I read a very interesting article today on the foreign financial backing on many of the environmentalist and native public influencing campaigns that are targeting Canada's energy and mining industries. This article specifically relates to the Oil Sands and the pipeline to BC but the impact of these groups should not be taken lightly when looking at the current environmental fight taking place in the ROF.

The best position for NOT holders is to express support of projects like those at McFaulds Lake / ROF in written communications to members of Parliament that development in the North can happen in sustainable ways, much to the chagrin of foreign lobbying groups like those from Britain who's motivation is suspect.

Enjoy ...

http://www.edmontonsun.com/2011/12/16/foreign-funds-flowing-to-fight-oilsands

Foreign funds flowing to fight oilsands

By Daniel Proussalidis ,Parliamentary Bureau

First posted: Saturday, December 17, 2011 10:00 PM MST

OTTAWA - While debate rages about the Northern Gateway pipeline project to connect Alberta's oilsands to a tanker terminal in Kitimat, B.C., European financing is pouring in to environmental and aboriginal groups who lead the charge against the projects.

The stakes have never been higher.

A major University of Calgary study released Thursday concluded if pipeline capacity existed to take full advantage of the oilsands, Canada's economy would see a $131 billion boost between 2016 and 2030.

Yet opposition to the oilsands has been active for years, and now QMI Agency has learned Swiss and British money has been pumped into Canada, adding a new element to an issue that has focused on billionaire American foundations so far.

Janet Annesley with the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) said oilsands opposition isn't all "grassroots."

"In reality, they're accepting cheques for hundreds of millions of dollars from foreign foundations," she said. "Canadians need to know who is behind these campaigns in order to think critically about what position they're putting forward."

Since 2007, Geneva-based Oak Foundation, set up by British billionaire Alan Parker, has divided almost $2.6 million among six groups for campaigns against the "tarsands."

While Oak did not respond to QMI Agency's interview request, the foundation's database of grants shows Greenpeace Canada has swallowed more than $860,000 "to create financial and political uncertainty" about the oilsands.

Tides Canada took money to stop "new infrastructure development" like pipelines, while Forest Ethics accepted cash to stop the Northern Gateway and for "creating a perception of economic risk" around the oilsands.

West Coast Environmental Law, Environmental Defence Canada, and the World Wildlife Fund Canada received Oak's anti-oilsands money, too.

The British government has gotten into the act, funding a recent Pembina Institute study critical of the oilsands, carrying on the kind of work former U.K. High Commissioner Anthony Carey would do in Canada.

"If we can't deal with (climate change) it is going to lead towards bloodshed and tremendous international tensions in the future," Carey said in 2008, as quoted by the Vancouver Sun.

Meanwhile, British conglomerate The Co-operative has used its profits to vilify the oilsands as "toxic fuel."

It's also become a gusher of funding for native activists like Respecting Aboriginal Voices and Environmental Needs (RAVEN), which aims to convince the Supreme Court to void more than 17,000 oilsands permits by arguing they infringe on aboriginal treaty rights.

The Co-operative has lavished approximately $400,000 on RAVEN, almost six times the individual contributions RAVEN lists in its annual report.

The Co-operative's Colin Baines sees nothing wrong with that since "there's hundreds of billions of (international) dollars being poured into the tarsands."

All the while, the $300 million in funding from billionaire American foundations, uncovered by researcher Vivian Krause, is influencing Canada's oilsands debate.

Tides Canada has tapped into American funds in a big way, taking in more than $13.6 million from the Hewlett Foundation alone between 2002 and 2007.

The chain of funding has financing from Tides finding its way to Forest Ethics.

Forest Ethics said it "played a role in registering close to 600 speakers" for public hearings on Northern Gateway, slowing down the review process.

If the debate has been skewed, though, CAPP doesn't acknowledge it.

Annesley said anti-oilsands activists' foreign cash has undermined their credibility with average Canadians.

M1.