the project.