Kinder Morgan pipeline and media concentration in Canada
The Kinder Morgan pipeline is a proposed pipeline which would run from Alberta through British Columbia.
It has been very controversial. It has recently been approved by the Canadian federal government.
(1) It really isn't, to put it mildly, certain that this is the way to go.
An interesting related article at The Guardian:
What if Canada had spent $200bn on wind energy instead of oil?
(2) I think it's notable that there has been little to no criticism of the decision on this pipeline in the Canadian media or among Canadian politicians (the notable exception is Elizabeth May of Canada's Green Party, see below).
I think it's also important to note that the Canadian media, with the notable exception of the CBC/Radio-Canada, are owned by relatively few companies. A few years ago I (just for the hell of it) looked at the state of things in the media in Quebec specifically, and I found that, according to easily obtainable information (i.e. online) the media in Quebec are concentrated into a very small number of groups which own many, many publications throughout the province. For the French-language media, written publications are concentrated into two groups (Quebecor and Gesca Ltée/Power Corp), with the paper Le Devoir being a vanishingly rare example of a paper which is independent from those two entities. (Please note that my search was not exhaustive but was still revealing, IMO.)
I just detailed the above to show that there really is an issue of concentration of the media in Quebec (from articles I've read, the rest of the country has the same problem).
I've read editorials where some have said this isn't really such an issue today, given the fact that the internet allows us to read media from around the world.
My take on this is that, while they're not completely wrong, this statement ignores the fact that a lot of issues important to Canada and Canadian readers will mostly (and sometimes only) be covered by Canadian media, simply because UK or US or Chinese readers will not be interested by every detail of Canadian life and foreign publications know this. So they will report some things but not everything.
All of this leads to a climate where topics of considerable importance to Canadians, but which do not really raise the interest of the overseas markets, may not be covered at all, partly because certain commercial interests would rather they not be covered.
I recently found an example of this: the quote is by Bruce Livesey, who was a Canadian journalist who worked for Global News. He writes about how a story he was working on was quietly shelved by Global News, after which he was fired from the network.
"Author's note: Until this past February, I worked as a contracted television producer for Global TV and its current affairs program, 16x9. Last fall, I was commissioned to do a story for the program about the Koch brothers, their holdings in Alberta’s oil sands and their interest in getting the Keystone XL pipeline built. In January, two days before the 22-minute documentary was about to air on 16x9, Global's senior management pulled the story. After Jesse Brown's Canadaland published a story about its sudden disappearance, Global fired me, although I was not quoted in that story or had any involvement with it. What you're about to read includes some of the material that has not yet been permitted to be shown on Global." (Link is here.)
(I will just note in passing that Kinder Morgan is a Texas-based company.)
(3) The National Energy Board, which is the body which ruled on the Kinder Morgan pipeline, is " an independent economic regulatory agency created in 1959 by the Government of Canada to oversee "international and inter-provincial aspects of the oil, gas and electric utility industries". Its head office is located in Calgary, Alberta". (Quote is from Wikipedia)
Unfortunately, it is really not impartial and has been criticized for having overly close ties to the very industry it is tasked with regulating (i.e. oil and gas).
Source 1: National Energy Board needs major overhaul, panel says.
Source 2: B.C. opponents demand an investigation into 'rigged' Kinder Morgan approval.
Source 3: An earlier review by the NEB also had major problems.
I will note in passing that Justin Trudeau's Liberals have reportedly proposed scrapping the NEB, but I haven't read anything about this affecting the Kinder Morgan decision, which they seem to support (probably for political reasons):
(4) Elizabeth May, the leader of Canada's Green Party, was recently arrested for protesting the Kinder Morgan pipeline.
She pleaded guilty to contempt of court and a 500$ fine was recommended by the crown and defense, however the judge for some reason decided to go beyond that and make an example of her, and fined her 1,500$.
Here is an editorial written by May on the Kinder Morgan issue and her arrest and fine (again, I think it's worth noting that this was published in The Guardian, which is a UK publication, not in a Canadian publication).
'I was arrested for protesting against Canada's pipeline - and the battle is far from over. There is nothing logical about the Kinder Morgan pipeline - especially not the decision to gut environmental laws for it'.
So, this whole thing stinks.
It has been very controversial. It has recently been approved by the Canadian federal government.
(1) It really isn't, to put it mildly, certain that this is the way to go.
An interesting related article at The Guardian:
What if Canada had spent $200bn on wind energy instead of oil?
(2) I think it's notable that there has been little to no criticism of the decision on this pipeline in the Canadian media or among Canadian politicians (the notable exception is Elizabeth May of Canada's Green Party, see below).
I think it's also important to note that the Canadian media, with the notable exception of the CBC/Radio-Canada, are owned by relatively few companies. A few years ago I (just for the hell of it) looked at the state of things in the media in Quebec specifically, and I found that, according to easily obtainable information (i.e. online) the media in Quebec are concentrated into a very small number of groups which own many, many publications throughout the province. For the French-language media, written publications are concentrated into two groups (Quebecor and Gesca Ltée/Power Corp), with the paper Le Devoir being a vanishingly rare example of a paper which is independent from those two entities. (Please note that my search was not exhaustive but was still revealing, IMO.)
I just detailed the above to show that there really is an issue of concentration of the media in Quebec (from articles I've read, the rest of the country has the same problem).
I've read editorials where some have said this isn't really such an issue today, given the fact that the internet allows us to read media from around the world.
My take on this is that, while they're not completely wrong, this statement ignores the fact that a lot of issues important to Canada and Canadian readers will mostly (and sometimes only) be covered by Canadian media, simply because UK or US or Chinese readers will not be interested by every detail of Canadian life and foreign publications know this. So they will report some things but not everything.
All of this leads to a climate where topics of considerable importance to Canadians, but which do not really raise the interest of the overseas markets, may not be covered at all, partly because certain commercial interests would rather they not be covered.
I recently found an example of this: the quote is by Bruce Livesey, who was a Canadian journalist who worked for Global News. He writes about how a story he was working on was quietly shelved by Global News, after which he was fired from the network.
"Author's note: Until this past February, I worked as a contracted television producer for Global TV and its current affairs program, 16x9. Last fall, I was commissioned to do a story for the program about the Koch brothers, their holdings in Alberta’s oil sands and their interest in getting the Keystone XL pipeline built. In January, two days before the 22-minute documentary was about to air on 16x9, Global's senior management pulled the story. After Jesse Brown's Canadaland published a story about its sudden disappearance, Global fired me, although I was not quoted in that story or had any involvement with it. What you're about to read includes some of the material that has not yet been permitted to be shown on Global." (Link is here.)
(I will just note in passing that Kinder Morgan is a Texas-based company.)
(3) The National Energy Board, which is the body which ruled on the Kinder Morgan pipeline, is " an independent economic regulatory agency created in 1959 by the Government of Canada to oversee "international and inter-provincial aspects of the oil, gas and electric utility industries". Its head office is located in Calgary, Alberta". (Quote is from Wikipedia)
Unfortunately, it is really not impartial and has been criticized for having overly close ties to the very industry it is tasked with regulating (i.e. oil and gas).
Source 1: National Energy Board needs major overhaul, panel says.
Source 2: B.C. opponents demand an investigation into 'rigged' Kinder Morgan approval.
Source 3: An earlier review by the NEB also had major problems.
I will note in passing that Justin Trudeau's Liberals have reportedly proposed scrapping the NEB, but I haven't read anything about this affecting the Kinder Morgan decision, which they seem to support (probably for political reasons):
(4) Elizabeth May, the leader of Canada's Green Party, was recently arrested for protesting the Kinder Morgan pipeline.
She pleaded guilty to contempt of court and a 500$ fine was recommended by the crown and defense, however the judge for some reason decided to go beyond that and make an example of her, and fined her 1,500$.
Here is an editorial written by May on the Kinder Morgan issue and her arrest and fine (again, I think it's worth noting that this was published in The Guardian, which is a UK publication, not in a Canadian publication).
'I was arrested for protesting against Canada's pipeline - and the battle is far from over. There is nothing logical about the Kinder Morgan pipeline - especially not the decision to gut environmental laws for it'.
So, this whole thing stinks.