The Canadian Federal governmentโs new counter-terrorism strategy has been ruffling feathers in the environmental community since it was released by Public Safety Minister Vic Toews on February 9.
The report says that the Federal government will be vigilant against domestic extremism โbased on grievances โ real or perceived โ revolving around the promotion of various causes such as animal rights, white supremacy, environmentalism andย anti-capitalism.โ
Admittedly, Blake Bromely and Syed Hussan are right to complain that the media coverage has been swamped with the reportโs single mention of environmentalism, largely overshadowing concerns around the documentโs actual emphasis: the threat of โviolent Islamist extremism.โ
However, the characterization of the environmental grievances of Canadian citizens as extremist and somehow akin to the violent, hate-based โwhite supremacistโ ideology is not something that Canadians can or should takeย lightly.
Terrorists arenโt the only serious threat facing Canadians. Whatever your political stripes, the fact remains that the reckless destabilization of our worldโs climate will bring about grave consequences for all ofย us.
For months now, Prime Minister Harper and Conservative cabinet ministers have been parroting Sun News and Ethical Oilโs efforts to paint environmental organizations as American shills, front groups paid for by ominous โforeign special interestsโ with their dollars set on โhijacking a Canadian processโ to โkill jobs.โ
So itโs hard to view this latest slight as disconnected from the Federal governmentโs escalating attacks on citizens and civic organizations with legitimate concerns over the environmental impacts of proposed oil sandsย developments.
The quote also happens to align remarkably well with Department of Foreign Affairs documents obtained by the Climate Action Network and Greenpeace that detail the Federal governmentโs joint-PR strategy with the Alberta oil industry – a plan to โturn up the volumeโ on their promotion of oil sands developments that pits them and their โlike-minded alliesโ against โadversariesโ like Canadian โenvironmental NGOsโ and โaboriginalย groups.โ
Minister Toews insists that the government does not intend to target โlegitimate dissent,โ but who decides what counts as legitimate?
Minister Joe Oliver made it clear that he considers any opposition to oil sands developments a radical attempt to undermine the Canadian economy set squarely against the interest of Canadians – irrespective of opinions the public itself might hold about itsย interests.โจ
Whatever their intention, ratcheting up the rhetoric with gross mischaracterizations canโt but fan the flames of ever less productive political polarization. The Federal governmentโs attempts to discredit environmental non-profits poses a very real threat to our ability to come together as a nation to tackle toughย problems.
What we really need is for our leaders to tone down the invective and settle in for some sensible, respectful public conversations about the many issues Canadians careย about.
