[van-announce] Is Enbridge using art to greenwash the Northern Gateway?

[Stefan Christoff]

* Is Enbridge using art to greenwash the Northern Gateway?
by Stefan Christoff | Art Threat

http://artthreat.net/2012/01/enbridge-art-funding/

Protests voicing opposition to the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines Project 
are quickly expanding.

Public hearings on the controversial tar sands oil transport route - attracting 
hundreds of participants on the first day and igniting incendiary statements by 
Conservative politicians - provide evidence that political battles over 
Northern Gateway will come to shape contemporary debates on environmental 
justice in Canada.

Stretching from Alberta across northern British Columbia and into the 
ecologically sensitive coastal port of Kitimat, the pipeline will cross 
indigenous lands and territories that speak to Canada's colonial reality.

In building a broader context for the Northern Gateway battle, stepping beyond 
recent headlines is important. In that vein, what are the relations between 
Enbridge corporation and funding for the arts in Canada? Can financial support 
from a company pushing to rapidly expand tar sands extraction and construct a 
hotly contested oil pipeline on indigenous lands be considered ethical?

Enbridge is currently the presenting partner of Our Story, The Canadian 
Aboriginal Writing & Arts Challenge, a project supported by Canada's Department 
of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, described officially as the 
"most recognizable essay writing competition in Canada for Aboriginal youth."

At a time when Enbridge pushes the Northern Gateway project, despite widespread 
public opposition to the pipeline by a majority of First Nations in B.C., 
difficult questions on political motivations for the decision to fund an arts 
project celebrating indigenous voices rest in the open.

* read full article at :
http://artthreat.net/2012/01/enbridge-art-funding/

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Stefan Christoff / christoff at resist.ca
http://www.twitter.com/spirodon

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