Beneath the Straits of Mackinaw lies the controversial Pipeline Number 5. Opponents claim the oil line threatens the largest freshwater system in the world and accuse the federal government of engaging in “diplomatic shenanigans” to keep it running. More than 5,000 individuals & 300 organizations demand Ottawa stop shenanigans that interfere with tribal, state and federal actions in the U.S. against Line 5, write Gregory M. Mikkelson, Jessica Murray & Blue Community Wellington Water Watchers co-founder Arlene Slocombe in Canada’s National Observer.
This past June, the Canadian Parliament amended the Competition Act to crack down on corporate greenwashing. These amendments prohibit — for the first time, believe it or not — companies from making groundless claims about their environmental impacts. “[W]ithin minutes”, a group of tar sands companies called the Pathways Alliance “removed its entire online presence.” All six members of the group — Canadian Natural Resources, Suncor, Cenovus, Imperial Oil, MEG Energy, and ConocoPhillips — “deleted their corporate sustainability reports from their own websites.”
The federal government’s small but important move to protect society against fossil fuel propaganda came as a welcome surprise. At the same time, however, it brings into stark relief the question of how to stop the government itself from greenwashing.
