You’ve heard of TransCanada, the Canadian oil giant that plans to build the Keystone XL pipeline. But do you know about its doppelgänger, SaveCanada?
Beginning in late August, people who appeared to be PR representatives for TransCanada, save for the “SaveCanada” insignia on their shirts, began showing up at the company’s public events in force. The look-alikes are activists aiming to expose the risks of TransCanada’s latest project, the Energy East Pipeline. The proposed pipeline, which the company announced in August, would transport more than one million barrels of tar sands oil per day from Alberta and Saskatchewan to Eastern Canada for export.
The protest is the brainchild of the Yes Men, the anti-corporate pranksters responsible for the satirical petition that called for global warming during George Bush’s 2004 presidential campaign, as well as the printing of thousands of copies of a fake-but-hopeful edition of the New York Times in 2008 that reported the end of the Iraq War.
Activists say that in an effort to plow through stakeholders’ objections to the proposed pipeline, TransCanada has changed the format of its consultations. During the planning stages of their previous projects, objectors were given the opportunity to express their concerns in front of their communities. The new format reportedly allows for one-on-one consultations only. Activists believe this is intended to prevent residents along the pipeline’s 2,700 mile route from seeing how widespread opposition is in their communities.
In response, activists planned to swarm the consultations, armed with brochures and pamphlets about the pipeline’s potential dangers. The protests began at TransCanada’s open house in North Bay, Ontario in August and have spread rapidly all along the proposed pipeline’s path.
“Since TransCanada has come up with a new way to lie to the public, we had to come up with a new way to tell the truth,” said North Bay farmer and protest organizer Yan Roberts in a statement. “We’re friendly folks, so our solution is to dress like them, outnumber them, and ‘out-friendly’ them in every community they’re trying to scam.”
In These Times is proud to share that we were recently awarded the 16th Annual Izzy Award from the Park Center for Independent Media at Ithaca College. The Izzy Award goes to an independent outlet, journalist or producer for contributions to culture, politics or journalism created outside traditional corporate structures.
Fellow 2024 Izzy awardees include Trina Reynolds-Tyler and Sarah Conway for their joint investigative series “Missing In Chicago," and journalists Mohammed El-Kurd and Lynzy Billing. The Izzy judges also gave special recognition to Democracy Now! for coverage that documented the destruction wreaked in Gaza and raised Palestinian voices to public awareness.
In These Times is proud to stand alongside our fellow awardees in accepting the 2024 Izzy Award. To help us continue producing award-winning journalism a generous donor has pledged to match any donation, dollar-for-dollar, up to $20,000.
Will you help In These Times celebrate and have your gift matched today? Make a tax-deductible contribution to support independent media.
