The world is a better place with organizations like Amnesty International.
It’s true. The organization tries to shine light on human rights abuses and protect the underdog around the world. They don’t always get it right, though.
Earlier this month Amnesty stated it was concerned about the Alberta government’s oil and gas war room, and how Alberta sticking up for its oil and gas industry might cause human rights abuses or issues in Canada or the world.
It’s really disappointing to see wasteful, obviously anti-oil and gas public relations campaigns conducted like this in broad daylight.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with a Canadian province protecting its industry against malicious, usually anonymous and typically foreign attacks, especially with a federal or previous provincial government indifferent or hostile to the Canadian oil and gas industry. Although, to be honest, the placement of SJW Tzeporah Berman on an important Alberta gas regulatory body was probably the biggest judgment error of the previous NDP government, and that’s saying something about a group of people who, in effect, sued themselves over utility contracts and conducted stakeholder engagement for Bill 6 after the bill had already become law.
Obviously, the conservative government in Alberta has rankled Amnesty, which is not surprisingly full of lefties, SJWs and, generally, people who despise not only right-wing political parties, but the oil and gas industry in general. It’s a shame Amnesty spends its time attacking our province, because there is a lot of work they could be doing around the world.
You may have heard about the ongoing pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, a Chinese possession. This week protesters stepped things up a bit and actually threw Molotov cocktails at buildings. Amnesty should have lots of work to do here. If, like me, you remember 1989’s Tienanmen Square, you know as well as I do what the Chinese leadership would love to do to those protesters. It’s coming, just wait and see.
Probably one of the biggest concerns that I have about our current international community is the prevalence of Russia in the oil and gas industry, and the number of crimes, including murder, linked to its dictator, or president if you want to call him that…Vladimir Putin.
It may be purely coincidence that a surprising number of Putin’s critics end up dead under mysterious circumstances. Or obvious circumstance, depending on the situation.
Probably the most well-known was the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a strong citric of Putin who accused him of creating a new police state. In 2006 she was accosted by a group of men outside her apartment and shot to death. The only person who had anything to gain from her death was Putin. Her murderers were convicted, but the trial revealed it was murder-for-hire, and the client was never identified.
The same year, former KGB agent and Putin critic Alex Litvinenko was poisoned in England and died horribly three weeks after drinking tea laced with polonium-210 in a public restaurant. This radioactive substance is only found in Russian nuclear power plants. As the Washington Post reported, “A British inquiry found that Litvinenko was poisoned by Russian agents Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun, who were acting on orders that had ‘probably been approved’ by Putin.” In my opinion, “probably”means “99 per cent chance.” Noooobody opens a window in Russia without the dictator’s approval. You think it was an accident a Russian isotope was used? Anyone with two brain cells knows exactly what happened. There actually isn’t room to write about all the murdered critics of Putin in this column.
But thank goodness the incompetents and SJWs at Amnesty are keeping a close eye on Alberta. Those dastardly UCP leaders are probably creating a weather control machine to destroy Saudi Arabia’s pump jacks.
Stu Salkeld is editor of The Wetaskiwin Pipestone Flyer and writes a regular column for the newspaper.