Excellent comments to Edmonton Journal article on the war room’s first attack of an individual Canadian, Mr. Steven Lee:
Abdul Sidibe
This is a classic example of government overreach and abuse power by the UCP. That no one in the province can raise money and do environmental advocacy is just a preposterous position to hold. I have lived this province since 2008, I have never worked for the oil industry. Although I often find myself in their support. But to use $30 millions in government funds to do public relations work for an industry that is largely privately owned and often foreign funded is bit of stretch by the UCP. All this prove a simple point that the UCP is bought and paid for by oil executives to corrupt government in their favor. A Nigeria professor once observed that anywhere the oil industry takes root, governments get corrupt. Nowhere is this observation apt than our province where a political party is nothing but tool for oil executives.
None of your Business to Abdul Sidibe
Encourage people to read Rachael Maddow’s book, “Blowout”, which discusses the corruption in oil states. Hard to find this book in Alberta (?) Best seller.
Rhonda Erickson
What a waste of 30 million dollars. These UCP clowns are peddling such ridiculous agendas it looks like a bad series on Netflix. Beware the anti o and g not so secret service is going to hunt you down because you bought an electric vehicle or put solar panels on your house. How criminal could these people be
David joe
The war room is just a money laundering system set up to give people like Ben Harper a high paying job, that’s all. It will do exactly the same thing Stephen Harper did to our industry, attract more and more attention from real scientists, celebrities and company boycotts. When Harper muzzled government scientists, threw out 100 years of collected climate science, muzzled the media, shut down seven world renown ocean fishery libraries, cut funding to environmental research, fired scientists who spoke out, cut regulations to land and water, removed Bill 38, we saw celebrities and boycotts everywhere. We saw more opposition then we have ever seen. The Fifth Estate did “Silence of the Labs” still on YouTube. He drew global and negative attention to our province. Stephen Hawking spoke about Harper’s actions during his last interview and sad it’s a good thing American government scientists knew to back up their research once trump was elected because they knew he would follow Harper’s actions. We have a 32 million dollar war room attacking truth and based on the same debunked conspiracy theories that Harper tried to use in 2012. The rags to riches blogger who takes some truth and then manipulates the end results so she can accumulate wealth and prosperity based on rebel media type garbage. Just freaking wonderful! Every time a real investigative journalist proves she is a fraud, kenney’s warriors will attack them. Pretty quick we will be destroyed globally again and we have hillbilly parents at his side.
Jason Kenney’s Year Of Attack, This helped Alberta how? by Jeremy Klazus, Dec 21, 2019, The Sprawl
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney spent 2019 like he’s spent much of his political career: on the attack.
In October, with its first budget, the UCP began its long-expected assault on the public sector, with cuts to universities and education at the same time big businesses got a corporate tax cut. Public sector unions are bracing for thousands of job cuts in the coming years, mostly in health care.
Kenney campaigned on three words: jobs, economy, pipelines. The NDP caused Alberta’s economic woes, he said. The UCP would fix them.
It has yet to happen, and critics on both the left and the right agree it likely won’t. [It was obvious before the election, from watching Mr. Kenney screw up non-stop in federal politics, that the UCP were going to do a lot of damage to Alberta and her people, fast, and fail to fulfill Kenney’s promises.]
“I would characterize this era as a kind of massive fraud that’s being perpetuated on the people of Alberta,” said Alvin Finkel, a historian who has written at length about Alberta’s political past.
“You have a government that was essentially elected to fight the federal government, and the world, to try and preserve the oil and gas industry—which is not going to last.”
“The world is going in another direction.”
Alberta risks being left behind as its new government jabs everyone from tech startups to organizers of the X-Games in the eye. Under Kenney, Alberta is doubling down, a changing world be damned.
…
‘Enemies of the state’ [Nothing new with Kenney’s War Room. Refer below]
Since becoming premier, Kenney has directly attacked his critics in ways both casual and formal, casting them as un-Albertan. [Nothing new in what Kenney is doing. He’s copying Steve Harper, McCarthy etc. All Tory gov’ts do what Kenney’s doing and they are not creative about it, they kopykopykopy, like a bevy of monkeys.] In 2019, Kenney launched two official efforts to quell dissent: an inquiry into funding of organizations that are critical of Alberta’s oil industry, and a state “war room,” posing as a newsroom, that purports to “tell the truth” about Canadian fossil fuels.
But Kenney’s propagandists don’t even tell the truth about themselves. As the Globe and Mail revealed this week, staff at the Canadian Energy Centre have been conducting interviews posing as news reporters, obscuring their true function as Kenney’s PR machine.
And while the $30-million war room has been embroiled in a comical scandal over its logo, the threats to democracy and freedom of expression in Alberta are less funny.
“There’s a clear McCarthyism in what this government is doing,” said Finkel, referring to the 1950s-era U.S. senator, Joe McCarthy, who villainized countless Americans by branding them as communist traitors.
“I think the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is being attacked.” [Criminals have charter rights and judges are ruling that corporations do, but not Canadians harmed by the oil and gas industry and it’s enabler, Charter violating AER.]
Numerous organizations, including Amnesty International and the Edmonton-based Muttart Foundation, have sounded similar alarms, warning that the Kenney government’s actions are threatening democracy.
Amnesty said in September that Kenney’s “fight back strategy,” including the war room and inquiry, could not only undermine human rights, but worsen a “climate of hostility towards human rights defenders—particularly Indigenous, women, and environmental human rights defenders—exposing them to intimidation and threats, including threats of violence.” [I’ve already been enduring over a decade of threats of violence, just because I ask intelligent valid reasonable questions to regulators – and make them public which according to the regulator and govt is not allowed! And I speak publicly about my dangerously contaminated water and Encana’s data showing the company illegally frac’d my community’s drinking water supplies (and other crimes, the list of Encana and regulator crimes is long).]
Similar red flags were raised this week in an article by the executive director of the Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre, Linda McKay-Panos, and University of Calgary law professor Jennifer Koshan.
They warn that the government’s efforts to quell criticism are having “chilling effects” on expression in Alberta, and that the government is overstepping its bounds.
[Pffft, so what. WHY ARE LAWYERS MAKING LIKE THIS IS A NEW THING IN ALBERTA? IT’S AGES OLD! The Alberta gov’t and EUB (then ERCB, now AER) chilled Albertans twenty years ago, violating Charter rights of citizens harmed by the oil and gas industry or concerned members of the public, to near complete silence and obedience. NDP were no better. Threats and abuses to oil indusry harmed citizens by the “regulator” and gov’t were/are terrifying and cruel. Where were Alberta legal voices then? Why are they now speaking about the silly war room chilling us as if it’s new? If we are harmed by oil and gas or the regulator, we don’t have Charter rights in Canada, that’s obvious; we haven’t for decades, not since frac’ing began.]
“At the end of the day, we believe there are strong arguments that the Alberta Inquiry unjustifiably violates the freedom of expression of the Canadian organizations it is aimed at as well as those associated with such organizations, including their members and supporters,” they write.
Melanee Thomas, a political science professor at the University of Calgary, echoes these concerns.
“This is not a government that, I think, takes seriously representing all Albertans as Albertans,” she said. [Ha, when have we ever had such in Alberta? Never! Not even under the NDP! Notley had automatic right to intervene in support of the Ernst vs AER hearing at the Supreme Court of Canada. She said and filed nothing in support of Albertans having Charter rights. Not one Alberta NGO, not even the law society or environmental law society filed in support of Albertans having charter rights. Cowards, and greedy sods said nothing because they wanted their big fat pay cheques and big oil donations to keep rolling in, and not jeopardize possible promotions and or appointments to the almighty (and corrupt) bench]
“That’s going to sound harsh, and I’m probably going to get some blowback about that. But I stand by that because of how we’re seeing messaging about the public sector and how we’re seeing messaging about individuals—private individuals—who are critical of what the government is doing to the public sector.”
“The hostility towards the public sector is huge. And it’s transitioning to hostility towards anybody who expresses any kind of hesitation with the plan…. It’s marking regular folks as enemies of the state, effectively.” [But it’s not new! Alice Woolley, ex law prof at the U of C, now nicely a judge, falfsified or misused hearing transcrips to smear me as an enemy of state 12 years ago! It’s as old as the hills what KopyKatKenney is doing with his waste of money war room. It’s all been done before, to Alberta lawyer and judge silence. Makes a person wonder why these lawyers are in such a sniffy huff now, decades too late. When I spoke publicly about Encana’s crimes, and the regulator’s, it was not just the AER and RCMP that tried to scare and silence me, Alberta politicians zoomed in too, including into my home, to try to bully, scare and silence me. That was 15 years ago! And where were the Alberta lawyers and societies? Pfffft on them all.]
… The premier’s office did not respond to interview requests for this story.
Echoes of the 1930s and 1990s
Amid all of this, the UCP has yet to turn Alberta’s economy around. Like Rachel Notley before him, Kenney has no power over the global economy. Alberta lost 18,000 jobs in November, according to Statistics Canada. [And, Kenney is too cowardly to order oil and gas to give up some of their hoarded billions in cash (from massive profits and mountains of gifts, freebies and subsidies given by Canadian taxpayers), to clean up their messes across the province and fix their frac’d cap rock and aquifers, which would put many back to work. Also, no one wants to talk about industry’s own greed for 1) having caused this crash in the first place by pumping out way too much product, more than the world needs or wants, and 2) magnifiying job losses by dumping workers because of automation so as to make more profits for a super rich few.]
… Finkel sees parallels between the present situation and the 1930s, when William “Bible Bill” Aberhart’s Social Credit party came to power in Alberta. Aberhart, a radio preacher, tried to quash dissent and control the press with his 1937 Accurate News and Information Act, which was opposed by Alberta’s newspapers—winning them a Pulitzer Prize—and ultimately deemed unconstitutional.
During the Great Depression, Aberhart railed against outside forces such as banks, proposing a new system wherein Alberta would solve its problems by printing its own cash.
“They promised an economic regime that no province can actually deliver,” said Finkel.
“They were lucky that a war came to their rescue and got rid of unemployment in the short term, and then oil came to their rescue afterwards—the discovery of oil at Leduc. So at a certain point, nobody even remembered that what Social Credit promised was to print money and give it to every family.”
He also likens today’s situation to the 1990s, when Premier Ralph Klein made his deep cuts to the public sector. “Suddenly, to be a teacher or a nurse or a professor or a doctor or a social worker was supposed to be a badge of shame,” said Finkel. [And the terrible crime of being born not-white, and or not-male, vote non-con, and or not attend church (where pedohiles rule the nests)]
But Klein, like many an Alberta leader, was saved by the international market for oil and gas.
“That is almost certainly not going to happen for Jason Kenney,” said Finkel.
Wason, the former PC party executive director, says he genuinely wishes the UCP government well. But he notes that while it’s easy to come in and slash budgets, it’s hard to figure out what to do after that—and even harder to catch up afterward, as the PCs learned.
“Bridges didn’t get built; schools didn’t get built,” Wason recalled of the 1990s. “The infrastructure sort of had been let go for those years. So I get a sense that this is very reminiscent of it.”
… And history shows that when pushed hard enough, those people push back.
There is talk of a general strike in 2020, which could see Alberta workers across industries walk off the job in protest of Kenney’s government. [Bravo!]
“I think he’s spoiling for a fight,” said Finkel. “And he’s going to get it.”
Jeremy Klaszus is founder and editor of The Sprawl.
Refer also to:
Alberta’s ‘energy war room’: Reframing the energy debate or attempt to mimic legitimate journalism? by James Keller, Dec 20, 2019, The Globe and Mail (typical Syngery Alberta, requires subscription)
When a freelance writer working for the Alberta government’s “energy war room” contacted Lianne Lefsrud for an interview, she was more than a little nervous. The University of Alberta engineering professor’s work has focused on the polarization in the energy debate and how to bring opposing sides together. [The horrid evil ultra damaging to citizens, communities, families, and environment: SYNERGY ALBERTA!~ How many thousands in grants from oil patch for this “study?”]
Lianne Lefsrud, PhD, Assistant Professor Engineering, Chemical and Materials Engineering | School of Engineering Safety and Risk Management
Office Phone Number: 780-492-8812
email hidden; JavaScript is required
CURRICULUM VITAE
About Me
Dr. Lianne Lefsrud is an Assistant Professor, Engineering Safety and Risk Management at the University of Alberta. She uses mixed methods to study how institutional and new venture entrepreneurs use persuasive language and imagery to shape our conceptions of technology, the environment, and regulations. Specifically, her research examines methods of hazard identification and risk management, risk evaluation and social license to operate, and drivers of technology adoption in oil and gas, mining, pipelining, construction, agriculture, and railroading, among other industries.
As most risks are multi-disciplinary in nature, it has also motivated her academic approach: from an MSc in Environmental Engineering and Sociology (the first Engineering-Arts interdisciplinary degree at UAlberta), to a PhD in Strategic Management and Organization, and now a tenure-track position back in Engineering. Given her multi-disciplinary research, Dr. Lefsrud works with scholars in engineering, computer science, cognitive psychology [a must to design cheapest and more effective ways to synergize and propagandize those harmed by industry, notably oil and gas, including pipelines and frac’ing], business, economics, English literature and film studies, and environmental sociology.
Further, to understand various theoretical model elaboration/validation/ mobilization methods, Dr. Lefsrud moved from academia, to industry and regulation, and back to academia. [Devastating combo, for those of us harmed by oil and gas and its enabling regulators and govts] Professionally, her career spans two decades with senior roles in industry, consulting, and regulation. [AND THERE IT IS, EXACTLY AS I EXPECTED THE CV TO BE]
[OH SHIT! HOW VILE! APEGA PROTECTS ITS OWN, NO MATTER HOW MANY LAWS VIOLATED AND CITIZENS HARMED BY PROFESSIONAL GEOLOGISTS AND OR ENGINEERS, LIKE THOSE THAT LED ENCANA TO INTENTIONALLY FRAC ROSEBUD’S DRINKING WATER AQUIFERS. Where are all the voices of “professionals” like Ms. Lefsrud? Why have none spoken out publicly against the horrid violations by “professoinals” at Encana, AER and the Alberta govt? Protecting their own selfish asses, careers, tenure, pensions, egos, ***grants*** and promotions] Prior to returning to academia, she was the Assistant Director Professional Practice with APEGA, an Assistant Director in operations with Canadian National Railway, and worked in construction and oil and gas. Besides doing internationally award winning research, she also provides policy and strategy advice to government and industry. Even while not an academic, she remained instrumental in multi-disciplinary collaborations and publishing, to have the greatest possible impact on organizational and regulatory practices in Canada and worldwide. [Deadly combo. Industry sure is getting schrewd and conniving at how they work to control all opposition, and control academia. Disgusting that academic institutions are grabbing it with greedy glee.]
Research
Society is demanding [Society is demanding or industry and AER, CER (previously NEB?) are demanding? With which to better silence and stomp on citizens saying no to being poisoned and harmed by the oil and gas industry?] ever more complex and integrated systems. Beyond technical design, as engineers, we also have a professional, ethical, and legal responsibility [then why the silence about the thousands harmed by industry, Synergy Alberta, CAPP, AER, Kenney’s cowardly waste of money war room, Encana’s brutal abuses, etc?] to ensure that the operations and maintenance of these systems includes risk management (broadly defined) that protects people and the environment. [Pfffft, ya, right, more accurately they help industry, its deregulators and APEGA piss on harmed people and the environment] Since most losses have human (individual and organizational) failures as the latent cause, if we focus exclusively on technical design, we cannot foresee, know and understand, or prevent these failures. This motivates my multidisciplinary research: How can risk management systems be enhanced so that organizations are better equipped to recognize, adapt to and absorb unforeseen events and manage the resulting risks? [aka Synergize those speaking out and silence the harmed.]
Keywords: risk management, risk acceptability / tolerability, decision-making for technological developments, computational methods.
From the CV:
HONOURS, AWARDS, AND GRANTS
2018 – Invited Speaker and Lecturer on Sustainability, Jerusalem School of Business Administration, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. $10,000. Asper Foundation.
2017 – MITACS, IBM Canada, Cerebri AI, Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA), Multi-Perspective Text Analysis of Social Knowledge Networks. $195,119. PIs: Kelly Lyons, Eleni Stroulia, Lianne Lefsrud. – Alberta OHS Futures Research Funding Program, Improving OHS Performance with OHS and Environmental Creative Sentencing Spillovers. $37,700. PI: Heather Eckert, co-PI: Lianne Lefsrud. – Confederation of Alberta Faculty Associations (CAFA) Distinguished Academic Early Career Award, $2000. – Railway Association of Canada, Role of Safety Management Systems (SMS) in the railway industry and potential for enhancement of the Railway Safety Act (RSA), $16,800. PI: Lianne Lefsrud, co-PI : Renato Macciotta Pulisci. – Construction Owners Association of Alberta and Mitacs, Creating a Positive Safety Culture and Continuous Improvement in Alberta’s Construction Industry, research grant, $15,000. PI: Lianne Lefsrud. Creative sentencing research grant, Protecting Worker Safety in Alberta by Enhancing Field Level Hazard Assessments and Training for Ground Hazards Associated with Tailings Facilities, Dams, and Systems, $285,000. PI: Lianne Lefsrud, co-PI: Michael Hendry. – Future Energy Systems, Co-investigator in Geothermal ($277,000), Resilient Reclaimed Land and Water Systems ($23,000), and Community and Aboriginal ($375,000) themes. – Undergraduate Research Initiative stipend: Workplace Culture: Diversity in Engineering. $5000.
2016 – Seeding Food Innovation 2016 program, Social dimensions of climate change mitigation in Alberta agriculture, $140,801. PIs: Debra Davidson [!!!!!!!], Andreas Hamann & Lianne Lefsrud. – Genome Canada, Large-Scale Applied Research Project Competition, Natural Resources and the Environment: Sector Challenges, Managing Microbial Corrosion in Canadian Offshore & Onshore Oil Production Operations, $7,850,739. PIs: Lisa Gieg, Faisal Khan, John Wolodko. Collaborator: Lianne Lefsrud ($67,400). – Data Grant, Alberta Workers Compensation Board, Assessing Partners’ OHS Tools for Improving Alberta Workplace Safety. PIs: Lianne Lefsrud & Joel Gehman. – Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) Blended Learning Award – ENGG404: Engineering Safety and Risk Management – Leadership in Risk Management, $22,000. PIs: John Cocchio and Lianne Lefsrud. – Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) Summer Student Employment Award, $7,000, PIs: Lianne Lefsrud and John Cocchio.
2015 – Research Grant, Creating a Basis for Genuine Dialogue: Developing a Science-Based [Pfffft! more like propaganda based] Understanding of Public/Industry Communication, Alberta Chamber of Resources, $35,000. PIs: Lianne Lefsrud and Chris Westbury. – NSERC Engage Grant, Using first- and second-order lexical co-occurrence to assess temporal changes in media valence and content, $25,000. PI: Chris Westbury, collaborator: Lianne Lefsrud.
2013-2017 – Most read paper, Organization Studies (FT45 journal), every month February 2013 – present (except in February 2015, #2 to a paper on Game Theory by Greece’s finance minister)
2013 -2015 – Dow Sustainability Research Fellowship and Erb Research Fellowship, $175,000 – Best Paper Award, European Group of Organizational Studies, 2000 € – Best Practice Paper 2013, Academy of Management ONE Division & Network for Business Sustainability (NBS), finalist – TEDx speaker – SSHRC Partnership Development Grant, Engendering Engineering Success, $194,000, collaborator
2012 – Best International Paper, Organization and Management Theory (OMT) Division, Academy of Management, finalist – Dissertation Award, Kule Institute for Advanced Studies (KIAS), $7,000 2011 – Best Reviewer, Social Issues in Management (SIM) Division, Academy of Management
2011-2009 – Izaak Walton Killam Scholarship, Killam Trust, National level scholarship, $54,000 – Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC) Doctoral Fellowship, $40,000 – President’s Doctoral Prize of Distinction, University of Alberta, $20,000
2010 – Research Grant, Energy and Environment Solutions, Alberta Innovates, $46,000
2009 – Doctoral Exchange Program Fellowship, $25,000 – Persons Case Scholarship, Province of Alberta, $5,000
2008 – Engineers Canada TD Insurance Meloche Monnex National Scholarship, $7,500 – Dr. Alice E. Wilson Award, Canadian Federation of University Women, $6,000
Provost Doctoral Awards, University of Alberta, $4,400
Queen Elizabeth II Scholarship (Doctoral), Province of Alberta, $15,000
Given my interdisciplinary research, I work with scholars in engineering, computer science, cognitive psychology, business, economics, and environmental sociology. For all publications, the order of authors is determined by the scientific contribution of the researcher, with the principal investigator/corresponding author listed first. I strive to communicate my research in high-impact, interdisciplinary journals and in public presentations, interviews, and policy and industry reports to reach the broadest
possible audiences
***
2007: Twelve years ago, there this frac’d legal academia play by then law prof Alice Woolley (appointed to Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench in 2018 by AG Jody Wilson-Raybould, Wooleley’s reward for smearing me?):
Who ordered Woolley to misuse (or ignore) official hearing transcripts and use hearsay to smear Ernst publicly on the Internet in 2007, remove it from the Internet when the Ernst lawsuit went public in 2011; republish it publicly again on the Internet eight years later in 2015 after Ernst was granted a hearing before the Supreme Court of Canada?
In 2007, Rick McKee, lawyer with EUB/ERCB?
In 2015, Glenn Solomon, AER outside counsel? AER Chair, Ex Encana VP Gerard Protti, or perhaps Chief Justice Neil C Wittmann?
Slides above from Ernst presentations in UK, October 2017
Judicial appointment: alumna Alice Woolley ’94 by U Toronto Faculty of Law, November 22, 2018
The Honourable Jody Wilson-Raybould, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, has announced the appointment of alumna Alice Woolley (’94), a professor at the University of Calgary, as a Justice of the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta in Calgary.
Following her B.A. in history from the University of Toronto, Justice Alice Woolley graduated with an LL.B. from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law in 1994, where she received both the Gold Medal and the Dean’s Key. In 1995, Justice Woolley earned an LL.M. from Yale Law School, and in 1995-1996 she was a law clerk to the Right Honourable Antonio Lamer, then the Chief Justice of Canada.
After completing her clerkship, Justice Woolley moved to Calgary and, until 2003, practiced law in the areas of civil litigation and energy regulation. In 2004, she was appointed a professor at the University of Calgary Faculty of Law. During her time at the University of Calgary, she became a nationally and internationally recognized scholar of lawyers’ ethics and professional regulation, with publications considering a wide range of issues including the lawyer as advisor, lawyers’ fiduciary obligations, the good character requirement, access to justice, regulation of civility, independence of the bar, and the theoretical foundations of the lawyer’s role.
Justice Woolley served as Associate Dean (Academic) (2014-2016) and as Co-Chair of the Faculty’s Curriculum Committee (2013-2014). From 2015 to 2018, she was President of the Canadian Association for Legal Ethics, and from 2016 to 2018, she was President of the International Association of Legal Ethics. Justice Woolley has twice received the Howard Tidswell Memorial Award for Teaching Excellence and also twice been named one of Canadian Lawyer’s Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers. In 2016, she was named the City of Calgary Council’s first Ethics Advisor.
More on frac’d academia:
2014: In Canada, a Stern Critique of University-Industry Collaborations
A century ago, Thorsten Veblen added another source of concern — the corrosive effect of the market on universities. More recently, John Polanyi, Canada’s most prominent Nobel laureate, noted that when governments or industry try to direct scientific inquiry, rather than allowing the scientific community to do so through its rigorous peer-review system that protects the integrity of the work, our scientific horizons shrink and our future is diminished.
Unfortunately attempts by industry and government to direct scholarly inquiry and teaching have muliplied in the past two decades. The reasons are many. For industry, there is a diminished willingness to undertake fundamental research at its own expense and in its own labs – prefering to tap the talent within the university at a fraction of the cost.
For politicians, there is a desire to please industry, an often inadequate understanding of how knowledge is advanced, and a short time horizon (the next election). The result is a propensity to direct universities “to get on with” producing the knowledge that benefits industry and therefore, ostensibly, the economy.
***
How deeply has the oil & gas industry frac’d and corrupted our judges, arbitrators, mediators, courts, lawyers and law schools?