The comedy here connects to a weird hypocrisy in Canadian law that a municipal lawyer brought to my attention: Canadian provincial governments require municipal governments to be far more transparent than they require themselves to be, and they have no good justification for this.
If it's sometimes hard to tell the difference between fossil-fuel lobbyists and the billionaire press, that's because there isn’t one.
My column on the politicians, journalists and junktanks using the Iran crisis as an excuse to extract our remaining gas and oil.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Why is Iran Blocking the Strait of Hormuz? 4 MIN READ
Ah gee I dunno
A really terrific interview with Jeremy Wildeman. It gets surprisingly far into the history and sums up the global order problem quite well in a very short interview.
Indigenous chiefs go to Alberta legislature, pressure province to nip separatism push
From me and @reportrix.bsky.social today:
www.thecanadianpressnews.ca/prairies_bc/...
Excellent piece. As Duane reminds us the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between the US and Iran (and other world powers) that Obama negotiated in 2015 was working until Trump # 1 tore it up.
The suffering & misery which this man is personally responsible for is immense.
#cdnpoli
(1) It is funny that Smith responds to any and all events by saying they show the need for a pipeline.
(2) High oil prices today can't justify long-term investments anymore, as in the long-term, buyers will switch to alternative energy sources that will be more reliably priced.
New Post: The Application of Provincial Statutes of Limitation to Indigenous Claims
ablawg.ca/2026/02/26...…ndigenous-claims/
Without the convenient and familiar scapegoat of Justin Trudeau to blame for the sector’s troubles, Enbridge seems to be concocting a hypothetical jurisdictional crisis to excuse the private sector from paying for a pipeline, writes Taylor C Noakes.
Trump's Attack on Iran About to Light the Middle East on Fire
Typical Trump.
Wants regime change, but no endgame. Doesn't understand that the Revolutionary Guards are more radical than the current leaders.
Prof James Hardcastle explains.
#Iran
youtu.be/AYm1WNU_1Ok
Is Iran being punished for a lack of democracy or for human rights violations? No - that is an obviously fake cover story. Anyone who claims to believe that is a liar or fool.
Iran is being punished for being an obstacle to total U.S. strategic dominance of the Middle East and its resources. (2/2)
Carney's statement of support for the U.S.'s assault on Iran is sickening. Diplomatic options to address Iran's nuclear program existed and the U.S. deliberately sabotaged them. The U.S. has no real plan to build a democracy in Iran, only to crush it to dust and leave the people to suffer. (1/2)
Ah. It seems that Carney's speech at Davos was actually just an elaborate joke. Well played, sir. I was convinced there for a moment that you had scruples
I'm looking at old (2015) AER records again and found this gem. This was not a good sign for things to come.
(the redactions on this are mine, I do not want to put the names of individual employees directly onto social media even where they are accessible through FOI/ATI).
A nice in-depth history of Alberta mining policy from 2022 (but I had not seen it until today).
stateofthemountains.ca/state-of-the...
New Post: AlphaBow Again Challenges AER Enforcement Related to Oil and Gas Closure Liabilities During Insolvency
ablawg.ca/2026/02/23...…uring-insolvency/
And I include The Constitution Act 1867 in this. It was a mistake to make it so challenging to amend it that the language cannot be properly updated, for example:
"He shall be legally or equitably seised as of Freehold for his own Use and Benefit of Lands or Tenements held in Free and Common Socage"
It is absurd that any english law remains in force in Alberta without having been restated in modernized legislation. It is a rule of law problem for any law to be this cryptic. No legislation in force should be more than 50 years old, even if the updates are only to adjust out of date terminology.
Last week, I learned an adjudicator had sided with me in 5 inquiries re: the province refusing to release results of its Alberta Next surveys
GOA published the multiple choice results in Dec but has been ordered to give me 213 pages of open-answer replies that haven't yet been shared
#ableg #abpoli
Corb Lund's petition for no coal activities on the eastern slopes of the Rockies finally goes live (i.e. actually issued by Elections Alberta) - 120 day window, closes June 10.
#abpoli #cdnpoli #ableg
www.elections.ab.ca/resources/me...
You were going to talk China into becoming reliant on Alberta natural gas? You couldn't even convince Saskatchewan!
But now it seems Alberta natural gas couldn't even talk their politically aligned next door neighbour province in the same country into switching from coal power to Alberta natural gas. That's an absurd gulf between rhetoric and reality. (2/2)
There is a funny element to Saskatchewan extending their use of coal power is that Alberta natural gas companies have spent years talking about how their gas would replace coal power in China. I never found that very realistic (it relied on their audience not knowing much about China) (1/2)
New substack from me: Clashes between Cda's info commissioner and the Liberal gov't
deanbeeby.substack.com/p/horns-lock... #cdnfpoi #cdnpoli
And this! The ACLRC is part of our law school. Part of the community. Supports access to justice in numerous ways. And now another target of the UCP’s ideological warfare.
Not a lot of surprises in the 2024 AER Liability Management Performance Report. The situation is still bad and the AER is still hoping to sweep it under the rug.
Set of screenshot from the Orphan Well Association showing the Alberta orphan sites for decommissioning going from 4,688 in December 2025 to 5,268 in February 2026.
After the huge jump around May 2025, the Orphan Well Inventory has continued creeping higher.
The previous high-water mark for orphan wells needing decommissioning was 3,128 wells in 2018. The OWA now has 4,473, after the AER spent 5 years saying they were fixing the system.
I never thought the United States actually respected Canadian sovereignty, but I did not think the U.S. would drop the facade unless Canada tried to cut the flow of Canadian resources (oil in particular). The confusing part is the lack of serious provocation.
If you tire of news about things getting worse in North America, try some news about things getting worse in Europe.
(sorry)
