The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is an oil rich dictatorship where freedom of the press doesn't exist, where bloggers, journalists and writers face arrest and imprisonment .
Since July, EthicalOil.org has been campaigning to encourage people, businesses, and governments to make ethical energy choices by supporting ethical oil from Canada and its oil sands over conflict oil from regimes like Saudi Arabia. Just as we make an ethical choice when we buy fair trade coffee or free range chicken, so too should we be trying to make ethical energy choices.
The Huffington Post Canada's Ottawa bureau chief Althia Raj was the first journalist to report on one aspect of EthicalOil.org's campaign -- a television advertisement we had aired on the Oprah Winfrey Network in Canada. The TV ad, which can be seen here, informed viewers about the abuse of women in Saudi Arabia, reminding them that in Canada's oil sands people, businesses, and governments had an ethical alternative.
Clearly the mullahs and princes in Riyadh enjoy watching a lot of Oprah, because they saw the ad. And they're livid.
This morning the Toronto Sun reported on its front page on a cease and desist letter that lawyers for the Saudi Arabian government sent to the Television Bureau of Canada, the review and clearance service for TV ads in this country, demanding that approval for the ad be withdrawn.
This brazen act of domestic political interference by a foreign dictatorship is without precedent in Canada. It's one thing for Saudi Arabia to oppress its own citizens; quite another for them to export their Saudi-style contempt for freedom of the press into Canada.
Saudi Arabia's bullying tactics won't work. EthicalOil.org won't back down. In response to the Saudi dictatorship's move, I've decided to take the following actions:
1. The ad, which had completed its run on the Oprah Winfrey Network (Canada), has been put back on the air. Starting today the Sun News Network is airing the spot. Because of the Saudi regime's actions, more Canadians will see the TV ad.
2. I have written to His Excellency Osamah A. Al Sanosi Ahmad, the Saudi Arabian Ambassador in Canada, informing him the ad has been put back on the air and challenging him to a televised debate about the ad and its contents. Open discussion and debate, not censorship and intimidation, is how we resolve disagreements in Canada.
3. I have also alerted Foreign Minister John Baird and Dean Allison, Chairman of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade, about the incident in writing, calling on the Harper government and the parliamentary committee to investigate a foreign dictatorship trying to censor what Canadians can and cannot see on their televisions.
While in a free, open, and democratic society, we can have vigorous disagreements about energy policy and the role Canada's oil sands should play in the energy supply mix, when a foreign dictatorship like Saudi Arabia tries to censor one side of that debate, we all need to stand as one in defending our rights as Canadians. That means that all of us -- including oil sands critics like Greenpeace -- need to condemn this brazen act of domestic political interference by a blood-soaked, conflict oil-fueled foreign dictatorship.
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As for this, you're very wrong:
"This brazen act of domestic political interference by a foreign dictatorship is without precedent in Canada."
You must not know anything about the Falun Gong protests in Vancouver, and the pressure the Chinese government put on their outpost by the Chinese Consulate. And the various threats and posturings about the Dalai Lama and many other matters. China is teaching Canadian governments the art of the kow-tow. It's not like the Saudis are the first foreign government who've tried to tell us what to do.
Only oil that's less bad than others.
Perhaps Velshi should visit a few First Nations reserves around Fort McMurray and see how ethical oil has caused skyrocketing cancer rates among children and fish mutations. Perhaps after that he can go and visit Bangladesh and see how folks there feel about climate change and rising sea levels caused by our refusal to change our lifestyles and use less oil.
Maybe then he can lecture us about ethics after he accepts his cheques from the oil companies. To date, Velshi refuses to say he doesn't get money from oil companies, which is pretty much an admission in and of itself. There's no reason to not say "no, I don't take money from oil companies" if you don't in-fact take money from oil companies - it would strengthen his message and brand considerably, because then he wouldn't be viewed as a stooge of the oil industry - so why won't he do it?
Because if he says he doesn't take oil money, and then a leak gets out that he does, he not only torpedoes his pet project and exposes himself as a stooge, but also might face legal challenges.
Alberta has some of the strictest laws for environmental regulation and reporting in the world. I couldn't believe that Ontario and BC actual dump raw sewage in their water sources. This would be illegal in Alberta.
No such thing as ethical oil? Well I could call you an environmental hypocrite. Maybe stop using anything you have that has an oil product in it. Grow up and realize that it will take around 50 years to transition to new energy sources. SAGD is the future of oil sands, and uses way less energy per barrel to produce.
Oh, and three, continuing to destroy the earth so people can have plastic toothbrushes and drive cars is also not ethical at all.
Utter drivel. You and I both know such a thing is pretty much impossible, and the notion of it is absurd.
What isn't absurd is that relatively small changes to our lifestyles over the course of a year or two could drastically reduce our oil usage and increase our health and save us money.
"Grow up and realize that it will take around 50 years to transition to new energy sources."
Read a book and realize we have the technology to drastically reduce oil usage today.
We can start with building communities around transit and not the car. We know how to do that already.
Perhaps you could share these "reliable sources" that show that Dr. Tony Fields' study to be "totally bunk"
The tar sands were an atrocity over decade ago and nothing's happened to suddenly make them "ethical."
Is just a matter of time until I have the answers. I can already recombinate matter....Alfred-
BIG OIL BUY THEM OUT????????????????????????????????????
So, in your view, is Harper et al either ethical or not ethical?