Author: Carol Linnitt

Today the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) will argue in the Alberta Court of Appeal that Shell Canada’s proposed Jackpine Mine expansion is in violation of their Constitutional rights and represents a failure on behalf of the federal governme…

The Canadian government is working hard behind the scenes to cover up the negative effects that tar sands extraction is having on the local environment, wildlife, communities and the global climate. According to Access to Information documents obtained…

Standing within the throng of demonstrators at last month’s Defend Our Coast rally it became clear to me that a palpable shift in the collective expectations of Canadians had taken place.  It is evident we expect positive action on climate change; we expect steps to be taken towards clean energy

The Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA) may be ratified as soon as tomorrow, November 1. This despite a massive demonstration of Canadian opposition to the investment trade deal that will lock the federal government into a dangerously undemocratic agreement with China and Chinese investors for 31 years. 

Earlier this month British Columbians were surprised to hear that Enbridge, the main proponent of the proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline, was unable to explain how the company’s world-class spill prevention and clean up practices were either world-class or preventative. At a public hearing in Prince George, Enbridge failed to instill

By 2035 operators in Alberta’s tar sands expect to produce 5 million barrels of the world’s most environmentally dirty and energy intensive oil per day. Current daily production hovers around 2 million barrels. According to a recent Conference Board of Canada report, projected expansion of the tar sands will require

This post is a part of DeSmog’s investigative series: Cry Wolf. Five years overdue in a legal sense and ten years after caribou were officially listed as ‘threatened’ according to the Species at Risk Act, the Canadian government has finally released its controversial Recovery Strategy for the Woodland Caribou. The

This past weekend trade investment lawyer, Gus Van Harten, spent his time in his basement, rifling through old files. He knew that somewhere, buried in piles of international investment and legal trade documents, there was the answer to this one nagging question he couldn’t shake: hadn’t British Columbia already refused

If there was one message that stirred me during Monday’s Defend Our Coast action, it was this: First Nations need you to join the fight to protect British Columbia’s forests and coast from tar sands pipeline and tanker threats.  The message came loud and clear from Coastal First Nations executive

Today the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) is arguing that Shell Canada’s proposed expansion of the Jackpine Mine in the tar sands is in violation of constitutionally protected aboriginal rights outlined in Section 35 of the Canadian Constitution and Treaty 8, which the ACFN signed in 1899. Arguments against the

Principally, I oppose the Northern Gateway Pipeline. Like a lot of other people I think it’s reckless to develop the tar sands at the rate we currently are. I think it’s reckless to look to export our unrefined resources to other countries. And I think it’s reckless to suggest we

This  is the third and final post in the series China-Canada Investment “Straitjacket:” Exclusive Interview with Gus Van Harten. You can access Part 1 here and Part 2 here. Canada has already begun the short countdown to the day the China-Canada Investment Deal becomes ratified in the House of Commons, although

This post is second in a series on the Canada-China Investment “Straitjacket:” Exclusive Interview with Gus Van Harten. You can read the first segment here. Right now Canadians stare down the barrel of a 31-year long legal trade agreement with the Chinese government that did not become public knowledge until September

This post is the first of a series on the Canada-China Investment “Straitjacket:” Exclusive Interview with Gus Van Harten. I recently picked up a copy of Francis Fukuyama’s 2011 book, The Origins of Political Order. Sitting on the bedside table at the house I was staying at, the book made

Enbridge recently launched a renewed attack on Canadian environmental organizations, demanding the panel overseeing the Northern Gateway Pipeline hearing squeeze funding information from the project’s critics. In early 2012, a campaign – coordinated by the conservative government, the oil industry and the astroturf Ethical Oil Institute – sought to undermine

This week, the Cumulative Environmental Management Association (CEMA), an industry-funded consultancy group in Alberta, released the End Pit Lakes Guidance Document to the Government of Alberta for review. The 434-page document outlines a 100-year plan to integrate open-pit mines and tar sands tailings into Northern Alberta’s local ecosystem, introducing what

The news of Royal-Dutch Shell’s recent decision to hold off on Arctic drilling until next season offers some relief to those keeping track of the company’s shoddy performance in Alaska to date. Shell advertised their position as “Arctic Ready,” suggesting their out of date drill rigs, their non-existent disaster spill response,

Yesterday the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) announced their plans to constitutionally challenge Shell Oil Canada’s expansion of the Jackpine Mine tar sands project. The project expansion would threaten the resources needed to sustain rights protected under Treaty 8, which the ACFN signed in 1899 at Fort Chipewyan on Lake

This post is a part of DeSmog’s investigative series: Cry Wolf. Yesterday, the Canadian government told the nation’s federal court that it will not release its long-awaited Woodland Caribou Recovery Strategy. The Recovery Strategy, already 5 years overdue, represents conservationists’ strongest measure of defense for dwindling caribou populations in Alberta that

For those concerned about the future of shale gas development in the U.S., water contamination present in a monitoring well in Wyoming is about to become the lynchpin in the debate over unconventional gas production and the threat fracking poses to drinking water. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) just