‘Political gunfight’: Alberta oil inquiry challenged
CALGARY — An environmental charity argues an inquiry into alleged foreign-led campaigns targeting the oil and gas sector set out to label green groups as anti-Alberta and disrupt their funding before hearing any evidence.
“This is a political gunfight intended to target, intimidate and harm organizations that hold views that differ from those of the government,” Barry Robinson
told Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Karen Horner by video conference Thursday.
Ecojustice argues the inquiry, a plank of the “fight-back” strategy the United Conservatives touted during the 2019 election campaign, was formed for an improper purpose. Public inquiries are meant to investigate tragedies or “worrisome matters of public concern,” and the inquiry headed by forensic accountant Steve Allan does neither, Robinson argued.
Lawyers for the provincial government say in their written submissions that cabinet is entitled — and mandated — to decide what’s in the public interest and what issues warrant a public inquiry. They also say that questions before the inquiry concern the province’s economic viability.
Ecojustice argues there is a reasonable apprehension that the inquiry is biased, as well.
When the inquiry was announced in July 2019, Premier
Jason Kenney stated Alberta had been the target of a “propaganda campaign to defame the energy industry and landlock Alberta’s resources” that was funded by “certain U.S. foundations,” Robinson told court.
“These are all stated as known before any evidence has been put before the inquiry,” Robinson said. Ecojustice’s view is that later tweaks to the inquiry’s terms of reference don’t allay bias concerns, he added.
DAKAR, SENEGAL — Attackers opened fire on a temporary United Nations base in central Mali on Wednesday in a wellplanned assault that wounded 28 peacekeepers from Togo, UN officials said.
The United Nations condemned the attack in Mali, which remains “the deadliest” of the UN’s 12 far-flung peacekeeping missions, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said. Just so far this year, five peacekeepers have been killed and 46 injured by hostile acts in the violence-plagued West African nation, he said.
Mali has been in turmoil since a 2012 uprising prompted mutinous soldiers to overthrow the president. The power vacuum that resulted ultimately led to an Islamic insurgency and a French-led war that ousted the jihadists from power in 2013.
But insurgents remain active and extremist groups affiliated with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group have moved from the arid north to more populated central Mali since 2015, stoking animosity and violence between ethnic groups in the region. The country has also been plagued by a series of coups, the latest in August that overthrew President Ibrahim Boubacar.
There have been no claims of responsibility for what the UN mission called Wednesday’s “complex” attack using direct and indirect fire against the temporary base in Kerena, near Douentza. But Islamic extremists linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group have staged regular attacks on UN peacekeepers and soldiers.
Mahamat Saleh Annadfi, the UN special representative for Mali and head of the peacekeeping mission, “strongly condemns this cowardly attack on the peacekeepers and has ensured that all measures are taken to ensure that the wounded receive appropriate treatment,” mission spokesperson Olivier Salgado said.
The more than 12,500 UN peacekeepers and nearly 1,700 international police in Mali work in “a very challenging and hostile environment,” Dujarric said in New York, noting that there are not only extremist groups but “a lot of nebulous armed groups.”
“I think, given the level, the complexity of the attack that we’ve seen, this was something that was clearly well planned,” he told reporters.
For several months now, peacekeepers have been carrying out security operations in central Mali to help reduce violence against civilians and to restore calm in areas where community tensions are reported, Dujarric said. They are also working to reduce the threat of improvised explosive devices, an issue in the Douentza region.
The UN spokesperson said the key unresolved issue in Mali “is the lack of political progress.” He said all Malian leaders must join the political discussions and lay down their arms.
“UN peacekeepers are not meant … to conduct counterterrorism operations on a regular basis,” Dujarric said.