Greenwashing death threats ‘show you who the Conservatives are,’ NDP leader says

Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh slammed the federal Conservatives on Wednesday for spreading falsehoods that left his party's natural resources critic facing death threats and homophobic slurs.

Earlier this week, Canada's National Observer reported that NDP MP Charlie Angus had been "inundated" by calls from people — mostly men — threatening and insulting him for tabling a bill to rein in misleading advertising by the fossil fuel industry. If successful, Bill C-372 would prohibit oil and gas companies from marketing their products as a solution to climate change.

The federal Conservatives have attacked the proposal, launching an online petition claiming the bill would "prescribe jail time for Canadians who speak positively about the oil and gas industry in Canada." This is false. The proposed law targets companies, not individuals, and wouldn't send anyone to jail.

"This bill is about making sure misinformation, false information cannot be spread," said Singh. "The fact that Conservatives are opposed to the idea of not letting corporations lie … and [that] they would resort to cheering on attacks of a very personal nature, death threats, inappropriate things like that, shows you who the Conservatives are."

"The casual disregard of facts and science in pursuit of partisan advantage goes beyond the climate change issue: it also becomes an issue for the health of our democracy," said federal environment minister Steven Guilebault in a statement. "We know that a large majority of Canadians want more action on the environment, but a noisy minority of climate skeptics unfortunately dominate the online public discourse."

Experts agree that burning fossil fuels is the main driver of climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that misinformation and greenwashing are "barriers" to tackling the climate crisis by slowing down vital policies.

Other countries have already regulated fossil fuel advertising to minimize greenwashing. France, for instance, banned the practice in 2022 and requires high-carbon industries to carry warnings about their climate impacts. Modelled on 1997 laws regulating tobacco ads in Canada, Bill C-372 aims to help Canada catch up with its global peers on the issue.

Angus said opposition from the Conservatives, their supporters and the fossil fuel industry has been vociferous and swift. In addition to the petition and "rage farm" of angry men personally attacking him and his staff, he has also received more conventional "blowback" from industry supporters.

Still, the most aggressive attacks have come from those enraged about the false prospect that their freedom to support oil and gas could be curtailed. This window into "petro-masculinity" — a culture where masculinity is defined by aggressive behaviour, right-wing extremism and climate denial — has made meaningful debate impossible, Angus said.

"We used to debate issues. People would phone me and say, ‘I really think that bill is really stupid.’ And I'd explain it to them and that's a good conversation," said Angus. "But when people are phoning me saying: 'You m*fo, you're never going to jail me. I'm going to die with my oil and gas bumper stickers in my cold dead hand.' How do you converse with people?"

Marc Fawcett-Atkinson & Rochelle Baker / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada’s National Observer

Marc Fawcett-Atkinson & Rochelle Baker, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer