https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Alberta is launching a public inquiry into the foreign funding of environmentalists, tackling a long-standing grievance among Canada’s conservative politicians that money from abroad has paid for a campaign to effectively block resource development.
Premier Jason Kenney, who announced the $2.5-million inquiry on Thursday, argued foreign groups and billionaires have been funding Canadian organizations for years to spread misleading information as part of a widespread and co-ordinated campaign against pipelines and Alberta’s energy sector. A number of the groups named by the Premier dismissed his claim as a fabrication.
“For more than a decade, Alberta has been the target of a well-funded, political propaganda campaign to defame our energy industry and to landlock our resources,” Mr. Kenney told reporters in Calgary, flanked by his justice and energy ministers.
The creation of the inquiry comes after the Premier’s announcement last month that he is creating a campaign-style energy “war room” to combat what he deems to be misinformation on social media and in the news.
Mr. Kenney was a senior minister under former prime minister Stephen Harper as the Conservative government launched audits of environmental charities and warned of “foreign-funded radicals.”
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