Terrance Nelson 'Hollywood on Climate Change'

by Terrance Nelson

First Nation Ojibway, Roseau River

Censored News

Mr. Corcoran,

You wrote in your article yesterday

Hollywood stars — Alec Baldwin, Ed Norton, Yoko Ono — are backing the Sierra Club’s call for a march on Washington next weekend, “the largest climate rally in U.S. history.” Under the “Forward on Climate” banner, the target is clear in the Sierra Club’s marching call: “The first step to putting our country on the path to addressing the climate crisis is for President Obama to reject the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.” 

Under the Sierra Club vision, however, nothing short of total elimination of fossil fuels will satisfy. Since Mr. Obama cannot and does not want to fulfill that particular extreme fantasy, he can afford to disappoint activists on some issues — including Keystone — if he can deliver something that looks like a carbon tax.

If the United States does shuffle toward a carbon tax, Canada will have little choice. A carbon tax, as proposed by many, would impose a levy on carbon entering the United States, including oil from Canada. The bargain offered Canada would be this: We accept your oil and gas, but if you don’t put a carbon tax on it we will.

Your article is interesting. How Canada is looked at in the United States is extremely important. The Idle No More movement is creating a different image of Canada than has been previously known to other countries. The impact at the stock markets is just now starting to be understood. I received a call from the people who are blockading Debeers in Attawapiskat. They face a court injunction but they have no idea how powerful they are at this time in history. The history of Debeers in South Africa is now well known but that took years to accomplish. Today, the internet will destroy Debeers ability to raise money at their current rate if the court injunction they got against the blockaders is served violently by police.

The rally in Washington on the 17th will put Canada in the limelight in the United States. You should look at a documentary called Incident At Oglala. Robert Redford was involved in that one and he is involved with the rally in Washington. The Transcanada pipelines have been opposed by the Dakota in North and South Dakota and they have met with President Obama. We will be meeting with some of the chairmen in South Dakota at the American Indian Movement 40 year anniversary of Wounded Knee at the end of this month.

Canada purchased two trillion dollars of United States exports in the last ten years or so, far more than China buys from the Americans. On January 16th, seven railway blockades occured in Canada. If CN, CPR, Enbridge, Transcanada, Debeers and HudBay think that court injunctions are going to solve the problems for them, they may have forgotten the lessons from South Africa. Canada is not South Africa, it is far more important to the United States economy than South Africa ever was.

You more than anyone know that Canada's reputation as a safe country to invest in is what allows Business Canada to borrow money at low interest rates and provides Canada leverage at the stock market. Bloodied faces on national televsion or on the internet when police enforce court injunctions will cost more than a few bruises.

Terrance Corcoran Financial Post article
http://opinion.financialpost.com/2013/02/11/terence-corcoran-the-price-of-keystone-may-be-a-carbon-tax/