Tides Canada Responds To Attempted Federal Kneecapping

“Tides Canada welcomes the provisions in the 2012 federal budget concerning transparency and accountability in the charitable sector. Tides Canada operates well within the Income Tax Act threshold for allowable “political activity.” The organization’s grant-making is, and will continue to be, fully compliant with the Income Tax Act and Canada Revenue Agency guidelines and policies.

In a healthy democracy, environmental and social justice charities play important roles as watchdogs, raising public awareness and advocating for balance. Tides Canada remains committed to supporting charitable initiatives across the country that are working to ensure that we have safe drinking water, clean air, healthy communities and a just society.”

Note that the 2012 budget does not change any laws pertaining to the Income Tax Act, it merely includes new money to help Canada Revenue Agency clamp down on overly political charities, and recommends that charities report the foreign funding they get for political activities.  But since Tides Canada, and other similar groups, surely have lawyers and accountants whose job it is to ensure that they remain in compliance with the relevant legislation, it is difficult to see why the new changes should have much effect of their operations.  They are innocent, so they have nothing to fear.  A year or two down the road, on the other hand, but long after people have ceased to care, Ethical Oil , like the Friends of Science and The Natural Resources Stewardship Project before them, will almost certainly be found guilty of something.

NY Times Fluffs "Goreathon" Climate Change Piece

Their mistake is to treat Canada's own Tom Harris as a credible representative of the "sceptical" side of the AGW argument.   Mediamatters gets some of it right: such technical training as he has is in mechanical engineering, but Tom is mostly a lobbyist/PR guy, not a scientist. 

But there's way more to it than that.  For example, the International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC) is pure astroturf, and  probably gets funding from Aussie humvee maker Alan Gibbs.  I don't know what Tom's making, but a couple of years ago they were offering $70,000 to $90,000 per year to the administrative head of their American affiliate (a job that eventually went to Steve Goreham). 

So these guys are well paid to spread the FUD.

But perhaps most relevant for the people at the NY Times is (or should have been) Mr. Harris's association with  The Friends of Science, a precursor to both the ICSC and  NRSP (Natural Resources Stewardship Project).  The Friends and Tom have recently made news in Canada.  Basically, they were the recipients of about $500,000 in funds from various oil industry sources channelled improperly through research accounts at the University of Calgary.  Part of this money was used to fly sceptics to various conferences and throw fancy parties for them (Tom Harris included).  Another $175,000 wound up going to the PR firm APCO Worldwide, Mr. Harris's employer at the time, where it helped finance the video Climate Catastrophe Cancelled , script courtesy of...you guessed it...Tom Harris.

This unfolding scandal has given U-of-C a real black eye, and the leader of Alberta's official opposition has requested an investigation to determine whether the university has been subject to "inappropriate corporate influence".  So you may hear Tom's name again in the near future.

And one final question I'd like answered: how is Tom Harris qualified to teach a 2nd year course in climate science anywhere, let alone Carleton University?   I thought the kooks all taught at the University of Ottawa.

Mark Holland: Tories Tied To Denier Group?

Mark Holland has been persuing the connection between Denialist astro-turf group The Friends of Science (FOS) and the Federal Tories for a long time now. Now he's back in the news:

OTTAWA - The federal Liberals are calling for an investigation to determine who paid for a radio ad campaign in Ontario that attacked the federal government's action to fight climate change in the 2006 election.

Liberal MP Mark Holland Monday said he would push for parliamentary hearings into the matter -raised in weekend reports by Canwest News Service - about a complaint to Elections Canada against a group of global warming skeptics.

How come this sudden burst of activity on both the media and parliamentary front? Because research from the folks at DeSmogBlog has convinced Elections Canada to investigate

who funnelled money into Barry Cooper's University of Calgary FOS slush fund .

Go get 'em Mark! Go get 'em Desmoggers!