Once upon a time, Canada was known around the world as a green, rich country of peacekeepers, hockey, and carefully considered domestic and foreign policy.

Or so our national mythology says.

But it seems that under the Harper government, Canada is becoming a global pariah for our climate crimes. It’s bad enough that the federal government is made up of climate change deniers and pro-oil lobbyists.

Worse, it is increasingly clear that the Conservatives are actively trying to kill climate change legislation in Europe, manipulate domestic pollution statistics required by the UN, and force a pipeline from Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico that will have disastrous consequences for American consumers and the environment.

Late last month, the Dominion newspaper revealed documents that expose the Canadian government’s secret campaign in Europe to kill climate change legislation targeting the oil sands.

The internal government documents, obtained through an Access to Information request, show that a “pan-European oil sands advocacy strategy” was launched in December 2009.

Led by the Department of Foreign Affairs, the 11-person “Oil Sands Team” worked alongside Natural Resources Canada, Environment Canada, the Alberta government and eight foreign missions.

According to the report, from January to July 2010, Oil Sands Team monitored negative media coverage, helped Canadian policymakers lobby European Parliamentarians, and strengthened alliances with major oil companies.

But the team’s main priority was to stop plans by the European Union to block fossil fuel imports from Alberta.

Canadian agents lobbied European parliamentarians to remove clauses targeting Alberta’s oil, even though an EU report recently found that fuel from the oil sands has a carbon footprint 23 percent larger than conventional crude.

However, the blowback from such harassment may be more damaging than the potential pay-off, as European markets import very little oil sands fuel.

But Canadian officials worry that green regulations could be copied elsewhere.

“Our fear is that if something happens in the EU and it is spread in other countries—not only members of the EU—we could have roughly one-third of the world’s population subscribing to regulation or legislation that mitigates against our oilsands,” Alberta International and Intergovernmental Relations Minister Iris Evans reportedly said last November.

Another Foreign Affairs Department document, obtained by Ottawa researcher Ken Rubin, suggests hosting an “annual retreat” to plan a strategy to boost the image of Canada’s oil industry and counter the international reputation---spawned by environmental groups---that the tar sands produce “dirty oil.”

The problem, however, is that the reputation is well deserved. Far from being “ethical oil”, tar sands crude is the dirtiest oil on Earth.

“They have an emissions problem in the tar sands, they have a human rights problem and they have performance problems,” says Keith Stewart, of Greenpeace Canada.

“They don't have a public relations problem. And thinking that you can hire a public relations firm to make your environmental and human rights problems go away is wishful thinking.”

While Canadian officials were busy trying to kill foreign climate legislation, the federal government has purposefully lied about how much pollution is being created by tar sands exploitation.

Postmedia News has uncovered figures that show the Harper government deliberately excluded data indicating a 20 per cent increase in annual pollution from Canada’s oil sands industry in 2009.

The data was kept out of a recent 567-page report on climate change that the government was required to submit to the United Nations as part of a national inventory on Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Writes Mike De Souza for Postmedia:

“Critics have suggested the Harper government is deliberately trying to delay international action to fight climate change, following revelations, reported last fall by Postmedia News, that it had set up a partnership with the Alberta government, industry and several federal departments to fight pollution-reduction policies from other countries that target the oil sands through lobbying and public relations.”

One thing the Harper government doesn’t want delayed or interrupted is the proposed Keystone Pipeline.

Directed by TransCanada, “a leader in the responsible development and reliable operation of North American energy infrastructure”, the Keystone Pipeline is projected to connect the Albert tar sands with the Gulf of Mexico.

So far, the pipeline reaches into heartland USA, down into Illinois, Nebraska and Oklahoma. The proposed Keystone XL extension will take Alberta crude all the way down to the Gulf. 

Keystone's defenders---including the American Petroleum Institute, the U.S. Republicans, and, of course, the Harper government---claim that the $16-billion project will deliver lower gasoline prices, improve energy security, and create jobs.

Critics, however, argue that, besides devastating for American farmers and the local environment, the pipeline will actually increase the cost of fuel for US consumers, and allow China to benefit from more available, lower-priced crude. 

“U.S. farmers, who spent $12.4 billion on fuel in 2009, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, could see expenses rise to $15 billion or higher in 2012 or 2013 if the pipeline goes through,” writes Philip Verleger, an internationally celebrated oil and gas consultant, in a recent US newspaper editorial.

“At least $500 million of the added expense would come from the Canadian market manipulation… In addition, millions of Americans will spend 10 to 20 cents more per gallon for gasoline and diesel fuel as tribute to our ‘friendly’ neighbors to the north.”

The Tyee’s Andrew Nikiforuk ably spells out the details of this sordid tale:

Keystone is “a Canadian pipeline that will disturb two thousand miles of farmland and place at risk the great Ogallala aquifer, will actually deliver a much more complicated economic story to the United States than that promised by its well-lubed lobbyists.

And all to bring what the U.S. National Wildlife Federation calls “tar sludge” to China, the world's next global empire.” (X)