A leading member of a Canadian centre-Left party supporting Justin Trudeau’s minority Government has tabled a bill seeking to jail people who speak out in favour of hydrocarbon fuels. Charlie Angus is a leading member of the NDP party which has 25 seats in the Canadian Parliament, and his bill seeks to ban the commercial promotion of hydrocarbons by any means “that is likely to influence and shape attitudes, beliefs and behaviours about the product or service”. Angus’s bill (C-372) is given the Orwellian title of ‘An Act respecting fossil fuel advertising’, and under this proposed anti-free speech measure, a gas station retailer could be fined C$50,000 for offering a complementary coffee and doughnut with every full tank.
There is not much between Canada and the North Pole so without natural gas to heat their homes, the locals would likely die in their thousands during the winter. Without diesel trucks to transport food vast distances, famine would stalk the land. Yet Bill C-372 states in its preamble that “fossil fuel production and consumption has resulted in a national public health crisis of substantial and pressing concern, in a way that is similar to the public health crisis caused by tobacco consumption”. Smoking cigarettes is a voluntary and enjoyable pastime for some, but it has the unfortunate side-effect of causing death. Hydrocarbons keep people alive with power for clean sanitation, transport, domestic temperature control, food production and back-up for unreliable wind and solar power. Without hydrocarbon use, the only people able to live in most of Canada would be Eskimos huddled together for warmth in igloos.
Under the bill there is a blanket ban on the promotion of oil and gas. A curious clause bans the suggestion that the burning of some hydrocarbons and the emissions caused are “less harmful” than other fossil fuels. This provision would make it illegal to state the scientific fact that burning natural gas produces less than half the carbon dioxide than the burning of coal. It would also be an offence to suggest that the use of hydrocarbons would lead to positive benefits for the environment, the health of Canadians and the global economy. Whatever the facts based in science or economic observation, all these ‘wrong’ thoughts can be punished with a C$500,000 fine and two years in prison.
The bill’s attack on hydrocarbons is broad and even attempts to suppress sales at the retail level. Gas stations will be banned from issuing loyalty cards, cash rebates, tickets to prize draws and free gifts such as coffee and doughnuts.
If this was just the work of a lone parliamentarian green crank, it would be easy to laugh and dismiss. It is a private member’s bill and will struggle to be passed into law, but its promoter is a major figure in the NDP, and his party currently holds political sway since it helps prop up the minority Trudeau Government. “We welcome the NDP’s bill to the House,” said Kaitlin Power, the Press Secretary of Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault. Speaking to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, she added: “We will carefully assess its bill and look forward to productive debates and discussions around this important issue.”
The NDP bill is an attack on free commercial speech and seeks to demonise an industry that is vital to modern life. The belief that Canada, along with every other modern industrialised society, can remove hydrocarbon energy use within less than 30 years is a luxury, decadent affectation. It is the work of politicians with little understanding of science and the workings of a modern state. It fails to comprehend that life without hydrocarbons for 99.9% of people who have lived on planet Earth was hard, brutal and uncertain. Without reliable cheap fuel, all that ‘first generation to go university’ stuff will be replaced by working the land of the local warlord, or skivvying in his great house. It is the work of badly educated people who think they can outsource all their vital manufacturing to the emerging superpower of China, open their borders to all and sundry and squeeze the living conditions of existing residents, abolish traditional families, bend the knee to defund the police, or impose so many woke conditions they are unable to function properly, ditto external security services.
It is the belief system of a cult that wants to impose a massive supra-national programme of deindustrialisation, and still peddle the fantasy that we will magically stay warm, delicious food will be available at the press of an iPhone, and everyone will live in peace and harmony. It is the belief system of people who live in Imagine, one of the great John Lennon’s sillier songs.
Chris Morrison is the Daily Sceptic’s Environment Editor.
If that bill gets passed, ALL fuel companies should stop production until it’s reversed.
And refuse sale of petrol to anyone that tries to enforce it.
Dr. Richard Feynman (Nobel Prize winner in Physics) said, “No government has the right to decide on the truth of scientific principles.”
The bill in question would essentially be an attempt at moving to an authoritarian form of government. You could call it an “insurrection”.
Interestingly, “table” means the opposite in the US. Table, in British usage, it means to bring some issue up for discussion. In the US, it means to bury or set aside a bill.
When I read the article at The Sceptic yesterday, I assumed some whacko Canadian leftist proposed a bill and it was rejected (aka tabled). I rejected the article for my blog’s daily recommended reading list because it seemed too stupid.
Last night I looked up tabled. The Canadian definition is the same as the British definition. This bill is being taken seriously in Cubanada.
The Sceptic article is on my reading list today. Censorship is part of fascism. Free speech only if you agree with the government:
The Honest Climate Science and Energy Blog: Februart 19, 2024 Recommended Reading List
The Canadian meaning of to “table” in a parliamentary context is the British meaning to begin consideration of a proposal.
The truly sad part about this, is people voted for this idiot and others!!
In the case of the Canadian Parliament it’s more likely … Idiot et al
All refueling stations in Ottawa and within 50 miles should protest by not selling to anyone. The people closest to the seat of government should be affected first, and before any vote.
Post a large blow-up of this man’s face throughout Ottawa and the riding that elected him, and post his home address. Make sure that neither he, nor his family can buy Fossil Fuel energy in any way. No gasoline, heating oil, or electricity that is not solar or wind derived.
The trouble is, that this climate nonsense is the province of all mainstream parties in the UK and the only party in power in mainland Europe – the Party, otherwise known as the (unelected) EU.
There is literally no one else to actually vote for.
Come on, you Canadian weenies. Do what really needs to be done and simply outlaw fossil fuels and arrest anyone who buys and consumes them. They’re the real menace. Then the evil fossil fuel industry will simply die.
It’s an existential crisis after all.
/sarc
All they really need to do is to voluntarily cease buying any fossil fuels and live their lives without them.
Let their Gas and Diesel powered cars either sit or trade than in on EVs
Close off their gas services
Empty their propane tanks
Install electric heating and cooking
Replace all government vehicles with EVs
Replace all Emergency Services vehicles (Police, Fire, Ambulance) with EVs
Replace all city busses with EVs
Do so voluntarily!!!
If more than 50% of the people did this, FF prices would drop so far that any production would be uneconomic anywhere. No legislation needed
Most likely less than 10% would and the other 90% would tell Turdeau to Eff Off
Can you imagine if that really happened?
Everyone in Canada, with no exceptions, would be in the nick or dead or both.
The Police would not be able to arrest anyone.. They would all be in the nick for using fossil fuels.
And if anyone preaches the benefits of ff, they should have their tongue cut out. /sarc
In lithium they trust-
Warehouse storing lithium batteries goes up in flames in France | Watch (msn.com)
when they should be taking their lithium in tablet form.
When do warehouses storing lithium batteries become cost prohibitive to insure?
How will they treat bipolar disorder with lithium and still produce batteries? Seems Bipolar Disorder will be on the rise.
Warehouses storing lithium batteries become uninsurable when they get more than 1 battery cell per Cu Ft
At least it’s not CO2 going into the atmosphere!
/s
I would rather use that first phrase for people with psychiatric disorders …
This will be a great measure of just how incredibly stupid and totalitarian governments can get.
This is Canada… the government seems to be full of the mentally deranged.
The NDP MIGHT have been centre-Left at one point, but they certainly are not today, and the Liberals are doing their best to out-Left the NDP
No surprise at any of this. Angus has been an extreme socialist for his entire political career. And Stephen (gumboots) Guilbeault was head of climate action for Greenpeace International. So both of these characters have used hyperventilating about global warming as a large part of their tactics of deluding the public.
Well this bloke is going to jail, that’s for sure.
https://edmontonjournal.com/opinion/columnists/david-staples-expert-says-green-energy-proponents-have-delusions-of-grandeur
Story tip.
Time to whittle the Canadian government down to size. Government is not the solution, government is the problem.
It’s not that thousands would die, but more likely only tens of thousands would survive and millions would die.
Communism always brings wholesale death.
But someone always thinks they’ll get it to work this time. Again.
Delusion, or evil? Does it matter?
In my 75 years I never thought I would see totalitarian government in the U.S. or Canada. But they both seem to be going that way. God help us.
It’s already the case in Europe.
Where in Europe?
F.e. Germany, f.e. EU gouvernement and Commission…
Ok, so you have no clue what a totalitarian government is.
Neither do you. Last I checked Russia is in Europe. So if you are trying to convince us that Putin is not a totalitarian then you have no clue on the subject yourself.
We know perfectly well what Totalitarianism is – the imposition of measures which crush the individual in the name of a “greater good”. The current attempts by the EU to destroy small farms to reduce emissions is nakedly totalitarian.
Ah yes indeed, that eternal question. ‘Where in Europe?’ If, of course, that is the right question to ask.
It is finally becoming obvious, to people less thoughtful and experienced as you are, that demonization of beneficial CO2 was never about the climate, which actually improves as it warms.
The CO2 boogeyman was always intended for growing government power and control. And it is working.
It gets me how these clowns keep trying to equate fossil fuels to cigarettes. No one has ever died because they couldn’t smoke. Smokers might not be very happy if they can’t have a cigarette, but no one has ever died from going without. Same idea as the article before this one where peoples’ rejection of the idea of CAGW was put on a par with alcohol users’ defiance of bans on drunk driving…. Again, no one has ever died from not being able to drink alcohol (though heavily addicted people can go thru some pretty serious withdrawals from alcohol and other substances).
No illegal drugs or other mind-altering substances are in any way, shape or form necessary for anyone to be able to stay alive.
But as most of us know, many people can and do die without heat and AC (especially elderly people), and many die indirectly from power failures when they resort to other means to cook, have light and keep warm (fires, CO poisoning, etc).
Saying that humans have an “addiction” to fossil fuels is like saying that lions have an “addiction” to meat. Well, without it, they die!
Yes, on Jan 13 here in Alberta, without natural gas the province would have faced the worst catastrophe possible except for maybe a meteor plowing into the province.
Even Eskimos use fires in their igloos. They are small and warm the inside to around freezing. Any larger and they would find themselves homeless.
Chuck is a moron, everyone here knows it. Having to backstop Trudeau for 8+ years finally broke his brain, what little he had in the first place.
Canada will already imprison you if you tell the truth about delusional men not actually being women (and vice versa), so I see no reason why this wouldn’t also become law.
With all the insanity around the world, sometimes I wonder if Edgar Allen Poe was on to something with Cthulhu.
I mean Lovecraft. I haven’t had my coffee yet…
Yeah Poe was the Raven.
I know it has been said many times, but there is no cure for stupid.
True but I never realised it was quite this contagious…
probably genetic
A bullet?
The proposed bill is clearly against freedom of speech and the bill of rights. That a member of parliament even attempts to propose such an illegal thing should be punished by eviction from office and even jail. What has become of Canada?
In the first place, Canada does not have a bill of rights.
This heavy handed censorship is not just happening in Canada, the French have already banned criticism of Covid actions and vaccines and the Germans are banning any citicism of their government.
All coming from the WEF of course.
Welcome to 1984 and Fharenheit 451.
It’s difficult to choose, but one of these two is the premier post colonial lunatic asylum – take your pick…
Australia
Canada
Both Australia and Canada has their last truly Conservative Prime Ministers outed as Viscount Monckton predicted about early 2015 for Abbott and Harper. He claimed it was unrelated to global climate, but was the work of a communist core at the heart of the United Nations.
It has long been apparent that people with excess wealth and influence are denying voters a free choice of politicians. Strings are being pulled in high places. Geoff S
Conservatives went the way of the Dodo a long time ago. The Western world over.
Fossil Fuel Advocates Spread Disinfo About Canada’s False Advertising Bill
https://www.desmog.com/2024/02/09/fossil-fuel-advocates-spread-disinformation-about-canadas-false-advertising-bill/
If DeSmog says so.. It has to be true…. NOT !!!
Charley Angus’ name ought to be on a list somewhere.
No, it shouldn’t – ‘lists’ are for people like Charley Angus and his like-minded associates.
Minor critique- the essay should have more paragraphs- makes it easier to read.
Saul Alinsky would approve of this tactic. Even if the bill fails, they are normalizing the hatred of life-giving fossil fuels and anyone who promulgates them. It’s a win-win for them.
I am uncertain whether Charlie is an envirofacist or a warmunist, though, as he is from the NDP he is one or the other. He has sought and backed many a lunk-headed thing in the past, but this one takes the cake, as he represents Timmins and beyond (northern Ontario), and one has to wonder how he would get to Ottawa or around his riding if it weren’t for modern conveniences that rely on oil and gas? I guess he wants to return to the glories of carriage and sled (like those Krieghoff paitings)?
JEESH! Canada and England and Germany and Aus are really going nuts with this climate stuff. It will not end well.
Speaking of dreaming the undreamable dream, a California legislator has introduced a bill to raise the minimum wage to $50/hr.
If elected I promise to raise it to $100/hr.
As if there aren’t enough people living on the streets in Calicommia already !
The Alberta province produces way more fossil fuel than Canada consumes and exports it to Europe.
A draconian free speech bill may pass but the exports will continue because Trudeau needs the revenue.
Shut down Alberta’s energy bonanza, it may very quickly succeed from the nation of Canada. It’s much easier to for a Canadian province to succeed than a state in the US. The separatist movement in Alberta is quite strong…. it wouldn’t take much more than a stupid anti-free speech bill for the Trudeau government to be in big trouble with it’s western provinces.
Climate change and the pandemic and it’s draconian repression of the protestant churches in Alberta, only further fueled Alberta’s distain for Trudeau.
The anti-free speech, anti-farming, anti-fossil fuel crazies can only do propaganda and grandstanding plays because no one wants fossil fuels to go a way…. not anyone with any real power.
It has always baffled me why CANADA, of all places, would oppose “Global warming!
The NDP is not and never has been centre left. They have always been far left. The liberals used to be centre left perhaps, but are now just left, if not far left. Charlie represents Timmins – James Bay, his riding is larger than many US states, but has the population of a mid sized town. He gets elected by the retired union miners that represent most of the remaining people living there.
Not NSDP?
Mind you, to me, all these people are far left.
I am proud to have been called to the right of Ghengiz Khan!
This is a private members bill it has the same chance of succeeding as a snow ball in July. It is virtue signalling pure and simple. Charlie Angus is no senior legislator, he is an old member of an “al most always comes in third” leftist party which has never brought in any legislation.
Since Charlie Angus feels there is nothing good about fossil fuels and saying otherwise is an offence worthy of a criminal record and incarceration, I am sure he has removed all fossil fuels, products derived from fossil fuels and any products or activities that cannot exist without fossil fuels (most food stuffs, travel, recreation, shelter etc.) from his personal life. Perhaps someone can just check and ensure that is the case and, if not, we can nominate Mr. Angus for mega-hypocrite of the century and send him to political oblivion for fraud and incompetence.