Alberta Premier Rachel Notley is aggressively advancing a false narrative about heavy oil’s deep discount. She presents the problem in two parts, neither of which stand up to scrutiny.
First, Notley purports that the abnormally wide price spread affects every barrel of heavy oil leading to millions of dollars a day in losses to the Canadian economy. And second, that the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion is crucial. Neither of these claims are supported by the facts.
[Supreme Court of BC Justice Affleck rejected the very compelling 'defence of necessity' raised by climate defenders arrested at the TransMountain Pipelines terminal in Burnaby, BC. The trial will begin on March 11, and an appeal of this ruling seems likely.]
Protesters blocked a portion of Highway 102 in Nova Scotia on Tuesday morning in support of the anti-pipeline protests in B.C. Reynold Gregor/Global News
Supporters in Nova Scotia blocked a portion of Highway 102 on Tuesday morning to demonstrate solidarity with anti-pipeline protests in British Columbia.
The Canadian right has taken symbolic and practical control over the carbon-tax debate. To understand the ease with which this has happened, just look at the significant differences between the yellow vest movement in France and the co-optation of those vests here with protests against Trudeau, carbon taxes, and immigration in this country.