OCanadian lobby groups and il companies are heavily investing in campaigns to present themselves in Canada as defenders Indigenous interests in the face high-profile protests against a controversial pipeline for natural gas on First Nation land. A new investigation by Eco-Bot.NetThe Guardian found.
I am a steward of my land and I am a defender. Read one of 21 ads targeting British Columbia, November 2021. The ad cites a Coastal GasLink worker, Nakazdli Whuten First Nation.
The ad, which conveyed Indigenous support for pipeline construction, appeared on the Facebook or Instagram feeds of Canadian residents. At the same time, 30 Wetsuweten Nation members & supporters were being violently removed from their territory along the pipeline. Two cabins were broken into by police with a chainsaw, dog unit, and snipers pointed at the door.
Sleydo Moll Wickham, a member from the Gidimten Clan, the Wetsuweten, recalls that the most memorable thing about her arrest was the dogs’ barking and whining. They were pulling at your leashes trying get at you. An audio recording that was broadcast by police over their radios also left a strong impression on her memories. They were listening to horror movie audio. You know where the little child sings? I know exactly where you are. Im coming for you.
Over the past two years, the fossil fuel groups spent C$122,000 (US$95.249) on over 400 targeted Instagram and Facebook ads related to various oil-and gas projects across the country. The ads were triggered by Indigenous land defense actions against the Coastal GasLink pipeline in British Columbia, and solidarity protests throughout Canada last November. The vast majority (21m) of the ads were related to the Coastal GasLink pipe, which has been the focus of intense protests and violent police crackdowns in recent decades.
Coastal GasLink, one of three multibillion dollar pipelines, is being challenged by Indigenous and environmental groups across Canada. In recent years, protests across the country have been led by the construction of the 670km pipeline that runs through unceded territory on Wetsuweten land that was not given to the Canadian government. Complex divisions within Wetsuweten First Nation have been exacerbated by pipeline construction. Some prefer the economic opportunities that the project promises.
Analysis of Facebook advertisements, January 2020 through the present Eco-Bot.Net, a research project that exposes climate crisis misinformation online and corporate greenwashing online, found a steady stream of Indigenous-washing ad campaign from TC Energy, the company behind this pipeline and associated oil and natural gas lobby groups. TC Energy accounts almost three-quarters (and more) of all the impressions and ad spend investigated. Facebook removed two similar ads from TC Energy in February. They were not disclaimed by Facebook and did not include information about who paid for them.
In British Columbia and other areas of Canada, solidarity marches were held last October after a Wetsuweten hereditary leader was murdered. ArrestFor blocking pipeline construction. Over the following five weeks, TC Energy along with affiliated groups launched dozens advertising campaigns that were shown 1.7m times in Canada. They paid C$14,000 each to Meta, Facebook, and Instagram’s parent company. Advertising rose immediately after the arrest of the chiefs and then spiked during the EnforcementA court injunctionLand defenders must be removed.
About half of the ads were targeted at British Columbia. Some ads reached viewers from a small audience, which indicates that ads used Metas interest based micro-targeting tools. While it is impossible to know the precise audience targeted, an Indigenous activist who was interviewed said she was frequently bombarded with the ads.
Geoffrey Supra, a Harvard University climate disinformation researcher said that the increase in industry spending on ads targeting specific demographics and co-inciding with protests seem to be classic examples financial motivated, politically oriented micro-targeted public affairs campaign. This data seems to be an example of how political action and media attention can be used as predictors for fossil fuel industry advertising spending.
Launched at the Cop26 climate talks, it was founded by Bill Posters, artist and disinformation researcher, and Rob Del Naja. Eco-Bot.NetScrapes social media advertising databases paid for by some the most polluting companies in the world.
Eco-Bot.Net defines corporate Greenwashing as the use of misleading consumers about green credentials of products or services or the environmental performance of companies. Researchers use the term Indigenous-washing for the misleading of the public about high-polluting companies’ relationship to Indigenous peoples or their land.
Metas Ad Library was used to conduct a keyword search for Indigenous or First Nations and then paired it with pipeline or petroleum to find Indigenous-washing actors in Canada. The article’s two authors were disinformation researchers and journalists who then analysed all the ads that these groups ran in 2020 and 2021.
The ads use terminology such as eco-colonialism, land defender, reconciliation and reconciliation to portray oil and gas companies as being aligned with Indigenous groups.
They are pushing for it. [these ads]It is like a drowning person being caught in a fast river. The Wetsuweten hereditary chief NaMoks said that a piece or straw passes by and that he wants to grab it in the hope it will save him.
Joe Biden revoked a permit to build the Keystone XL cross-border pipeline last year. TC Energy also owns it. The pipeline was opposed by environmentalists and indigenous groups for more than a decade. TC Energy seeks $15 billion in DamagesThe US government.
Eco-Bot.Net discovered another spike in ads during the first three months of 2020. The ads were placed amid nationwide protests against an injunction that prohibited land defenders blocking Coastal GasLink construction.
During this period, TC Energy and its associated lobby groups spent C$52,000. This resulted in 12m impressions on social media in Canada. The ads were initially targeted at British Columbia, but the ads shifted to other parts in Canada where solidarity protests are strong, such as Ontario. The end of the spike coincided with the declaration of a national emergency in Canada’s provinces. This put an end to large-scale gatherings to stop the spread of Covid.
The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) is one of the lobby groups that paid for the ads. It counts Coastal GasLink partners Shell, Petronas Energy, and PetroChina among its members. The Canadian Energy Centre, another involved lobby group, is funded by the Government of Albertas Technology, Innovation and Emissions Reduction Fund, which oil and natural gas companies, such as TC Energy, contribute to.
Land defenders filed a restraining order earlier in the month. SubmitThe UN Human Rights Council has provided details of police raids that have taken place in recent years and resulted in the arrest of 74 people. The Guardian revealed that one of those raids saw officers prepared to use lethal force against land protectors. The UN submission claims that Canada is violating several articles of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The social media ads tell a different story. One advert features Shirley and Alma, Wetsuweten members who see Coastal GasLink’s benefits for their community. Another advert states that land defenders disrupt potentially game-changing opportunities for Indigenous peoples.
Karla Tait, a member the Gilseyhu Clan, stated that the strategy of elevating Indigenous people’s views in favor of the pipeline pits people against each other in our communities. It is a divide and conquer tactic that has been used every step of colonization.
Most opposition to the pipeline comes from hereditary chiefs who believe that natural resources should be treated as commodities, which is fundamentally against Wetsuweten responsibilities. Band chiefs and councils, who are democratically elected under an administrative structure established during colonisation, are generally in favor of the pipeline. They claim that it will help lift the Wetsuweten nation from poverty.
TC Energy has negotiated access to the land with the Wetsuweten Bands, rather than hereditary Chiefs, throughout the project. Facebook ads suggest that the Wetsuweten are supportive of the company’s agreements with them. However, the pipeline crosses unceded Wetsuweten territory, so it remains under the control of hereditary chiefs according to a 1997 supreme Court. rulingHowever, the judgment allows the infringement of aboriginal title.
CAPP and TC Energy reiterated their support for the band councils in response to a request to comment. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), however, stated that it could not help but enforce the injunction. The Guardian reached out to the Canadian Energy Centre, the Government of British Columbia and the Wetsuweten chiefs and councils for comment.
Oil and gas development is depicted in the ads as essential for Indigenous economic development, poverty alleviation, and other social welfare. One ad shows a Siksika First Nation woman standing next a tipi, and a strong oil and gas industry is crucial for Indigenous education, prosperity, and other information.
Ads like this seem to reduce local Indigenous peoples to a homogeneous and single-minded population. This, presumably, misrepresents the cultural, political diversities, and complexities of the situation, said Supran.
We live in areas with very few economic opportunities and few jobs. Tait, her aunt and mother were also arrested during the raids in February 2020.
British Columbia government offers billions in subsidies for natural gas projects. The government says it sees the pipeline as a way to prosperity for First Nations. According to the YellowHead InstituteThis makes government support of First Nations contingent upon the support of pipeline deals.
Chief NaMoks and other leaders don’t see the pipeline construction as a viable way to prosperity. He stated that as hereditary chiefs, we must think thousands of decades into the future. We protect our lands. We are doing this peacefully. They come at us with guns.