It's Not About the Ducks

Exxon is widely known for its hardball legal tactics. From the high profile Exxon Valdez case that the company dragged out over 20 years, to small scale battles, the company is known for choosing to fight rather than settle.

Imperial Oil, Exxon's Canadian subsidiary, is 25% owner of Syncrude, with an ex-Exxon man now the President and CEO. The news that Syncrude is arguing against being charged for the oily death of ducks in one of its tar sands tailings pond is therefore no surprise.

And this despite running full page ads at the time apologizing for the incident.

Part of this is about the tar sands industry not wanting the federal government to finally enforce its laws after getting away with the province of Alberta giving it free reign to destroy Northern Alberta. Syncrude's lawyer in the duck case stated that the federal migratory bird act, being used by prosecutors:

"was not ever designed to be used to regulate Alberta's natural resources. This is the toe of the federal government coming into the regulation of Alberta natural resources."

In other words, provincially mandated natural resource exploitation should be exempt from federal environmental laws. But, Canadian law students learn in first year constitutional law that in cases of shared jurisdiction, like environment, when push comes to shove, federal jurisdiction trumps provincial jurisdiction.

Yet, ever since the NEP, there has been a reluctance on the part of Ottawa to enforce its laws in Alberta, and a constant war waged by successive Alberta politicians to push the feds out of their way. The result is failure to enforce a range of federal laws in the tar sands, from the Fisheries Act to the Species At Risk Act.

But another part of Exxon's aggressive legal strategy is that it doesn't just want the feds out of its way, but it wants everyone out of its way. It will challenge enforcement by any level of government anytime. At its core this is about accountability and not wanting any. It's a perfect metaphor for the tar sands in general.

Matt Price
Policy Director
Environmental Defence Canada