Boycott of Alberta Urged By San Francisco's 'Corporate Ethics.' Canadians Pissed, Eh?

By Matt Smith Fri., Jul. 16 2010 at 2:30 PM

Categories: Environment

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That's not maple syrup

Corporate Ethics International, a rabble-rousing San Francisco environmental nonprofit, on Thursday launched a campaign urging a boycott of Alberta in protest of the Canadian province's oil sands petroleum extraction project.

The group has erected a billboard in Seattle comparing environmental damage from the oil sands project with the BP spill, and released a video claiming the tar sands are destroying an area twice the size of England.

Canadians, not nearly so rude as their San Francisco attackers, politely responded that the area damaged by oil-sands development is actually nearer the size of London, but not two Englands, Calgary television reports. The nonprofit's retort: Okay, maybe not two Englands. Can we settle on one England?

A spokesman for the premier of Alberta's office (that's Canadian for "governor") responded by attempting to bid the area down further.

"The area that's actually being disturbed is about two-tenths of one per cent of that," Jerry Bellikka was quoted as saying to Calgary TV. "It's nowhere near the size of England -- in fact it's not even the size of London."

Corporate Ethics International defends this statistic by saying it used official Canadian Government figures -- a fact Alberta doesn't dispute.

Hosers displeased with San Francisco, eh?

Notwithstanding, a right-wing Alberta political party called The Wildrose Alliance said it plans to fight back against the boycott campaign.

We cannot stop people from spreading misinformation about our great province, the energy industry or the real state of Alberta's environment. But we can come together to show Albertans that we take these attacks seriously and we will respond in the best interests of the people we all represent," said party leader Danielle Smith.

With torches? Pitchforks? A counter-boycott against San Francisco? No, the gentle Canadian conservative proposed broaching the issue with U.S. officials at a July 16-20 energy summit. The premier's office, however, told CTV it was not interested in participating in such a rude display.

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