Monday, February 10, 2020








Morneau says feds starting new round of Trans Mountain consultations
Canada's government will start a new round of consultations aimed at hashing out an agreement between indigenous groups that are competing for a stake in ...

'We're a country of law': Morneau on how Ottawa would handle Trans Mountain protests
Consultations on Indigenous ownership of Trans Mountain pipeline - Canada News
The federal government is launching a new set of consultations with Indigenous groups that will determine if and how they might take part in ownership of the ...
Trans Mountain pipeline Indigenous ownership talks launched by federal government
Finance Minister Bill Morneau says the federal government is launching a new set of consultations with Indigenous groups that will determine if and how they ...

Morneau says cabinet still deliberating on Teck oilsands mine, won't say if there will be delay
As the federal government faces a looming deadline at the end of this month to decide whether it will approve a proposed oilsands mine, Finance Minister Bill ...
Calgary Herald7 hours ago


Environment minister doesn't rule out deferring a decision on the Teck oilsands mine
Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said today he won't rule out deferring a decision on the proposed Teck Frontier oilsands mine. "None of the options ...

In letter to Trudeau, Kenney warns of 'devastating impacts' if Ottawa rejects Teck mine
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney is warning Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that rejecting Teck's proposed oilsands project would have “devastating impacts” on his ...


Braid: In public shift, Kenney says Alberta has to go green over time
Suddenly, Premier Jason Kenney is talking publicly about the “energy transition.”This is new. And it's significant.“Over the next decades as we go through the ...


Kenney warns a Teck Frontier rejection could bring Western alienation to 'boiling point'
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney is urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to approve the Teck Frontier oilsands mine in Alberta, warning a rejection could bring ...

John Ivison: The Liberals have reached a crossroad with Alberta. What they do next could define them
If Frontier is turned down, someone is going to get the blame – and Kenney is worried it may be him.

Brookfield a 'dark horse' buyer for Trans Mountain: Analyst
Canada's Trans Mountain oil-pipeline expansion is no bargain after a multibillion-dollar increase in the cost of the project. But there could be at least one ...

Warren raises "corruption" alarm after Trump, Zuckerberg, and Thiel hold secret White House meeting

"This is how the government keeps working for giant corporations and the wealthy and well-connected."

JULIA CONLEY
NOVEMBER 22, 2019 12:30PM (UTC)
This article originally appeared at Common Dreams. It is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. Feel free to republish and share widely.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren issued warnings of corruption Thursday morning after it was reported that Facebook founder and CEO, along with company board member and right-wing billionaire Peter Thiel, enjoyed a recent secret White House meeting with President Donald Trump.
NBC News broke the story late Wednesday, reporting that Facebook confirmed the meeting took place in October while Zuckerberg was in Washington, D.C. to testify before Congress. Facebook board member Peter Thiel, a major Trump donor and the recipient of numerous government contracts for his company's data-mining workunder the Trump administration, also attended the dinner.
Warren seized on the news, accusing Zuckerberg of "going on a charm offensive with Republican lawmakers" as law enforcement agencies investigate whether Facebook has violated antitrust laws.
"This is corruption, plain and simple," Warren tweeted.
The senator pointed to the dinner as an example of the kind of corporate activities with the federal government she wouldn't allow as president should she win the 2020 presidential election.
00:0001:48
"I won't cozy up to Facebook when I'm president," Warren tweeted. "It's time to root out corruption in Washington. Until we do, we won't be able to make any progress on any of the issues that matter to us."
A Facebook spokesperson told NBC that the dinner was a "normal" occurrence for the CEO of a major company, but Buzzfeed technology reporter Alex Kantrowitz tweeted that the secretive presidential dinner with two Silicon Valley billionaires who largely control a media platform used by about 70 percent of Americans should raise doubts about Facebook's claims of commitment to "political transparency." 
"It's normal for CEOs and heads of state to meet, yes," Kantroqitz wrote. "But given Facebook's political power, this one should've been easy: Just disclose it."
The meeting between Zuckerberg, Thiel, and Trump took place when the Facebook CEO was in Washington to testify about a number of issues related to the company, including its decision to allow political ads to be posted on its platform without imposing rigorous fact-checking standards.
The dinner "took place right as Zuck defended Facebook's decision to let politicians buy the right to lie on its platform," tweeted journalist Caroline Orr.
Entrepreneur Elizabeth McLaughlin noted that amid the attention Zuckerberg's talks with Trump have gotten, the potential significance of Thiel's involvement shouldn't be disregarded. Thiel is a co-founder of Palantir, which provided profiling tools to the government last year as ICE was ramping up raids in immigrant communities and deportations.
"Palantir is engaged in tracking of people and populations the Trump administration despises and when you put Palantir and Facebook together, you've got a data operation the Nazis would have adored," McLaughlin tweeted.
The meeting took place as Facebook is facing scrutiny over its partnerships with far-right news outlets including Breitbart News and The Daily Caller, prompting Mashabletechnology reporter Matt Binder to call Facebook "the right wing's social network" in an article he re-posted in response to NBC's report.
"It's impossible to give Facebook the benefit of the doubt over its recent choices," Binder wrote. "Zuckerberg appears to have made calculated decisions and, with that, the transformation of Facebook is complete. The right wing has its own social network now."

JULIA CONLEY

Julia Conley is a staff writer for Common Dreams.