Posing as Canadian Report Launch with Gordon Laxer
Alberta’s Energy Minister Sonya Savage recently said that it’s a “real concern” when any group is “influencing political and regulatory change using foreign funding.”
But if that is the case, why did her government not examine the massive sums spent by foreign oil corporations to intervene in our energy and climate debates – sums that far exceed the trickle of funds received by environmental groups from abroad?
Join us for a conversation with Gordon Laxer about the elephant in the room that Jason Kenney’s phony recent investigation of “anti-Alberta interests” ignored: Big Foreign Oil.
Laxer is the author of the report Posing as Canadian: How Big Foreign Oil captures Canadian energy and climate policy, which was co-published last month by the Council of Canadians and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (B.C. and Saskatchewan offices).
In the report, Laxer breaks down how Big Oil, despite being overwhelmingly foreign-owned, has draped itself in the Canadian flag in order to legitimize its interests, and he explains what we must do now to curb the power of foreign oil giants.
Amidst a growing climate crisis, it is urgent that we understand how wealthy foreign-owned oil corporations are using their power to block climate action in Canada – the better to fight it.
Gordon Laxer is a political economist, professor emeritus at the University of Alberta, and the founding Director of Parkland Institute. He is the author of two award-winning books (After the Sands: Energy and Ecological Security for Canadians, and Open for Business: The Roots of Foreign Ownership in Canada) and the editor of several others. He has published over 40 journal articles, refereed book chapters, and research reports.
To read an excerpt from his latest report, click here.
PS – Read Gordon’s recent Op-ed in the Edmonton Journal: It’s Big Oil, not environmentalists, who are foreign-funded
