Calgary Mayor Gives $340k To Anti-Oilsands Lobby Group

[Anonymous]

Well you know my feelings about the disingenuous lefty lumps of shit whether they be white, black, yellow or green. They all suck big time.



Their ideology lacks any form of common sense or logic. It is based solely in emotional rhetoric. Our own idiotic far left President tried to sell his version of intervention in the Syrian civil war to the American people the other night by using the plight of the Syrian children as a reason to commit an act of war. Never mind that chemical weapons have been outlawed since shortly after the First World War and never mind that atrocities are being committed against innocent people (especially women) all over the region and beyond. It was the poor Syrian "chilllldren" who are suffering and in need of his progressive divine intervention.



Makes me fucking sick every time some prog grandstands over the not yet cold corpses of kids and they do it every freaking time they see an opportunity to advance their twisted agenda. :x

I feel sorry for Americans. OBie is the worst president I have ever seen in my life. I am no fan of either American political party and I thought Bill Clinton was one of the best in my life.

Well that puts it in perspective when Bubba dick nose Clinton was the best president you've seen in your life. It means for as long as you have been alive the US gubbament has had its head up its ass.  

I have never seen a really good PM of Canada either, but a Liberal Jean Chretien was one of the best...at least the first two terms. The 90's were a good time politically in North America. The prevailing winds were smaller government, cutting spending and reducing deficits and debt. Today, governments all over this continent have moved so far to the left that they are in a race to the bottom in how much they can fuck up the fiscal future of generations to come. Bill Clinton would be considered an ultra-right wing Conservative by today's hard leftist big government standards.

[Romero]

In a radio interview on AM 770 with host Roger Kingkade on Thursday morning, Nenshi said that Levant, a former debating partner in university and thorny opponent of late, is "creepily and weirdly obsessed with me".



The salvo is the latest in a verbal cold war that went atomic over the weekend when Levant accused Nenshi of pandering to the environmental left by awarding a City of Calgary contract to the Pembina Institute, an Alberta think tank.



The contract was awarded in 2007, years before Nenshi became mayor. Nenshi said the contract, like all city contracts, was awarded on merit and outside politicians' influence.



http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/09/13/nenshi-calls-ezra-levant-creepy-obsessed_n_3921261.html">//http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/09/13/nenshi-calls-ezra-levant-creepy-obsessed_n_3921261.html

[Anonymous]

The contract was awarded in 2007, years before Nenshi became mayor. Nenshi said the contract, like all city contracts, was awarded on merit and outside politicians' influence

He hired 22 activists with no scientific background, paid them $340k of taxpayer money and says political influence had nothing to do with it. His nose must have poked the host in the face when that liar Nenshi said that.    

[Romero]

He wasn't mayor in 2007! He didn't award the contract.

[Anonymous]

He wasn't mayor in 2007! He didn't award the contract.

But why was it ramped up under his watch when he knows they are not scientists?

[Romero]

But why was it ramped up under his watch when he knows they are not scientists?

Ramped up? It was a single three-year contract for $340,000 awarded in 2007. It's over. The final report was released in 2011.



When he knows they're not scientists? He wasn't mayor! And consulting work doesn't always need scientists. Consultants do consulting.

[Anonymous]

But why was it ramped up under his watch when he knows they are not scientists?

Ramped up? It was a single three-year contract for $340,000 awarded in 2007. It's over. The final report was released in 2011.



When he knows they're not scientists? He wasn't mayor! And consulting work doesn't always need scientists. Consultants do consulting.

I know the former mayor of Calgary sucked too. I just wonder why he would he would defend allocating funds meant for scientific work to political lobbyists. Nenshi's website claims he discloses every meeting with lobbyists. So why isn't the Pembina Institute on the list?  Why did he tape a promotional video for their Toronto fundraiser this year? Why did he say the 22 Pembina staff on the city's payroll were "scientists," when most of them were PR experts? Why was his pro-Pembina video taken off YouTube? Why he hadn't disclosed his lobbying meetings? Are any Pembina staff working on his election campaign, or have donated to him?





The whole fucking city council needs to be held accountable.

[Anonymous]

Gawd Pembina is a sleazeball organization. Why don't they target OPEC, Norwegian oil or US tight oil? Guess these "scientific experts" know who the easy target is.

In 2006, the New York-based Rockefeller Brothers Fund signed a contract with Alberta's Pembina Foundation.



They paid Pembina $100,000 "to prevent the development of a pipeline and tanker port" off British Columbia. (1)



It wasn't a research contract. It was a political contract: Stop the Northern Gateway Pipeline.



Pembina agreed. And they went back for more. Along with other Canadian environmental groups, in 2008 they signed on to the Rockefellers' "Tar Sands Campaign," a $7-million-a-year war against the oilsands.



That campaign is detailed in a 48-page plan, complete with maps of oilsands pipelines from Keystone XL to the Northern Gateway. It doesn't discuss OPEC oil, though. The Rockefellers only target Canada.



The plan's philosophy is as simple as it is brutal: "Raise the negatives, raise the costs, slow down and stop infrastructure, enroll key decision makers."



The first "strategic track" is "stop/limit pipelines and refinery expansions." The second is to "force" oilsands regulatory reforms.



Tactics including "legal suits" and "legislation." A senior Pembina executive at the time, Dan Woynillowicz, wrote a chapter of the plan. Pembina's strength is their "credibility and ability to engage directly with provincial/federal governments and industry."



Which is true. Pembina plays both sides of the street. When they're meeting in New York, they talk openly of their hatred for the "tar sands."



But when they're meeting Canadian politicians, or selling "consulting" services to the oil patch, they use the phrase "oilsands" and pretend they're neutral experts.



In the Rockefeller plan, Pembina promises to target the "regulatory approvals process" and "public mobilization."



Their legal strategy is crafty: Recruit "First Nations" for their lawsuits, to hide the foreign nature of their campaign, which even includes a brochure to be used in the United States, showing a maple leaf soaked in oil, with the tagline "Canada: Not just Mounties and ice hockey anymore." It's an attack on U.S. tourism to Canada.



Page 45 of the plan shows oil company logos, including Shell and Suncor.



The campaign will "raise investment risk profile" and "prevent the proposed modification of SEC reserves reporting rules that would reward and encourage further tar sands exploitation." In other words, destroy the value of oilsands shareholders.



Pembina signed on as the Canadian co-ordinator for the Rockefeller plan.



At the same time, Pembina raised more than $1.2 million from Europe's anti-oilsands Oak Foundation, too.(2) And Pembina's website (3) proudly shows their participation in a Washington protest against the Keystone XL pipeline, sponsored by the group



350.org. There's a photo of a placard saying, "Stop the pipeline."



That's millions of dollars from foreign foundations. But foreign embassies fund Pembina, too. The U.K. Foreign Office paid Pembina $60,000 for work, including a "City of Calgary Project" that pushed for carbon taxes. Pembina had to "serve our priority policy objectives" — that is, the U.K.'s objectives — including "influencing a certain target audience directly e.g. government."



The U.K. wanted an "influencing or relationship-building strategy." As in, befriend the mayor and city council. But the Brits warned Pembina to "consider the optics" of being publicly associated with them — best to keep the foreign funding a secret.



Pembina took money from the U.K. to influence Calgary carbon tax policy at the same time they were paid by Calgary to write carbon tax policy.



Naheed Nenshi, Calgary's mayor, stands by Pembina, claiming they're just "scientific" researchers. He even recorded a video for their fundraising dinner last January.



That's grotesque. But Nenshi is a liberal celebrity, and his political ambitions are much bigger than Calgary.

Less easy to understand are Shell and Suncor, two of the targets of the Rockefeller plan. They were the lead sponsors of that same Pembina fundraising dinner. And they regularly hire Pembina to do "consulting" work, too.



Do they know about Pembina's side-deals with foreign billionaires and embassies? Do they know they're specifically targeted in the campaign plan? And does anyone know what other foreign governments are funding the Pembina Institute? Does OPEC? I put the question to Pembina. But for some reason, they won't answer it.

http://www.edmontonsun.com/2013/09/13/side-deals-are-suncor-and-shell-aware-of-pembinas-dealings-with-foreign-billionaires-and-embassies">http://www.edmontonsun.com/2013/09/13/s ... -embassies">http://www.edmontonsun.com/2013/09/13/side-deals-are-suncor-and-shell-aware-of-pembinas-dealings-with-foreign-billionaires-and-embassies