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Alberta Vows to Crackdown on Greenpeace Protesters
The group, an international team of activists, scaled three smoke stacks and one crane at the Shell Scotford upgrader near Fort Saskatchewan, just northeast of Edmonton -- part of a continuing bid
Greenpeace activists show their banner during a protest Thursday at an oilsands site in northern Alberta. (Photograph by: Handout, Canwest News Service) by the group to grab headlines ahead of global climate talks in Copenhagen in December.
"Most of these protesters are from outside the country of Canada. They are really tourists telling us how we should develop our resources," Stelmach told reporters at an event at the West Edmonton Mall.
"It's upsetting because it is putting people at risk. It is creating a fair amount of disruption which is going to cost consumers money in the end. More importantly, the efforts are really aimed at harming our economy, putting Albertans out of work, putting Canadians out of work and really diminishing our quality of life," said Stelmach.
He said he will be working with the companies involved to ensure the protesters are removed and arrested "and we don't put up with this kind of behaviour again."
Stelmach lamented that the protests are getting headlines around the world, but his government is having a difficult time getting out its message that it is working to reduce the environmental footprint of the oilsands.
"We've done so much in terms of advancing technology and it's always a struggle getting the news out," he said. "Behaviour like this will get attention, obviously, and they use social media to get the wrong message (out)."
Using recreational climbing gear and hand-held locks, the eco-activists occupied platforms, blocked ladders and unfurled anti-oilsands banners.
RCMP arrested three of the group just after 5 a. m., but another 16 remained locked in the sky-high towers into the evening.
The occupation came days after another group from Greenpeace chained themselves to four conveyor belts at a Suncor oilsands site north of Fort McMurray and weeks after a third team temporarily stopped production at Shell's Muskeg River mine.
Like the other two, Saturday's event was managed for maximum media impact. By 8 a. m., reporters were being directed to a website with streaming video and high-resolution photos from the protest. Outside the plant, meanwhile, a team of Greenpeace spokesmen were available to journalists throughout the day.
"We're here to raise awareness about the climate crime that is the tarsands," said Melina Laboucan-Massimo. "At this site they're expanding an upgrader, which is going to create more greenhouse gas emissions for Canada."
Shell Canada's manager of media relations, Phil Vircoe, said production at the plant was not affected by the occupation as construction had stopped for the weekend.
Vircoe said Shell has tried to reach out to Greenpeace and offered to talk, but it has refused.
Christopher Daley, an Australian, was atop one of the stacks. Reached by cellphone, he said the team's international makeup was no accident.
"Very, very few people outside of Canada were aware of the tarsands before Greenpeace began protesting them," he said. By bringing in a group from France, Germany, Brazil and Australia, he said they hope to create anti-oilsands sentiment in those countries ahead of the Copenhagen talks.
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18 Comments so far
Show AllStelmach should be arrested and thrown in prison for crimes against humanity. Enough is enough - these bastards have to be stopped.
"Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the shadow"
Full extent of the law, eh, Eddie? What law did they break, trespassing? That's a 2,000$ fine for the first offence.
I'm not aware of any other charges Eddie the Premier could bring against them. If making Alberta look bad was a crime that merited a jail sentence then Eddie and the rest of the tory thugs would be behind bars right now... Not in front of the bar like our last tory drunkard.
The Alberta Media has been framing this issue in favor of industry. Greenpeace is being presented as a rogue organization. In this oil-rich province you better not fuck with it's bread and butter.
Four times these "reporters" used the industry frame of "oilsands", rather than tar sands.
Stelmach and Vircoe should both be arrested for crimes against the earth.
Goooooo Greenpeace!
Big Bully Oil just can't stand the truth so it has to suppress like that? To the idiots who arrested those Greenpeace activists, please live right where that oil extraction will take place and see how you like it when the environmental damage ruins your health !
The cancer rate in Fort Macmurray is 400 TIMES the national Canadian average.
I write this as a former resident of Alberta, born and raised.
The Greenpeacers will be lucky to get out with their skins intact.
Ask oilpatch protestor Wiebo Ludwig what the Alberta Government and the RCMP will do to those who speak out against the oil industry.
Ludwig was convicted on trumped up testimony and planted evidence when he complained that a sour gas well was killing his livestock and causing his wife to miscarry.
He was a vocal opponent to oil and gas expansion in his area. As a result of blatant fear mongering by the local media, his family was terrorized by a pickup truck filled with local punks who trespassed on and vandalized his property.
Not knowing what was going on, or who was responsible, Ludwig acted to defend his family, shooting at the pickup. A local teenager was killed. Ludwig was found not guilty in the ensuing trial, the judge saying he acted to protect his family, which is within the bounds of the Canadian Criminal Code.
All this took place while several oilfield service shacks were destroyed with explosives, acts Ludwig claimed he did not commit, and there were hints of police planting of evidence and collusion with local oil companies. Ludwig was found guilty of the bombings, and served 2/3rds of a 28 month sentence.
A local journalist investigating and reporting on the Ludwig case wrote a book about the affair, and was tailed and harassed by agents of the RCMP when he would attend book signings and lectures about the case, and several attendees were similarly treated.
Ever since 'King' Ralph Klein served as Premier, the relationship between government and the oil patch has gone from cozy to downright incestuous.
My sister lives in Stelmach's riding, and because of all the sweetheart deals he has given the oil industry which has ruined the local farming economy on top of a decade long drought, his and his parents home has a new fence and gate worthy of Gitmo, due to the very real threats being made against him.
Let's not forget that what is going on in Alberta affects the whole world, not just jobs in Alberta.
I'm from the US and can see how slanted the article was in favor of the tarsands industry. I have first hand seen how local media HAS TO play up to the local big business from working as the art director for a few local broadcast TV stations. It is the same all over the planet! When ever I have drawn a line over my talent being use to send the BS going out as News... I also seem to be dismissed shortly there after at the urging of the stations' advertising sales dept!
"It's upsetting because it is putting people at risk. It is creating a fair amount of disruption which is going to cost consumers money in the end."
The Albertan Premier is grasping at straws here. The real risk is of course the impact this intensive carbon producing resource will have on all the people in the world.
Ask the First Nation people down stream about what its done to their lives.
Sorry Premier, the people of Alberta are not entitled to destroy the world for their consumer items!
Get prepared people of Saskatchewan, we are next on Big Oils tar sand development list.
Stelmach is an idiot. The Alberta Government has the lowest Royalty rates in the WORLD for their Oil resources. Lower then Texas. Lower then Alaska. They give the crap away in return for Jobs.
When these rates revisited and a panel suggested they be raised, the Oil Companies announced they would cut back on expansion and Stelmach came running back to them with more sweetheart deals.
Norway has less in the way of Oil resources and a similar population yet were able to sock away some 400 billion dollars in half the time it took Alberta to save some 12 billion in its own trust fund.
This guy is a clown. He is incompetent. He just ran up the largest deficit Alberta has ever had.
"It's upsetting because it is putting people at risk."
Uh, that's what you're doing -- and I'm one of those at risk.
This politician has it all wrong. His right wing gang have control of the media in Canada as they do in other countries, just a little bit less than in the USA.
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Actually one of those right wing media companies in Canada filed for bankruptcy today!!! Asper's CanWest Global - the Fox news of Canada - has filed their banko suit in court, apparently they can't get enough people to advertise on their papers or their tv stations... Pity. My heart is bleeding for the neo-tory bastard!
It turns out that 'Steady Eddie' may have handed the Greenpeace lawyers a 'get out of jail free' card for their clients.
In making his comment that he would make sure that the full weight of the courts would fall on the GP protesters, he may have opened the door to charges of judicial interference, which would result in an automatic mistrial and dismissal of charges.
Heck of job, Mr. Ed.
Good grief, I forgot about why the pol's usually spout off about 'not commenting about a matter before the courts'... My heart is warmed by the thought that they'll get off.