Harper's shell game

The proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline from Alberta's tar sands to the British Columbia coast has become a major political flashpoint because it is vital to achieving Prime Minister Stephen Harper's ambition of transforming Canada into a tar sands based “energy superpower. To realize this vision, the Harper government has teamed up with multinational oil companies in an unprecedented assault on nature and democracy. This report uses documents obtained under Access to Information legislation and from the public record to explore how and why one oil company has joined with the Harper government in an aggressive “Oil Sands Advocacy Strategy” that aims to undermine environmental legislation in Canada, the United States and Europe.