I think this is an important intellectual freedom issue that everyone in Alberta should know about:
Premier defends regulatory agency spying on landowners monitoring power line route
Jim Farrell and Jason Markusoff, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Thursday, June 21, 2007
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=0d36efc4-7dd5-4e92-8b03-7575381d928c
http://tinyurl.com/35az6x
[excerpts]
SHERWOOD PARK - As controversy continued to swirl around the Alberta Energy and Utility Board's use of private investigators to spy on potential dissidents, the province's energy minister said Wednesday the board will have to answer some questions.
"I will take the opportunity to discuss the situation with the board," Mel Knight said. "It is imperative that Albertans see the AEUB and the regulatory process as neutral.
"We won't let this lie around too long," said Knight.
But Premier Ed Stelmach defended the energy regulator's decision to hire the investigators.
The AEUB admitted this week to hiring four private investigators to blend into a crowd of people watching ongoing hearings on a large screen TV set up in the Rimbey Recreation Centre, 145 km south of Edmonton.
Because of disruptions at earlier hearings in Red Deer, the AEUB had banned the public from attending hearings on a proposed Edmonton-Calgary power transmission line being held in a nearby courthouse.
As an additional measure, the AEUB hired private investigators to blend into the crowd and assess potential threats.
The investigators told landowners concerned about the proposed lines that they were also landowners.
One investigator who gained their trust subsequently joined in on conference calls. At least one call involved landowners and their lawyers discussing legal challenges to another power line that would export Alberta electricity to the United States.
Premier Ed Stelmach defended the AEUB's decision to hire private investigators to infiltrate the group of frustrated landowners.
He reiterated the AEUB's statement that investigators were needed to gauge the potential of the landowners getting violent, and noted the apparent threats.
"Whether real or not, there was some people to insure there wasn't any harm done to the members of the AEUB," the premier told reporters after a Sherwood Park luncheon speech.
My response:
Growing up during the Cold War, I heard about how those evil communists had children informing on parents who didn’t tow the party line. How awful, I thought. About the same time I read George Orwell’s 1984 that described a fictional world where Thought Police and Big Brother watched your every move. I hoped that would never happen. Now it is 2007 and Alberta Premier Stelmach announces that he has no problem with private investigators fraudulently infiltrating a citizen’s group to monitor political dissidents. Welcome to the brave new world of Alberta politics.
The premier claims that the spies were there to insure no harm came to Energy Utility Board members. If there were a real threat, why weren’t the police called? I suspect the premier feared that this sort of dissent might interfere with the board’s usual rubber stamp policy. Having the police crush political dissent would look very bad, but if some “investigators” posed as landowners, maybe they could influence these poor misguided souls.
Perhaps these people have reason to be angry. Does the Premier care about their concerns? They are ordinary Albertans who will be thrown off their land or live next to a 500 kilovolt transmission line if this is approved; and for what reason? The Alberta Electric System Operator Need Application filed with the AEUB May 07, 2004 mentions “access to the electricity markets in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and the U.S. Midwest” (p. 8). It seems that these people will be displaced so a private international corporation can export polluting, coal-generated power. At least the Premier has finally revealed who he represents.
http://360.yahoo.com/terrydonovan88
