[IPSM] Dirty Oil, Dirty Money: Who is Funding the Tar Sands Resistance?

[Macdonald Stainsby]

Dirty Oil, Dirty Money: Who is Funding the Tar Sands Resistance?

Sandra Cuffe
Vancouver Media Co-op
Sunday, November 28 2010


After years of online discussion and personal debates, anti-tar sands
activists and Indigenous community members are taking the controversy around
the role of Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations (ENGOs) in
resistance movements to a public forum.
Dirty Oil, Dirty Money: Who is Funding the Tar Sands Resistance?

After years of online discussion and personal debates, anti-tar sands
activists and Indigenous community members are taking the controversy around
the role of Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations (ENGOs) in
resistance movements to a public forum.

"We have ENGOs that are coming in and making decisions on our behalf," said
hereditary chief Toghestiy from the Wet'suwet'en First Nation during the
opening panel of the fourth annual Everyone's Downstream (EDS) conference in
Edmonton, Alberta.

"Where do these decision-making powers come from?" he asked, echoing similar
questions from conference participants at yesterday's inaugural event.

This evening, at 5pm PST / 8pm EST, a 'Following the Money Upstream' panel
will be broadcast live online, focusing on foundation funding, ENGOs, secret
deals, and proposed alternatives. Links to video recordings of all EDS
events are also posted on the home page of the conference website and can be
viewed at any time afterwards.

Dru Oja Jay and Macdonald Stainsby, co-authors of Offsetting Resistance: The
effects of foundation funding from the Great Bear Rainforest to the
Athabasca River, will present their substantial research on the secret
agreements made behind closed doors by foundations and ENGOs.

"There's no transparency whatsoever," said Jay, who recently published an
article about the likelihood of an impending deal between foundation-funded
ENGOs and corporate tar sands industry members to greenwash the largest
industrial project on the planet.

The majority of funding for campaigns and actions opposing the tar sands is
channeled through a 'Tar Sands Coalition', says Jay, which is led by former
Corporate Ethics campaigner Michael Marx.

The CEO of the Tides Foundation has publicly stated that Tides seeks to
"bridge these two polarized camps," referring to the tar sands industry and
environmental groups. For the Indigenous communities at the 'Ground Zero' of
tar sands impacts, as well as those all along the proposed pipelines
crisscrossing the continent, reconciliation with a giga-project they seek to
shut down is impossible.

"We have to stop the agreement," emphasized Jay, adding that "whoever signs
that agreement then has a vested interest" in terms of their role in the tar
sands resistance.

Also on the 'Following the Money Upstream' panel this evening is Sheila
Muxlow, who works with the Prairie Chapter of the Sierra Club, one of a
number of ENGOs that have been involved in the controversial meetings and
agreements.

First Nations Policy Analyst Russell Diabo is the final panelist, bringing
his analysis of the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement and other funding and
process issues to the table.

"Our challenges are mammoth challenges in comparison to ENGOs or activists
because our challenges are real," said outspoken former Chief of the Mikisew
Cree First Nation, George Poitras, from Fort Chipewyan, which is located
directly downstream from the tar sands.

Many more issues are likely to come up during the presentations and
discussion this evening, as well as proposals for alternative and
accountable grassroots structures for collaboration, funding,
decision-making, and solidarity work, such as the proposal for the creation
of a Climate Justice Co-op.

For those tuning in to the live broadcast and those watching the videos
after the fact, comments are welcomed either via chat or message.

Sandra Cuffe is reporting from the 4th annual Everyone's Downstream
conference for the Vancouver Media Co-op.

http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/blog/sandracuffe/5255