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Editorial: The Green Peace menace
Commentary by Mac Olsen
for South Peace News
The antics of Green Peace near Fort McMurray a couple of weeks ago remind me of a bumper sticker I once saw.
“If you’re unemployed and hungry, eat an environmentalist.”
This quote applies especially to Green Peace, given their penchant for criminal behaviour like trespassing on Shell’s Albian Sands oilsands site north of Fort McMurray.
It also applies to all the other rabid environmentalist groups who use extremism to promote their “messages” of environmental conservation.
Green Peace fanatics illegally entered the site Sept. 15 and chained themselves to two trucks and unfurled a banner condemning the oilsands as a “crime.” They left the site the next day without being charged.
“Shell has agreed not to pursue criminal charges against the protesters because it does nothing to further the climate change conversation,” said John Abbott, the company’s vice-president of heavy oil, to CBC News.
He also said the company invited Green Peace to discuss their climate and energy views, but they chose not to do so.
But the company was wrong in not pursuing criminal charges. Those “Peace-niks” and “Green necks” should have been charged, tried, convicted and sent to prison as a warning and precedent – nobody is above the law and the proper legal punishment will be applied.
Moreover, it doesn’t surprise me Green Peace doesn’t engage in face-to-face discussions with the oil companies. After all, their tactics are intimidation, chaining themselves to objects and physical force to get their “messages” across. There’s no room for accommodation, negotiation, compromise or consultation with those they declare their environmental war on.
The people and companies of the Peace River region should be concerned about what happened at the Albian Sands oilsands site. It won’t be long before rabid environmentalists target the Shell’s proposed Carmon Creek Project near Peace River. At stake is generations of economic prosperity with that project and rabid environmentalists cannot be allowed to endanger it. My quote above should be a friendly reminder.
Environmental activism is not a bad thing. When legitimate environmental activists and groups have issues with companies or government, they make their cases through the democratic process. It includes meeting with elected officials, corporate spokesmen and going through the courts if necessary. That’s the difference between the legitimate environmental activists and extremists.
Moreover, when negligent environmental damage is caused, the companies and those in positions of authority have to be held accountable.
In April 2008, about 1,600 ducks died in a tailings pond at Syncrude’s operation near Fort McMurray. Charges have been laid under the Alberta Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act and the federal Migratory Birds Convention Act.
The company has pleaded not guilty and said it has taken steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again. A trial will be held in St. Albert in March 2010.
But it is for court to decide if the company is guilty, not rabid environmental activists.
Thus, vigilance – and not vigilantism – is required to keep environmental extremism in check.
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