Monday, November 22, 2010

Mining Industry P.R. Hacks

Before John Mackay's private members' bill C-300 to deprive federal funding to Canadian mining companies found guilty of criminal behaviour abroad went down to its preordained defeat at the hands of our corporate controlled political system, the intertubes were filled with nauseating puss-balls, employed by sleazy public relations firms employed by the mining industry to fill up the public debate with idiotic arguments against the legislation and criticism of Canadian mining companies in general.

I just feel like pausing here to mention one of the most frequent strategies to argue against criticizing Canadian mining corporations: "You use the stuff they mine EVERY DAY!"

Really? That's brilliant! They might poison entire regions, hire mercenaries to kill poor people trying to save their farms, violate the laws of the countries they operate in, but I actually use the stuff they mine?

I've changed my thinking about mining companies' criminality now! I'm also changing my mind about the Hell's Angels, the mafia, and all the other groups who bring money and jobs to my local community.

No I'm not.

Where do all these people come from?

5 comments:

900ft Jesus said...

yeah, and the government has been using out tax dollars in their misinformation campaigns. I read today Env. Canada, DFAIT, and NRCan were all involved.

thwap said...

How do you mean? Can you send me the link?

Alison said...

I think BigJ may mean this, as the fed and Alberta govs, DFAIT and NRCan were all involved in lobbying foreign govs to promote tar sands at expense of cleaner alternatives:
The Tar Sands Long Shadow

thwap said...

Thanks Alison.

We live in a sick country and we need to do something about i.

900ft Jesus said...

right, what Alison said, sorry, I should have been clearer. But maybe if we wait a few days we'll see the departments were in on killing the mining bill as well.

thanks, Alison