Dear Sir:
Well, here we go again: another multi-million dollar public relations campaign from Enbridge. I guess “Ethical Oil” wasn’t as successful in brainwashing British Columbians as they had hoped it would be.
Ezra Levant tried to convince us that it was our duty as Canadians to let Alberta send its unprocessed bitumen to China because somehow that was more “ethical” than importing oil from Middle Eastern countries.
He just forgot to point out a few facts such as that China happens to be a Communist military dictatorship with an abysmal human rights record, and that Eastern Canada is forced to import most of its oil from these “unethical” sources because, well, Alberta exports almost all of its oil.
Now, the spin doctors at Enbridge are using a cutesy cartoon ad, television ads and website to convince us that Northern Gateway is a “path to our future.” They’re hauling out all the old promises about “thousands of jobs,” “new trading partners,” and “world-class safety.”
Whose future exactly is Enbridge talking about, I wonder. Certainly not that of generations of British Columbians yet to come. We’re being asked yet again to accept the inevitable pipeline leak or oil tanker spill as the price for a few short-term construction jobs and even fewer permanent ones.
Enbridge’s whole philosophy since day one has been based on the premise that everyone’s consent can be bought; it’s just a question of how many pieces of silver it will take. And they’ve obviously got deep pockets.
Putting pipelines filled with bitumen and condensate through our mountains and over our rivers is crazy. Taking a tanker eight times the size of the Exxon Valdez down the Douglas Channel almost every day is crazy. Our descendants will curse us forever if we allow this to happen. No amount of spin doctoring and phony promises will change those facts.
Andrew Williams,
Terrace, BC
