MP gets death threats over greenwashing bill

MP Charlie Angus has been "inundated" with death threats, swearing and homophobic slurs over his proposal to curb greenwashing by the fossil fuel industry.

Last month, the NDP’s natural resources critic tabled a private member’s bill that would ban misleading ads by the fossil fuel industry that market the industry as a solution to climate change. The calls to Angus’s constituency office began to pour in almost immediately after the bill was tabled, especially when the Conservative Party of Canada launched an online petition attacking the bill.

The petition claims that, if passed, the law would "criminalize the promotion of fossil fuels and prescribe jail time for Canadians who speak positively about the oil and gas industry."

That is false. The proposed law only targets fossil fuel companies running misleading ads about the climate or health impacts of fossil fuels, would not directly impact individuals and wouldn't send anyone to jail. The bill is modelled on existing 1997 laws regulating tobacco industry advertising to protect Canadians' health.

But Angus said a "rage machine" of people — mostly white males — who believe the Conservatives' "absolutely false" claims about the proposed bill has "debased public conversation" and is "putting people at risk."

"The Conservatives are stoking conspiracy and rage because they think it's gonna win them votes," he said.

Experts agree that burning fossil fuels is the main driver of climate change; oil and gas are also linked to about 34,000 premature deaths in Canada each year, according to the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE).

Yet, Canada lags behind its international peers in regulating fossil fuel greenwashing, with the European Union, the U.K., and other countries already restricting the practice over climate and health concerns.

Leah Temper, an environmental justice campaigner for CAPE, agreed. The Conservatives' campaign is"clearly disinformation" and is being used by the party to "completely ignore" discussions about the health and environmental consequences of fossil fuels instead of engaging with the problem. CAPE worked closely with Angus to craft the bill and is leading a suite of efforts to combat fossil fuel industry greenwashing.

Angus said that while he has also received resistance to the bill from industry groups for emphasizing their role in the climate crisis, the blowback from right-wing supporters enraged by Conservatives' false representation of the bill has been much more aggressive. It is a pattern he said is becoming increasingly common, with a mostly male “rage farm" attacking him over any challenges to the oil and gas sector

That isn't surprising, with researchers noting fossil fuel companies have spent years leveraging white males' sense of identity and self-worth to indirectly fight climate rules. Coined by Virginia Tech climate sociologist Cara Daggett, this culture of "petro-masculinity" is defined by harmful expressions of masculinity, right-wing extremism and attacks on climate actions.

According to the International Panel on Climate Change, false and misleading information about fossil fuels and their climate impacts is a major threat to countries' climate policies because of the political backlash this misinformation can inspire.

Angus said that dynamic is increasingly evident in his day-to-day work. Over the past four years, death threats have become part of a "normal operating day for an MP" and he said Conservatives' rage has made it "nearly impossible" to discuss legitimate political differences. Responsibility for that dynamic, he said, lies heavily with efforts by right-wing politicians to sidestep policy discussions and instead fuel the "rage farm" for political gain.

It is an effort he plans to fight.

"The climate crisis is here and we need to talk about emissions, we need to talk about oil and gas," he said. "Maybe they don't want us to have that conversation, so they get the rage farm (going). But we're gonna have that damn conversation."