Environmental Defence has just released this report PAYING POLLUTERS: Federal Financial Support to Oil and Gas in 2020.

That report highlights:

“In 2020, the federal government either announced or provided a minimum of nearly $18 billion to the oil and gas sector. This includes $3.28 billion in direct subsidy programs and $13.47 billion in public financing funneled to oil and gas companies primarily through a non-transparent crown corporation, Export Development Canada.”

Notably, it includes the costs of policing/criminalizing land defenders:

“A particularly egregious form of fossil fuel subsidy are investments made into policing Indigenous land defenders opposing fossil fuel infrastructure.

For example, over $13 million was spent last year on the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to ‘protect’ the Coastal GasLink pipeline – which took the form of harassing Wet’suwet’en Nation community members who oppose the pipeline.

Canada has made commitments to reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples and has agreed to uphold the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Criminalizing peaceful land defenders is in contradiction with these commitments.

In January 2020, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination called upon Canada to halt construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline until the Wet’suwet’en people grant free, prior and informed consent to the project, and to cease the forced eviction of land defenders.”

And it references human rights concerns:

“EDC’s support to oil and gas includes support for projects that have been criticized for violating human rights at home and abroad, including the right of affected communities to free, prior and informed consent.

For instance, as mentioned above, in 2020 EDC approved a loan of up to $500 million for the Coastal GasLink Pipeline in British Columbia, a project opposed by hereditary leaders from all five clans of the Wet’suwet’en Nation.”

To read the full report by Environmental Defence, please click on PAYING POLLUTERS: Federal Financial Support to Oil and Gas in 2020.

We further note that Environmental Defence acknowledges Karen Hamilton of Above Ground for her input and peer review of this report. To hear Karen speak about the role Export Development Canada has played in supporting Canadian oil and gas operations in Colombia and the environmental and human rights implications of that support, please join this webinar on April 29 at 3:30 pm EDT.

Last May, the Canadian Press reported: “Canada made the annual F-35 payment to the U.S. military last week, spending US$70.1 million to remain one of nine partner countries in the fighter-jet project.”

It highlights: “Each partner is required to cover a portion of the plane’s multibillion-dollar development costs to stay at the table.”

Last year’s payment brought Canada’s total spending on the development of the F-35 warplane to US$541.3 million.

Money well spent?

The Canadian Press article notes: “Staying in the program has advantages, as partners get a discount when purchasing the jets and compete for billions of dollars in contracts associated with building and maintaining them.”

The government, according to the article, says Canadian companies have secured US$1.8 billion in work related to the stealth fighter.

But research shows that spending on the military generates less for the economy than other expenditures of public funds.

Research by the Costs of War Project based at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs found that while $1 million spent on “defence” creates 6.9 direct and indirect jobs, the same amount invested in solar power creates 9.5 jobs, in health care 14.3 jobs, and in elementary and secondary education 19.2 jobs.

Technical and operational concerns with the F-35

Forbes also recently reported: “With a sticker price of around $100 million per plane, including the engine, the F-35 is expensive. While stealthy and brimming with high-tech sensors, it’s also maintenance-intensive, buggy and unreliable.”

It then quotes Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Brown Jr. who compares the F-35 to a Ferrari and says: “You don’t drive your Ferrari to work every day, you only drive it on Sundays. This is our ‘high end’ [fighter], we want to make sure we don’t use it all for the low-end fight. I want to moderate how much we’re using those aircraft.”

That article concludes: “Brown’s comments are a tacit admission that the F-35 has failed.”

Fighter jet decision coming soon; $76.8 billion price tag

The Government of Canada’s timeline for the purchase of new fighter jets notes that “the initial evaluation of proposals is anticipated to be completed by spring 2021” and further promises to award the contract in 2022.

This would suggest that as long as a decision remains pending, the Canadian government will continue to make the annual payment on the development of the F-35.

The cost of purchasing new fighter jets has been pegged at $15-19 billion, but significantly a recent report by the No Fighter Jets coalition estimated the life-cycle costs of 88 fighter jets to be $76.8 billion (including these development costs).

Ramsey Clark in 1990. Photo by Mark Pesetsky/AP.

Ramsey Clark, who was a member of PBI’s first Central America project committee in 1982, has passed away at 93 years of age.

As the Assistant Attorney General, Clark supervised the drafted of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Later, as the Attorney General he supported the Civil Rights Act of 1968.

After he left public office, he supported many antiwar causes.

The Guardian reports: “In the court of public opinion, he charged the US with militarism and arrogance, starting with the Vietnam war and continuing with Grenada, Libya, Panama and the Gulf war.”

“When Clark visited Iraq after Operation Desert Storm and returned to accuse the US of war crimes, Newsweek dubbed him the Jane Fonda of the Gulf war.”

That article adds: “Clark’s client list included such peace and disarmament activists as the Harrisburg seven and the Plowshares eight.”

Gloria La Riva has also recounted: “Whether it was defying U.S. bombs in North Vietnam in 1972 or counting the bodies in Panama morgues and the bombed-out neighborhood of El Chorrillo to tally the true number of casualties in the 1989 U.S. invasion, Ramsey risked his life countless times to bring back the truth of U.S. aggression.”

“He famously traveled 2,000 miles through Iraq in the midst of intense bombing during the 1991 U.S. Gulf War to bring back the only uncensored film of the war. And for 12 years until the 2003 U.S. war and occupation, Ramsey led an international campaign against the U.S. total blockade of Iraq — sanctions more deadly than a bombing war.”

She adds: “On Jan. 1, 1994, when the Zapatista rebellion rose up in Chiapas, Mexico, Ramsey, true to form, knew he had to be there to investigate and show his support.”

PBI’s earliest work in Central America included a short presence in Jalapa, Nicaragua in September 1983, with a PBI team interposing themselves between US-backed Contras and Sandinista military forces.

That early work also included the formation of PBI-Guatemala in 1983 at a time of intense state repression and the accompaniment of threatened organizations in El Salvador starting in 1987.

PBI-Canada acknowledges Ramsey Clark’s contributions to PBI and his commitment to peace and social justice.

A Danish F-35 fighter jet.

The EU Observer reports: “Late Tuesday (6 April) evening, expectant Greenlanders received the election results for Inatsisartut, Greenland’s parliament. The left-wing Inuit Ataqatigiit (IA) celebrated as it became clear they had gained a clear majority.”

Significantly, that article adds: “According to the US Geological Survey, Greenland has the world’s largest undeveloped deposit of rare-earth minerals.”

The Courthouse News Service further explains: “Rare earth elements are a set of 17 soft heavy metals, such as neodymium and scandium, that go into the making of smartphones, lasers, electric cars, wind turbines and military hardware such as the F-35 fighter jet.”

The Australian mining company Greenland Minerals and Energy acquired the Kvanefjeld (or Kuannersuit) site in southern Greenland in 2007 and applied in 2015 to establish a large-scale open-pit rare earth mineral mine there.

The mine gained preliminary approval in 2020 paving the way for a public hearing.

But the article notes: “By backing the opposition Inuit Ataqatigiit, the mine seems doomed. The left-green Inuit Ataqatigiit campaigned against it and backs a moratorium on uranium mining. It also has pledged to join the Paris climate agreement, a move that could preclude Greenland from developing rare earth mines.”

The Associated Press also notes: “The opposition party has claimed that a majority of Greenland’s 56,000 inhabitants, most of them indigenous Inuit people, are against the project, largely for environmental reasons.”

Rare earth mines and F-35s

The Financial Times has reported: “Fighter jets such as the F-35, a Lockheed Martin aircraft, rely heavily on rare earths for critical components such as electrical power systems and magnets. A Congressional Research Service report said that each F-35 required 417kg [920 pounds] of rare-earth materials.”

Air Force Magazine has also reported: “Each stealthy F-35 strike fighter requires 920 pounds of rare-earth material, according to DOD [Department of Defense].”

Greenland is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark.

Lockheed Martin has noted: “Denmark joined the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program in 2002. In June 2016, Denmark confirmed plans to procure 27 F-35As.”

That page adds: “2020: First F-35A for Denmark progressing towards delivery.” A first F-35 may have been delivered to Denmark earlier this month.

The Canadian government is currently considering buying 88 Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets for $19 billion. A decision on that is expected later this year or in early 2022.