Oh, the Irony of “Canada” in the Title

They call it “LNG Canada”. But it’s a consortium of state-owned oil companies from China, Malaysia, Korea and Japan, plus Royal Dutch Shell. The only Canadian money behind this project is the taxpayer subsidies.

LNG Canada has put millions into lobbying, political donations, advertising and activist campaigns here in B.C. And the return on that investment has been massive: billions of dollars in tax breaks and government handouts.

Now their political allies are going after Dogwood for pointing out this waste of taxpayer money — and for offering moral support to the Wet’suwet’en people standing up to LNG Canada’s pipeline project, Coastal Gaslink.

BC Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson called us a “militant group” in Question Period on Wednesday. You know, like the Front de libération du Québec or the Weather Underground. He accused us and other NGOs of taking money from shadowy foreign groups to fund a “coordinated assault on the Canadian economy”.

Frankly it’s insulting to the Mohawk, Gitxsan and thousands of youth and grassroots people across the country organizing demonstrations in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs. (We didn’t organize any of the spontaneous actions that have popped up in recent weeks.)

It’s also ironic, since LNG Canada is exactly what its boosters see lurking behind every tree: a foreign-funded plot to manipulate our economy.

And don’t get me started on the BC Liberals, who took millions of dollars in political donations over the years from foreign governments and corporations, criminals, beneficiaries of lucrative government contracts — and of course oil and gas companies.

Want to keep Mr. Wilkinson tossing and turning at night? Make a donation to Dogwood, so we can keep fighting government handouts to fossil fuel expansion projects.

We know the more people find out about the massive public subsidies to oil and gas, the more support for projects like Trans Mountain and Coastal Gaslink collapses. Clearly our strategy has oil companies and their attack dogs worried. Help us take this campaign to the next level.

Thank you for your support,

Kai Nagata, Dogwood