A year ago, DeSmog Canada excitedly welcomed Emma Gilchrist to the role of Deputy Editor. As amazing as it has been to have Emma working tirelessly to bring the best out of our writers, digging into editing like it’s fun (really) and breaking news stories of national importance, we just can’t seem to contain all of her incredible talents in her part-time deputy position.

That’s why today we are beyond delighted to announce Emma’s new role as DeSmog Canada’s Executive Director.

Most of you will know Emma has incredible talent as a writer and, as we here at DeSmog know, she pretty much performs magic as an editor, but she also has a bold vision for independent media in Canada.

Coming from northern Alberta, Emma is familiar with the local politics of small towns dependent on oil and gas development. But as a seasoned journalist and citizen engagement expert, Emma also has rich insight into Canada’s political machinery and the role individuals, communities and civic organizations play in decision-making from the municipal to the federal level. (If you want the nitty gritty, you can read Emma’s full bio.)

In her reporting, Emma has brought critical insight to our readers across the nation. Now she'll be turning some of that strategic thinking toward building a sustainable non-profit media organization.  

With her new role, Emma will switch from splitting her time between DeSmogBlog and DeSmog Canada, to working full time for DeSmog Canada. But don’t worry, she’ll stay on as a contributor at DeSmogBlog, so you’re sure to still see her stories there.

Welcome to the new gig and congratulations, Emma. We’re a bunch of lucky ducks to have you on our team and leading the flock.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

As many of our readers have already seen, DeSmog Canada recently completed a successful Kickstarter campaign where we raised $50,000 from our generous supporters. Even though we're on the other side of that fundraiser, we still rely on support from readers like you. That's why we make it easy to contribute to DeSmog Canada at anytime through PayPal. 

If you are wondering why DeSmog Canada deserves your support, here's a list of our top reasons: 

1. We’re doing something no one else in Canada is

Our vision for DeSmog Canada is to build an independent, non-profit media outlet dedicated to reporting on energy and environment issues in Canada. That work doesn’t stop with climate reporting: we provide in-depth news on new energy projects and resource development and show how those projects affect local communities, First Nations and the local environment. We keep track of federal and provincial policies surrounding pollution and health, holding government and industry officials to account for their promises and their actions. We bring new knowledge and insight to Canadian politics and the impact decision-makers have on democracy and the rights of all Canadian citizens.

1. We need strong and balanced reporting on energy and environment issues

There’s no question environmental issues have become increasingly polarized in Canada. With government calling some of Canada’s prominent environment groups ‘foreign funded radicals’ and celebrities traveling to the Alberta oilsands to highlight the human and environmental impacts of extraction in the region – there’s no shortage of talking points being trumpeted across the aisle. But what about the conversation in the middle? The meaningful discussion of solutions that gets drowned out in all the noise? DeSmog Canada is designed not only to provide hard-hitting journalism, but to foster discussions about Canada’s energy future, the needs and rights of local communities, and environmental stewardship for generations to come.

1. Freedom of expression and transparency are endangered in Canada

Canada is one of the lowest-ranked developed nations on the world press freedom index. Even our own Information Commissioner says Canada has a problem with providing citizens access to information. And a new report just published this week gave many of Canada’s major federal departments a failing grade for lack of open communication, lack of whistleblower protection and political interference in science and research.

Canada is at the centre of what critics, academics and journalists are calling a “war on science,” with taxpayer funded scientists being muzzled by politicians. The need to get information to average Canadians has never been more difficult and important. We play a critical role in filling that gap while continuously telling the story of Canada’s silenced scientists.

That's why we helped launch the #CDNFOI hastag as part of an effort with the Canadian Association of Journalists, IntegrityBC, and the B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association to highlight government secrecy in Canada.

1. In Canada and across the world investigative journalists are disappearing

According to the Canadian Association of Journalists, since 2012 almost 2000 journalists have lost their jobs in Canada. We wrote about this happening to investigative reporter Mike De Souza, highlighting all the important stories he broke while working at Postmedia. We also just covered the story of Postmedia preparing to purchase many of the major English-language papers across the entire country. With greater concentration of media ownership, press freedom comes under threat. That’s why independent and non-profit outlets like DeSmog Canada are important for maintaining a healthy flow of information in Canada. We tell stories that corporate media isn’t interested in.

1. Our team is made of talented journalists, writers and researchers that we pay but we still aren’t exclusive with our content

If you didn’t already know, DeSmog Canada has an amazing team that brings you breaking news, intelligent analysis and in-depth reporting. We also have skilled graphic designers and social media experts that ensure our reporting doesn’t just stop at our homepage. We work overtime to amplify our content and spread our reporting. That’s why you’ll see our work published on the Huffington Post, the Vancouver Observer, the Times Colonist, The Tyee, and many small town papers across the country. We really get a bang for our buck.

1. We bring our work offline to build knowledge and democracy IRL

Much of what we do happens offline. We send experts out into the community to train organizations and individuals how to do access to information requests. We give presentations on the muzzling of Canada’s scientists and how misinformation can be used to try to confuse the public about natural resource issues like pipelines or fracking. Our team also provides rapid fire research to talk show hosts, reporters, academics, authors, artists and individuals on a regular basis. We’re known for our great work, and for our exceptional team and we’re not afraid to share it. At DeSmog Canada we believe in what we do and the impact engaged and informed citizens can have in a healthy democracy.

That’s the short list of reasons why you should support DeSmog Canada, but there’s even more up our sleeves. To learn more about what we do, browse our site and Facebook page.

We hope you’ll find any one of these points reason enough to go to our PayPal page and give generously. Remember, we're independent, non-profit and we don't advertise. That's pretty cool.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

On December 12th, 1937 the night before her 56th birthday, Emily Carr jotted this down in her journal: “Fifty-six years ago tonight there was a big storm out West and deep snow. My dear little Mother wrestled bravely and I was born and the storm has never quite lulled in my life. I’ve always been tossing and wrestling and buffeting it. How little I’ve accomplished! And the precious years are flying by and never, never one minute will the clock tick backwards.”

Throughout her life Carr expressed a deep and unrelenting desire to capture the essence of her natural surroundings, something she claimed remained elusive to her, haunting her throughout her work.

“I’ve been to the woods today,” she wrote one month later. “It’s there but I can’t catch hold.”

Whatever it was Carr was searching for, her hunt carried her throughout the forests and bays of Vancouver Island and Haida Gwaii. She felt sure the final remedy, her peace, resided in those old forests and deep green ocean bays.

Google Doodle in the style of Emily Carr.

“I am always asking myself the question, What is it you are struggling for? What is that vital thing the woods contain, possess, that you want? Why do you go back and back to the woods unsatisfied, longing to express something that is there and not able to find it?”

Her deep reverence for the natural world and particularly the coast of British Columbia turned Carr into an iconic artist, leaving behind a lifetime of patient, meditative paintings, her endless quest left in the paint strokes of crooked arbutus, a heavy cedar bough.

Untitled Forest Scene. Emily Carr. 1934.

“Search for the reality of each object,” she wrote “that is, its real and only beauty; recognize our relationship with all life; say to every animate and inanimate thing ‘brother;’ be at one with all things, finding the divine in all; when one can do all this, maybe then one can paint.”

Her writings reveal not only her reflections on the experience of painting and sketching the scenes before her, but give us an insight into her own experience of nature and how she envisioned a rich and nourishing relation to the natural world might deepen our bond with our landscape.

A Forest Clearing. Emily Carr. 1939.

“Go out there into the glory of the woods…Feel their protecting spread, their uplifting rise, their solid immutable strength. Regard the warm red earth beneath them nurtured by the myriads of fallen needles, softly fallen, eternally changing yet eternally the same. See God in it all, enter into the life of the trees. Know your relationship and understand their language, unspoken, unwritten talk. Answer back to them with their own dumb magnificence, soul words, earth words…”

A Rushing Sea of Undergrowth. Emily Carr. 1932-35.

“This perhaps is the way to find that thing I long for: go into the woods alone and look at the earth crowded in growth, new and old bursting from their strong roots hidden in the silent, live ground, each seed according to its own kind expanding, bursting, pushing its way upward towards the light and air, each one knowing what to do, each one demanding its own rights on the earth. Feel this growth, the surging upwards, this expansion, the pulsing life, all working with the same idea…life, life, life…”

Left: Boles. Emily Carr. 1935. Right: Heart of the Forest. Emily Carr. 1935.

In her writings Carr doesn’t give the impression that she finally came to know the great mystery of the forest she so longed to grasp. Yet, she expresses a maturing sense of contentment with the world around her as she aged. “Autumn does not dismay me any more than does the early winter of my body. Some can be active to a great age but enjoy little. I have lived,” she wrote in September of 1939, six years before her death.

Loggers' Culls. Emily Carr. 1935.

There is more fulfillment from Carr’s years of searching to be found, perhaps, in the legacy of her work and the enchantment with Canadian wilderness, First Nations’ totem poles and culture, the deep woods and dark waters she left behind. Maybe Carr was more like the forces of nature she tried so hard to understand. In her own way she brought something into this world the beauty of which she couldn’t know or comprehend, the lasting effect of which would outlive her entirely.

Shoreline. Emily Carr. 1936.

“Has a root or bulb the power to look up through itself and see its own blossom? Or must it live always in its own dark domain, busily, patiently sucking its life from the earth and pushing it up to the flower? How terrific the forces of nature are! To see root spilt stone appalls one. I think that has impressed me more than anything else about the power of growth. An upheaval is good, this digging about and loosening of the earth about one’s roots. I think I shall start new growth, not the furious forcing of young growth but a more leisurely expansion, fed from maturity, like topmost boughs reflecting the blue of the sky.”

Scorned as Timber Beloved of the Sky. Emily Carr. 1935.

On her birthday December 13, 1940, Carr wrote “I do not mourn old age. Life has been good and I have got a lot out of it, lots to remember and relive. I have liked life, perhaps the end more than the beginning.”

The main force behind her painting, she reflected, was its use “as a means of expressing myself, putting into visibility what gripped me in nature.”

Big Raven. Emily Carr. 1931.

Emily Carr died in 1945 at the age of 74 in her hometown Victoria, B.C.

Before her death she wrote: “Dear Mother Earth! I think I have always specially belonged to you. I have loved from babyhood to roll upon you, to lie with my face pressed right down on to you in my sorrows. I love the look of you and the smell of you and the feel of you. When I die I should like to be in you uncoffined, unshrouded, the petals of flowers against my flesh and you covering me up.”

An exhibit of more than 40 of her forest paintings will go on display at the Vancouver Art Gallery on December 21, 2013.

Quotes excerpted from "Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr." Clarke, Irwin & Company Ltd. 1966.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

"Like any other tool, language can be abused, used not to build but to destroy, not to communicate but to confuse, not to clarify but to obscure, not to lead but to mislead." 
- William Lutz⁠

Retired American linguist Dr. William Lutz spent much of his career at Rutgers University studying how language is abused in public conversations. He pointed to government and industry as the worst offenders in a practice known as Doublespeak, which Lutz described as “language designed to evade responsibility, to make the unpleasant appear pleasant … language that pretends to communicate but really doesn’t. Language designed to mislead while pretending it doesn’t.” 

Dr. Lutz worried that doublespeak has invaded public discourse about important issues. When killing innocent men, women and children is called 'collateral damage', torture becomes 'enhanced interrogation' and the dirtiest fossil fuel becomes 'Clean Coal', public conversations lose meaning. We struggle to make sense of things. These euphemisms sanitize language and steer important issues below the public’s radar. 

It would be rash to regard doublespeak as mere PR spin. The purpose of doublespeak isn’t to persuade but to silence and confuse. It is far more cunning than PR. Along with euphemisms, doublespeak campaigns use propaganda techniques such as demonizing dissenting views and concocting fake debates to magnify their impact.

There came a point when the tobacco industry realized they could no longer rely on PR to challenge the link between cigarettes and cancer. They turned to doublespeak to nudge the public away from a real debate about public health to a fake debate about sound science and free choice.

Those concerned about public health were labeled as zealots using junk science to promote a nanny state. In the end, the tobacco industry failed to persuade the public, but their tactics protected revenue and blocked health regulations for decades.

The U.S. has been overwhelmed with doublespeak campaigns for too long. From gun control to health care and climate change, industry front groups have confused and polarized American discourse, resulting in a state of bitter gridlock.

While its a relatively new phenomenon north of the border, the oil and gas industry and the Harper Government launched a ‘made in Canada’ doublespeak campaign early in 2012.

The campaign’s euphemism, Ethical Oil. Its message: Canada’s oil sands industry produces ‘Ethical Oil’. The world needs our ethical oil so we will crack down on these foreign-funded radical environmentalists who oppose the expansion of the oils sands via the Northern Gateway pipeline.

Within a very short timeframe, our national debate about environmental protection and the rights of First Nations shifted to a manufactured debate about protecting Canada’s national sovereignty and economic security against foreign interests and extremists.

Government and Industry Doublespeak

Here are a few of the statements made by government and industry just as the Northern Gateway pipeline public review hearings were getting under way early last year.

From the Prime Minister’s Office in January 2012:

Foreign radicals threaten further delays Today, Ecojustice attacked the independence of the Northern Gateway Joint Review Panel. ForestEthics, Living Oceans Society and Raincoast Conservation Foundation joined them in their attack on the Joint Review Panel. Here are the facts: The Northern Gateway is currently going through a careful and comprehensive review process to ensure the proposal is safe and environmentally sound.  Radical groups are trying to clog and hijack the process, rather than letting the panel do its job independently, expeditiously, and efficiently.



Then on January 8th, 2012, an oil industry front group called the Ethical Oil Institute launched a national publicity blitz targeting news outlets across Canada. Here is what their spokesperson Kathryn Marshall said on CTV's Question Period national political program:  



“The reason why the Northern Gateway Pipeline is a good project for Canada is that it will allow Canada to export more of our ethically produced oil to different countries that can reduce their dependency on conflict oil from nations like Nigeria and Saudi Arabia and Iran that have atrocious human rights records and really don’t care about the environment at all.”

“So, we have to make sure that foreign interests and their foreign-funded front groups and lobby groups … are not hijacking the hearing process and taking over or interfering with a Canadian decision.”

"If you care about ethics then support jurisdictions like Canada that have environmental laws, have human rights protections, have workers rights protections," Marshall said. 

Then came an open letter to Canadians from Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver:




"Canada is on the edge of an historic choice [the Gateway pipeline approval]: Unfortunately, there are environmental and other radical groups that would seek to block this opportunity to diversify our trade. Their goal is to stop any major project no matter what the cost to Canadian families in lost jobs and economic growth. No forestry. No mining. No oil. No gas. No more hydroelectric dams."

"These groups threaten to hijack our regulatory system to achieve their radical ideological agenda … they use funding from foreign special interest groups to undermine Canada’s national economic interest."



The campaign took on a 1984 tone when Public Safety Minister Vic Toews released a report on terrorism that warned Canadians of "domestic issue-based extremism" by environmentalists. The report stated:

"Although not of the same scope and scale faced by other countries, low-level violence by domestic issue-based groups remains a reality in Canada. Such extremism tends to be based on grievances—real or perceived—revolving around the promotion of various causes such as animal rights, white supremacy, environmentalism and anti-capitalism."

Doubling Down

Astonishingly, the federal government didn’t draw the line with this unhinged political rhetoric.

On February 28, 2012, Senator Nicole Eaton launched an inquiry into the funding of environmental charities by foreign foundations, alleging what she considered a threat to the Canadian economy.

To Eaton, the inquiry was about so-called "master manipulators who are operating under the guise of charitable organizations in an effort to manipulate our policies for their own gain." She used phrases such as "political manipulation" and "influence peddling" to describe the money being raised by charitable organizations. "This inquiry is about how billionaire foreign foundations have quietly moved into Canada and, under the guise of charitable deeds, are trying to define our domestic policies," Eaton said. "Cleverly masked as grassroots movements, these interests are audaciously treading on our domestic affairs and on Canadian sovereignty, all under the radar."

Eaton has publicly echoed the Ethical Oil jargon ever since she launched a senate inquiry into the benefits of the oil sands back in 2010 stating, "In an industry dominated by OPEC, the world needs more fair trade, conflict-free, ethical Canadian oil."

As the campaign heated up, the House Finance Committee launched a hearing into the foreign funding of environmental charities in response to complaints lodged by Ethical Oil Institute against the David Suzuki Foundation, Tides Canada and other charitable groups. At the end of April, in the midst of the Senate inquiry and Finance Committee hearings, Environment Minister Peter Kent upped the ante by accusing environmental groups of money laundering, a charge that other Ethical Oil advocates were quick to repeat.

Kent’s accusations were as follows:

"There has also been concern that some Canadian charitable agencies have been used to launder offshore foreign funds. Whether you call it money laundering, or a financial shell game or three card Monte, it's inappropriate under those organizations' charitable status."

  Clearing Doublespeak From the Public Square

Now if you think this campaign was ill conceived and not very convincing you would be right. From water cooler chats in British Columbia to kitchen table debates in the Maritimes, most Canadians didn’t buy it. Even business leaders in the boardrooms of Bay Street and Calgary shook their heads. It was a harebrained attempt at persuasion and Canadians saw right through it. On most fronts, it backfired.

Nevertheless, we should remain concerned about the ongoing Ethical Oil campaign. Not just because it paved the way for a wholesale dismantling of environmental regulations that provided protection for communities across Canada – or because it was an inexcusable attempt to demonize conservation groups – but because doublespeak campaigns like Ethical Oil undermine confidence in constructive public discourse.

Doublespeak feeds the false notions that there are no facts, just spin, and that you can’t trust anyone, so why bother. Why bother to demand that industry and government clean up their act and admit what all of us already know – that there are some things that money shouldn’t be able to buy?

Doublespeak creates public cynicism, that’s really its purpose and that’s why it is so dangerous. Recall Dr. Lutz’s description of doublespeak as "language designed to evade responsibility."

If we want to stop doublespeak pollution from clouding the public square, the public must demand better from industry and government leaders. The lack of accountability for deceptive doublespeak poses a genuine threat to Canada’s future.

Image credit: Kris Krug

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

The most urgent environmental threat to Canadians isn’t climate change, the declining health of our oceans, or the extinction of species. It’s the pollution filling our nation’s public square.

The public square – the forum for free debate that we depend on in a democracy – is being choked by misinformation, denial and bitter adversarial rhetoric. It is causing the Canadian public to turn away in despair, creating an epidemic of mistrust and what’s worse, disinterest.

Instead of open and healthy debate, dysfunctional public conversations have become the norm, preventing us from confronting the reality of our destructive impact on the planet. We seem unable or unwilling to weigh facts honestly, disagree constructively and deliberate collectively.

DeSmog Canada will wade through the PR pollution that is preventing us from having sensible public conversations about critical issues around the environment, social justice and the economy.

Here, we will work to clear the air and explore solutions for cleaning up Canada's polluted public square. We will examine why Canadians often feel powerless to demand that government and industry focus on what’s really important: developing more effective public policies and transitioning to a healthier, more sustainable economy.

To begin, we need to call out some of the biggest polluters of the public square. These are the harmful PR strategies employed by government and industry aimed to dissuade the public from discussing legitimate concerns.

One of the most blatant examples is the “Ethical Oil” campaign being used by the oil and gas industry to justify unfettered expansion of Alberta’s oil sands. It’s a deceptive campaign that intentionally aims to subvert public awareness and confuse debate by blurring the issues.

Consider the phrase Ethical Oil – a presumptuous and oversimplified pairing of words that leaves little room for the many ethical questions and concerns of Canadians. The Ethical Oil Institute goes so far as to call its cause the “fair trade choice in oil”. The suggestion is that Canadians and the developing world need to support production in the oil sands to squeeze out the markets of “politically oppressive and environmentally reckless regimes” in places such as the Middle East. Unfortunately, not everyone recognizes this type of deceptive messaging, or the damage it can cause.

It is a nasty PR tactic designed not to persuade, but to distract the public through misdirection and misinformation. In fact, Ethical Oil’s strategy is more cynical than most. It mislabels itself to deliberately confuse people about their interests. Ethical Oil then demonizes its opponents to create a culture of mistrust. Citizens become so confused by the cacophony of conflicting information and rhetoric that their reaction is to simply tune out.

In the past, this style of propaganda has been resorted to by industries desperate to escape accountability for their irresponsible business practices. Recall the tobacco industry’s extensive campaign to cast doubt on the health threats of its products, or the oxymoron that is the American coal industry’s “clean coal” marketing campaign. Instead of making claims with substance, the goal of this type of PR spin is to polarize public opinion and discourage critical thinking.

Similar tactics have been used by the Harper Government to stifle debate around the expansion of the oil sands and risky projects such as the Northern Gateway Pipeline. Consider Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver’s now infamous statement about “environmental and other radical groups” that questioned the social and environmental impact of the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline. Environment Minister Peter Kent even suggested charitable groups in Canada are “laundering” foreign funds, yet admitted later he had no evidence to back up his accusations.

The government continues to suggest that Canadian groups that speak out against the environmental impacts of resource development are trying to undermine Canada’s sovereignty and economic growth. Again, it’s an attempt to force the public to take sides on an issue where there is no black and white.

If all of this sounds melodramatic, that’s the point. Canadians who hear elected officials talking about money laundering and environmental radicals are likely to treat the information as yet another form of entertainment, then promptly ignore it. This serves to silence Canadians who already mistrust business and government, believing the system is rigged and that there is little they can do to make a difference. This attitude fuels public apathy, playing into the PR strategy to drown out dissent and smother public discourse.

Our goal is to put an end to this practice by exposing it for what it really is: a PR bullying campaign. At the same time, we want to encourage and build the kind of healthy public discourse that is needed to foster a true democracy. After all, democracy is dependent on a citizenry that is engaged and capable of sorting some approximate version of the truth amidst a sea of opinion in the public square.

We invite you to be part of this conversation. Share your thoughts here and feel free to share this and other DeSmog Canada content on social media and other channels. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Together, we can clean up the public square and encourage all citizens to pursue their right to take part in decision-making processes that will have a lasting impact on their health, community and the economy for decades to come.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.