"This is the best investigative work I've seen this year."
- Michael Campbell, CKNW, December 21, 2010.
In various environmental campaigns in Canada, American economic and trade interests are being protected. For example, the campaign against oil tanker traffic on the north coast of British Columbia would landlock Canadian oil and continue the virtual monopoly that the U.S. has on our oil exports - all in the name of protecting the environment. No oil tanker traffic means no oil exports to Asia. The "antifarming campaign" against B.C. farmed salmon sways market share towards "wild" salmon, most of which is Alaskan.
According to my preliminary calculations, since 2000 USA foundations have poured $300 million into the environmental movement in Canada. The David Suzuki Foundation alone has been paid at least $10 million by American foundations over the past decade. Why are American foundations spending so much money in Canada instead of in their own country or in other countries around the world that are far more needy than Canada?
In some instances, environmental activism is funded by American foundations as part of marketing campaigns in favor of American interests. The publicity and media coverage of scientific studies from environmental organizations is one of the key tactics of these charity-funded marketing campaigns. The problem is, some of this science is seriously flawed, and in some cases, the findings have been falsely reported. A classic example of this is David Suzuki's false claim about high levels of PCBs in farmed salmon.
Incidentally, after concerns were raised about the "antifarming campaign," funded by the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation against farmed salmon, the foundation quietly re-wrote four grants for $3.6 million for this campaign. The David Suzuki Foundation quietly removed 23 press releases and web-pages that contained inaccurate or selective information about salmon aquaculture. At least three USA foundations have quietly removed or re-written information about their grants for campaigns against the Canadian oil industry.
The goal of this blog is to raise fair questions in a fair way. Fair comments are most welcome.
Most read/watched/listened to:
- David Suzuki's Fish Story, published in The Financial Post
- Americans Are Meddling in B.C. Politics, published in The Vancouver Sun
On Twitter at @FairQuestions
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