What will it take, how many spills, how many more lies from Enbridge before Christy Clark stands up for British Columbia...
I have waited patiently for Adrian Dix to come out strong against Enbridge, maybe it was the Red Deer spill that finally prompted him to draw a line in the sand, whatever the reason his hard stance will vault him into the premier`s chair, it will also end Harper`s reign of terror..
___________________
As Premier Christy Clark waffles and wavers on the proposed Enbridge pipeline, NDP leader Adrian Dix has been ramping up his opposition to the megaproject.
Now — in the aftermath of a major oil-pipeline rupture in Alberta — Dix is taking his fight against the Enbridge project and kicking it up another notch.
Dix has assembled a legal team to review the province’s options in advance of next year’s election.
What if the pipeline passes its current environmental review and gets the official green light from Ottawa? What if it all happens on Dix’s watch, if he becomes premier next year?
Would a Dix government be willing to keep fighting the project and perhaps try to stop it?
“Not only do I not rule it out, but we are already actively researching those questions,” Dix told me in an interview.
Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/Adrian+explores+options+Enbridge+project/6802927/story.html#ixzz1yJfbR75k
___________________________________
Three major pipeline accidents in a month..22,000 barrels....
____________________
"A spill of oil and water in northwest Alberta has lasted since at
least May 19 and has put an estimated 22,000 barrels in the muskeg. The
site, a water-injection well and pipeline, is operated by Pace Oil &
Gas Ltd., which is now conducting a cleanup operation.
According to news releases on the Pace website, the leak was spotted on May 19 from an aircraft flying over the remote site near Rainbow Lake."
http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/Environment/2012/05/31/Alberta_muskeg/
According to news releases on the Pace website, the leak was spotted on May 19 from an aircraft flying over the remote site near Rainbow Lake."
http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/Environment/2012/05/31/Alberta_muskeg/
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I find it interesting as to why when they report oil spills they sometimes use litres, sometimes gallons and sometimes litres...Lets convert that spill in the muskeg to litres..
3,498,000 litres..That`s right, the spill 3 weeks ago was over 3 million litres...
The spill in Red Deer was 477,000 litres...
________________
Shock and frustration are two feelings hanging heavily over residents living near an oil spill in central Alberta.
Emergency crews are on the scene Friday cleaning up to 3,000(477,000 litres) barrels
of light sour crude oil released into Jackson Creek, a tributary of the
Red Deer River near Sundre, Alta.Cleanup crews are also working to contain the product that flowed into the nearby Gleniffer Lake and Reservoir, which feeds drinking water to several communities in the area.
Sundre Petroleum Operators Group says it notified Plains Midstream Canada's 24-hour control centre in Olds, Alta., last night around 8:40 p.m. local time after finding out about the spill.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2012/06/08/calgary-sundre-oil-spill.html
______________________________
And now we have at least another 300,000 litres, although that number in this latest spill hasn`t been confirmed, the real amount in all these spills is much higher, but for now let`s use the 300,000 litre number...
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It does take some time to assess the site, get our field folks on-site, determine the extent of the spill, talk to the company and see what they estimate the volume at, and then we get forward to a news release,” Barter said. “This one is significant enough that we issued a news release on it.’
_______________________
Did you notice that highlighted part, there are hundreds if not thousands of smaller oil spills that don`t even get reported, only major ones..So what we have in 3 weeks is well over 4 million litres of oil spilled..
I mentioned that Enbridge are proven liars, two weeks ago Enbridge made the claim that 60% of first nations are onboard with the pipeline, what Paul Staneway isn`t telling you is that the First Nations he`s signed on are hundreds of miles from the pipeline..
___________
Haida Nation President Guujaaw is making some serious allegations about “deliberately misleading and false information”
in Enbridge Northern Gateway
documents provided to the federal Joint Review Panel which will soon commence hearings on the controversial oils sands pipeline project.
Specifically, Guujaaw rejects Enbridge’s claim that the Haida are in the process of “relationship building” with the Calgary-based company which is seeking to build an oil transmission pipeline from Alberta to the BC coast at Kitimat.
Haida have an interest in the project because oil tankers will carry oil sands crude past Haida Gwaii,
which includes a national park and designated UNESCO world heritage site.
It hasn’t been a good week for Enbridge. Earlier, a majority of Gitxsan hereditary chiefs renounced a much-trumpted profit-sharing deal with Enbridge.
Here’s an email to the Panel, which was cc’d to me on Friday by Guujaaw.
From: guujaaw [mailto:guujaaw@haidanation.net]
Sent: Wednesday, December 21, 2011 2:46 PM
Subject: Enbridge
December 20, 2011
Enbridge Northern Gateway Project
Joint Review Panel
444 7th Avenue S.W.
Calgary, Alberta T2P 0X8
Attention: Secretary to the Joint Review Panel
Re: statement contained in Volume 5A: Aboriginal Engagement, Appendix D: National and Regional Aboriginal Organizations.
To whom it may concern;
Enbridge has provided deliberately misleading and false information
contained in their Section 52 Application claiming that the applicant
has built relationships with the Haida Fisheries Program, Haida
Development Corporation (sic, presumably Haida Enterprise Corporation)
and Haida Child and Family Services.
Haida Gwaii Community Futures is not an ‘Aboriginal Organization’ and has no idea how they got on the list.
Haida Gwaii Community Futures is not an ‘Aboriginal Organization’ and has no idea how they got on the list.
Representatives of the above organizations are in no way engaged with
nor have they given any reason to believe they are “relationship
building” with Enbridge.
We would like to have all of these names stricken from Enbridge’s filed documents as it is libellous bringing these organizations into disrepute, not only with their own constituents, but also the many First Nations, organizations and people who are committed to the health of this planet.
Respectfully,We would like to have all of these names stricken from Enbridge’s filed documents as it is libellous bringing these organizations into disrepute, not only with their own constituents, but also the many First Nations, organizations and people who are committed to the health of this planet.
Guujaaw
President of the Haida Nation
_____________
Enbridge`s lies are just starting...
__________
Enbridge claim of pipeline support from First Nations a ‘sham’, say aboriginals
VANCOUVER — An aboriginal group along the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline says Enbridge’s (TSX:ENB) claim of widespread support among First Nations is a sham.On Tuesday, Enbridge announced it had signed agreements with 60 per cent of the aboriginal communities on the route, saying that’s proof there’s more support for the pipeline than opponents would suggest.
But Art Sterritt, executive director of the Coastal First Nations, says he knows of only two First Nations who have signed the equity-sharing deal, and he accuses Enbridge of expanding its corridor to include support from communities that won’t be directly affected by the pipeline.
He says his people are “mystified” about why Enbridge included support from a Metis group when they don’t have rights and title to the land upon which the pipeline will travel.
___________
Enbridge have spilled so much oil that they couldn`t clean up that they have learned the art of camouflage, they lay porous canvas over oil-soaked land and plant grass, they also cover oil with sand, they also bully, intimidate and litigate litigate litigate to avoid paying..
Here is just a small sample of videos proving what I have said, proving what environmental crimes Enbridge has committed..
____________________________
Even Vaughn Palmer is warning Enbridge, Palmer strongly suggests that Enbridge send oil east and south and forget about Gateway...
______________
Anyone who assumes that offers of jobs and royalty-sharing will
necessarily turn B.C. heads against environ-mental concerns should
review what happened with some earlier resource development proposals.
The Windy Craggy copper property in the northwest. The Kemano II expansion on the coast. Uranium mining in the southern interior. Coal bed methane anywhere. Logging in any number of forest tracts. The BC Hydro gas-fired generating station on Vancouver Island. All killed, in large measure by environmental concerns.
With those projects the benefits, debatable as they were, would largely have devolved to B.C. It's much easier to nix one where most of the benefits would flow to another jurisdiction.
My advice to our landlocked neighbour, expressed in a speech in Calgary this week, was to look to their alter-natives. The Keystone pipeline to the U.S. Expanded capacity to serve a possibly expanded refining industry in Eastern Canada.
Either is likely to be in service long before Alberta ever manages to build a new pipeline through this intransigent province.
vpalmer@vancouversun.com
The Windy Craggy copper property in the northwest. The Kemano II expansion on the coast. Uranium mining in the southern interior. Coal bed methane anywhere. Logging in any number of forest tracts. The BC Hydro gas-fired generating station on Vancouver Island. All killed, in large measure by environmental concerns.
With those projects the benefits, debatable as they were, would largely have devolved to B.C. It's much easier to nix one where most of the benefits would flow to another jurisdiction.
My advice to our landlocked neighbour, expressed in a speech in Calgary this week, was to look to their alter-natives. The Keystone pipeline to the U.S. Expanded capacity to serve a possibly expanded refining industry in Eastern Canada.
Either is likely to be in service long before Alberta ever manages to build a new pipeline through this intransigent province.
vpalmer@vancouversun.com
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Enbridge have not had 10 oil spills, not 50..not 100..Enbridge has had nearly 1000 major spills in the last deacde, that is one major spill per month..
____________
Using data from Enbridge's own reports, the Polaris Institute calculated
that 804 spills occurred on Enbridge pipelines between 1999 and 2010.
These spills released approximately 168,645 barrels (26,812.4 m3) of hydrocarbons into the environment.
On July 4, 2002 an Enbridge pipeline ruptured in a marsh near the town of Cohasset, Minnesota in Itasca County, spilling 6,000 barrels (950 m3) of crude oil. In an attempt to keep the oil from contaminating the Mississippi River,
the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources set a controlled burn
that lasted for 1 day and created a smoke plume about 1-mile (1.6 km)
high and 5 miles (8.0 km) long.
[12]
In 2006, there were 67 reportable spills totaling 5,663 barrels (900.3 m3) on Enbridge's energy and transportation and distribution system; in 2007, there were 65 reportable spills totaling 13,777 barrels (2,190.4 m3)
[13]
On March 18, 2006, approximately 613 barrels (97.5 m3) of crude oil were released when a pump failed at Enbridge's Willmar terminal in Saskatchewan.[14] According to Enbridge, roughly half the oil was recovered, the remainder contributing to 'off-site' impacts.
On January 1, 2007 an Enbridge pipeline that runs from Superior, Wisconsin to near Whitewater, Wisconsin cracked open and spilled ~50,000 US gallons (190 m3) of crude oil onto farmland and into a drainage ditch.[15] The same pipeline was struck by construction crews on February 2, 2007, in Rusk County, Wisconsin, spilling ~126,000 US gallons (480 m3) of crude. Some of the oil filled a hole more than 20 feet (6.1 m) deep and was reported to have contaminated the local water table.[16]
In April 2007, roughly 6,227 barrels (990.0 m3) of crude oil spilled into a field downstream of an Enbridge pumping station near Glenavon, Saskatchewan. Long-term site remediation is being attempted to bring the site to "as close as possible to its original condition".[14]
In 2009, Enbridge Energy Partners, a US affiliate of Enbridge Inc., agreed to pay $1.1 million to settle a lawsuit brought against the company by the state of Wisconsin for 545 environmental violations.[17] In a news release from Wisconsin's Department of Justice, Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said "...the incidents of violation were numerous and widespread, and resulted in impacts to the streams and wetlands throughout the various watersheds."[18] The violations were incurred while building portions of the company's Southern Access pipeline, a ~$2.1 billion project to transport crude from the oil sands region in Alberta to Chicago.
In January 2009 an Enbridge pipeline leaked about 4,000 barrels (640 m3) of oil southeast of Fort McMurray at the company's Cheecham Terminal tank farm. It was reported in the Edmonton Journal that most of the spilled oil was contained within berms, but that about 1% of the oil, about 40 barrels (6.4 m3), sprayed into the air and coated nearby snow and trees.[19]
April 2010 an Enbridge pipeline ruptured spilling more than 1500 litres of oil in Virden, Manitoba, which leaked into the Boghill Creek which eventually connects to the Assiniboine River.[20]
July 2010, a leaking pipeline spilled an estimated 843,444 US gallons (3,192.78 m3) of crude oil into Talmadge Creek leading to the Kalamazoo River in southwest Michigan on Monday, July 26.[21][22] A United States Environmental Protection Agency update of the Kalamazoo River spill concluded the pipeline rupture "caused the largest inland oil spill in Midwest history" and reported the cost of the cleanup at $36.7 million (US) as of November 14, 2011.[21] An employee of a subcontractor hired by Enbridge has claimed that the cleanup is ongoing as of July 2012.[23]
On September 9, 2010, a rupture on Enbridge's Line 6A pipeline near Romeoville, Illinois released an estimate 6,100 barrels (970 m3) of oil into the surrounding area
[12]
In 2006, there were 67 reportable spills totaling 5,663 barrels (900.3 m3) on Enbridge's energy and transportation and distribution system; in 2007, there were 65 reportable spills totaling 13,777 barrels (2,190.4 m3)
[13]
On March 18, 2006, approximately 613 barrels (97.5 m3) of crude oil were released when a pump failed at Enbridge's Willmar terminal in Saskatchewan.[14] According to Enbridge, roughly half the oil was recovered, the remainder contributing to 'off-site' impacts.
On January 1, 2007 an Enbridge pipeline that runs from Superior, Wisconsin to near Whitewater, Wisconsin cracked open and spilled ~50,000 US gallons (190 m3) of crude oil onto farmland and into a drainage ditch.[15] The same pipeline was struck by construction crews on February 2, 2007, in Rusk County, Wisconsin, spilling ~126,000 US gallons (480 m3) of crude. Some of the oil filled a hole more than 20 feet (6.1 m) deep and was reported to have contaminated the local water table.[16]
In April 2007, roughly 6,227 barrels (990.0 m3) of crude oil spilled into a field downstream of an Enbridge pumping station near Glenavon, Saskatchewan. Long-term site remediation is being attempted to bring the site to "as close as possible to its original condition".[14]
In 2009, Enbridge Energy Partners, a US affiliate of Enbridge Inc., agreed to pay $1.1 million to settle a lawsuit brought against the company by the state of Wisconsin for 545 environmental violations.[17] In a news release from Wisconsin's Department of Justice, Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said "...the incidents of violation were numerous and widespread, and resulted in impacts to the streams and wetlands throughout the various watersheds."[18] The violations were incurred while building portions of the company's Southern Access pipeline, a ~$2.1 billion project to transport crude from the oil sands region in Alberta to Chicago.
In January 2009 an Enbridge pipeline leaked about 4,000 barrels (640 m3) of oil southeast of Fort McMurray at the company's Cheecham Terminal tank farm. It was reported in the Edmonton Journal that most of the spilled oil was contained within berms, but that about 1% of the oil, about 40 barrels (6.4 m3), sprayed into the air and coated nearby snow and trees.[19]
April 2010 an Enbridge pipeline ruptured spilling more than 1500 litres of oil in Virden, Manitoba, which leaked into the Boghill Creek which eventually connects to the Assiniboine River.[20]
July 2010, a leaking pipeline spilled an estimated 843,444 US gallons (3,192.78 m3) of crude oil into Talmadge Creek leading to the Kalamazoo River in southwest Michigan on Monday, July 26.[21][22] A United States Environmental Protection Agency update of the Kalamazoo River spill concluded the pipeline rupture "caused the largest inland oil spill in Midwest history" and reported the cost of the cleanup at $36.7 million (US) as of November 14, 2011.[21] An employee of a subcontractor hired by Enbridge has claimed that the cleanup is ongoing as of July 2012.[23]
On September 9, 2010, a rupture on Enbridge's Line 6A pipeline near Romeoville, Illinois released an estimate 6,100 barrels (970 m3) of oil into the surrounding area
____________________
27 million litres spilled and that number doesn`t include the three spill in Alberta in the last three weeks, I would hazard to guess with Enbridge`s track record under-reporting and cover ups they have probably spilled 100 million litres minimum..
What will it take, how many spills, how many rivers, how much corruption...
Canada, at present we import 877,00 barrels per day to eastern Canada from foreign sources just to fill our domestic needs...
Christy Clark, her chief of staff is Ken Bosenkool, he worked for Stephen Harper, he also made tons of money as a lobbyist for Enbridge, that is correct, Christy Clark`s chief of staff Ken Bosenkool is an ex-Enbridge lobbyist, but that is only a tiny part of Bossenkool`s nefarious background..
Christy Clark has remained silent while Joe Oliver and Stephen Harper threatened environmentalists, threatened and spied on(using Canada`s military) First Nations..
___________________
In a series of documents from 2005 to 2009, the RCMP and CSIS assess
“threats from terrorism and extremism” and report growing concerns about
environmental and animal-rights groups, as well as militants from first
nations.
“Multi-issue extremists and aboriginal extremists may pursue common causes, and both groups have demonstrated the intent and the capability to carry out attacks against critical infrastructure in Canada,” says a November, 2008, assessment prepared by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
Critics say the Harper government is blurring the lines of counterterrorism to target legitimate opponents of resource developments such as the Northern Gateway project, which will bring bitumen pipelines and massive oil tankers to British Columbia’s rugged coast. And they worry that new legislation designed to give police access to individual Canadians’ personal Internet information will increase surveillance of environmental groups that support acts of civil disobedience.
“With a lot of the government’s rhetoric around Gateway and the government’s frequent use of ‘radicalism’ and ‘extremism’ to characterize opposition, these kinds of [counterterrorist]categories are used to justify a surveillance campaign,” said Jeff Monaghan, a Queen’s University sociologist who co-authored a paper on the threat assessment after receiving the documents under the Access to Information Act.
“Multi-issue extremists and aboriginal extremists may pursue common causes, and both groups have demonstrated the intent and the capability to carry out attacks against critical infrastructure in Canada,” says a November, 2008, assessment prepared by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
Critics say the Harper government is blurring the lines of counterterrorism to target legitimate opponents of resource developments such as the Northern Gateway project, which will bring bitumen pipelines and massive oil tankers to British Columbia’s rugged coast. And they worry that new legislation designed to give police access to individual Canadians’ personal Internet information will increase surveillance of environmental groups that support acts of civil disobedience.
“With a lot of the government’s rhetoric around Gateway and the government’s frequent use of ‘radicalism’ and ‘extremism’ to characterize opposition, these kinds of [counterterrorist]categories are used to justify a surveillance campaign,” said Jeff Monaghan, a Queen’s University sociologist who co-authored a paper on the threat assessment after receiving the documents under the Access to Information Act.
___________________________
Not one word from Christy Clark about Harper`s bullying and threatening tactics, her silence is deafening..And now Christy Clark is but a Stephen Harper puppet with Harper`s extreme right-wing pooch as her chief of staff....You gotta read this..
____________
It was a strange twist of fate that led me to discover a lobbyist and
recently debated Alberta Blue Party candidate named Ken Boessenkool. I
had started out my morning firing up the computer and the coffee maker
and wondered how best to flesh out this site. What important
information was I missing, I wondered? My little editor voice whispered
"you need to make the Government connection". As always, I trusted my
little editor voice (in matters pertaining to life and journalism) and
began searching keywords like Canadian + Government + Merck, and
Merck+Lobbyist+Canada. I discovered that one lobbyist (Ken Boessenkool)
in particular had ties to both Merck and the Conservative government.
As usual I found myself as Alice, peering down the rabbit hole and
wondering just how deep it might go.
I found the following information from Hill and Knowlton Canada's website:
About Ken Boessenkool
"Boessenkool joined the Calgary office of Hill & Knowlton in 2004 as vice president, business development. He was appointed as general manager of Alberta prior to his current role as national practice director for public affairs. Prior to joining Hill & Knowlton, Boessenkool was senior policy advisor and strategist to Canada's current Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and played senior strategic roles in the 2004 and 2006 Conservative election campaigns. He has served as a policy advisor on numerous provincial and national leadership races. He also served as a policy advisor to two Alberta finance ministers.
Boessenkool has been an adjunct research fellow as well as a policy analyst with the Toronto-based C.D. Howe Institute. He has taught Canadian Public Finance in the Economics Department at the University of Calgary and has published over thirty-five policy papers. His numerous opinion editorials have appeared in Time Magazine, The Globe and Mail, National Post, Calgary Herald, Ottawa Citizen and other newspapers. Boessenkool is currently a research fellow with the Canada West Foundation and was named one of Calgary’s Top 40 under 40 in 2007 by Calgary Inc. Magazine."
Sounds like a great guy! Young, fairly good looking, family man, obviously tenacious and ambitious... what's not to like?
Then I discovered that he was instrumental in securing from the Harper government 300 million dollars on a nationwide campaign to vaccinate schoolgirls with Gardasil while working for Hill and Knowlton. The fact that he had been Harpers strategic advisor back in '04 and '06 was starting to make sense. This fact was not lost on the opposition in the house at that time and there was a brief, but telling debate in the HOC.
Hill and Knowlton happens to be THE public relations firm used by all of the major pharmaceutical companies worldwide (Aventis, GlaxoSmithKlein, Roche, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi-Pasteur, among others). What's more, it also runs PR for the World Health Organization - if that's not a conflict of interest, then I don't know what is.
Historically, Hill & Knowltons reputation is less than pristine, as I discovered on Wikipedia. You may remember the "cigarettes cause lung cancer" debate? Well, it was Hill & Knowlton that spun it so positively that you'd be tempted to give them to your babies at birth. In fact, H & K was responsible for several scandals whose impact was so significant that it affected the course of history. No small charge to be laid against a company that still brings in over 46 million Euro's a year profit. WPP is the parent company to both H & K and GCI/ GCIHealth (where Ken Boessenkool now calls home). In addition to his appointment to CGI, he also appears on the boards of several other NGO's and roundtable groups such as the Forum of Federations and is an Executive Fellow at the School of Public Relations at the University of Calgary. He also recently stepped down from helping BC's Christy Clark run for the Liberal Leadership race as it apparently constituted a conflict of interest. (How good of Stephen Harper to point that out for him).
That's a lot of pies to have your thumbs in.
It's unclear what Boessenkools portfolio will include, but I can guess it would encompass both political and health matters given his experience on both sides and the focus of GCIHealth to act as spin doctor for BigPharma.
On GCIHealth's website, they make the following 'case study' under the topic: Vaccines:Sustaining Positive News for a New Vaccine.GCI Health was responsible for launching a vaccine in an environment of safety concerns due to a market withdrawal of a competitive vaccine. In support of four milestones in 10 weeks, we created unique news angles to keep interest high, strong safety messaging, and prepared spokespeople to deliver consistent and colorful messages. The milestone news generated more than 144 million impressions, including multiple articles in USA Today, The New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Ninety-two percent of coverage was considered extremely or somewhat favorable.Other Case Studies
Apparently, sound scientific proof of the safety of vaccines is not necessary to keep vaccines on the market, you only need "unique news angles" and "colorful messages".
Boessenkool also hopes to unite the right-of-center Conservatives and has created the Alberta Blue Committee, but has come under fire for his prior Liberal associations. Strange that!
My best analysis of Ken Boessenkool, is that he may very well be an idiot with friends in high places. While well educated, he is not always well spoken and in verbal political debate comes off emotional and.... well, young. As for his lobbying past, I'll be perfectly honest in saying that "once a rat and a thief, always a rat and a thief". I can guarantee, that I will be following this man's carreer and the actions of GCI, very closely indeed.
I found the following information from Hill and Knowlton Canada's website:
About Ken Boessenkool
"Boessenkool joined the Calgary office of Hill & Knowlton in 2004 as vice president, business development. He was appointed as general manager of Alberta prior to his current role as national practice director for public affairs. Prior to joining Hill & Knowlton, Boessenkool was senior policy advisor and strategist to Canada's current Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and played senior strategic roles in the 2004 and 2006 Conservative election campaigns. He has served as a policy advisor on numerous provincial and national leadership races. He also served as a policy advisor to two Alberta finance ministers.
Boessenkool has been an adjunct research fellow as well as a policy analyst with the Toronto-based C.D. Howe Institute. He has taught Canadian Public Finance in the Economics Department at the University of Calgary and has published over thirty-five policy papers. His numerous opinion editorials have appeared in Time Magazine, The Globe and Mail, National Post, Calgary Herald, Ottawa Citizen and other newspapers. Boessenkool is currently a research fellow with the Canada West Foundation and was named one of Calgary’s Top 40 under 40 in 2007 by Calgary Inc. Magazine."
Sounds like a great guy! Young, fairly good looking, family man, obviously tenacious and ambitious... what's not to like?
Then I discovered that he was instrumental in securing from the Harper government 300 million dollars on a nationwide campaign to vaccinate schoolgirls with Gardasil while working for Hill and Knowlton. The fact that he had been Harpers strategic advisor back in '04 and '06 was starting to make sense. This fact was not lost on the opposition in the house at that time and there was a brief, but telling debate in the HOC.
Hill and Knowlton happens to be THE public relations firm used by all of the major pharmaceutical companies worldwide (Aventis, GlaxoSmithKlein, Roche, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi-Pasteur, among others). What's more, it also runs PR for the World Health Organization - if that's not a conflict of interest, then I don't know what is.
Historically, Hill & Knowltons reputation is less than pristine, as I discovered on Wikipedia. You may remember the "cigarettes cause lung cancer" debate? Well, it was Hill & Knowlton that spun it so positively that you'd be tempted to give them to your babies at birth. In fact, H & K was responsible for several scandals whose impact was so significant that it affected the course of history. No small charge to be laid against a company that still brings in over 46 million Euro's a year profit. WPP is the parent company to both H & K and GCI/ GCIHealth (where Ken Boessenkool now calls home). In addition to his appointment to CGI, he also appears on the boards of several other NGO's and roundtable groups such as the Forum of Federations and is an Executive Fellow at the School of Public Relations at the University of Calgary. He also recently stepped down from helping BC's Christy Clark run for the Liberal Leadership race as it apparently constituted a conflict of interest. (How good of Stephen Harper to point that out for him).
That's a lot of pies to have your thumbs in.
It's unclear what Boessenkools portfolio will include, but I can guess it would encompass both political and health matters given his experience on both sides and the focus of GCIHealth to act as spin doctor for BigPharma.
On GCIHealth's website, they make the following 'case study' under the topic: Vaccines:Sustaining Positive News for a New Vaccine.GCI Health was responsible for launching a vaccine in an environment of safety concerns due to a market withdrawal of a competitive vaccine. In support of four milestones in 10 weeks, we created unique news angles to keep interest high, strong safety messaging, and prepared spokespeople to deliver consistent and colorful messages. The milestone news generated more than 144 million impressions, including multiple articles in USA Today, The New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Ninety-two percent of coverage was considered extremely or somewhat favorable.Other Case Studies
Apparently, sound scientific proof of the safety of vaccines is not necessary to keep vaccines on the market, you only need "unique news angles" and "colorful messages".
Boessenkool also hopes to unite the right-of-center Conservatives and has created the Alberta Blue Committee, but has come under fire for his prior Liberal associations. Strange that!
My best analysis of Ken Boessenkool, is that he may very well be an idiot with friends in high places. While well educated, he is not always well spoken and in verbal political debate comes off emotional and.... well, young. As for his lobbying past, I'll be perfectly honest in saying that "once a rat and a thief, always a rat and a thief". I can guarantee, that I will be following this man's carreer and the actions of GCI, very closely indeed.
__________________________________
Christy Clark is irrelevant, she is brain-dead, she`s controlled by the Federal Conservatives, she`s also caput and will be tossed out of office in 10 long months from now...
Adrian Dix, 2015......That`s a very important year, for that is how long we have to battle in court against Enbridge and Gateway pipeline, after that date Stephen Treason Harper will be removed from office, Adrian Dix and the NDP will have provincial power and Thomas Mulcair and the Big Orange Star will control Ottawa...
Adrian Dix, you are now officially a leader, no waffling, a firm position, a decision maker who has chosen to support and protect British Columbia from Harper`s environmental destruction and Facism...A premier who will fight Stephen Harper and take it all the way to the supreme court of Canada, the court decision matters not, what`s important is runnig the clock out on Stephen Harper.
Adrian Dix, British Columbia`s 10 foot tall leader.
Adios Christy Clark, tic toc, tic toc, tic toc.
I don`t mind Harvey, "I`ve been a prisoner all my life, and I don`t remember"
Love ya Dad....Sure missing you...This battle, to the death, is for you..
Take me home.....
The Straight Goods
Cheers Eyes Wide Open
