WHY WOULD HE DO THAT?

Oil driller invests in carbon-capture pipeline for Midwest

An ethanol refinery in Chancellor, S.D., one of many in the midwest, is shown, July 22, 2021. North Dakota’s biggest oil driller says it will commit $250 million to help fund a proposed pipeline that would gather carbon dioxide produced by ethanol plants across the Midwest and pump it underground for permanent storage. Billionaire oil tycoon Harold Hamm’s Continental Resources was scheduled to make a formal announcement of the investment into Summit Carbon Solutions’ $4.5 billion pipeline Wednesday, March 2, 2022 at an ethanol plant in North Dakota. 

(AP Photo/Stephen Groves, file) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

JAMES MacPHERSON
Wed, March 2, 2022

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota’s biggest oil driller said Wednesday it will commit $250 million to help fund a proposed pipeline that would gather carbon dioxide produced by ethanol plants across the Midwest and pump it thousands of feet underground for permanent storage.

Continental Resources, headed by billionaire oil tycoon Harold Hamm, discussed the investment into Summit Carbon Solutions’ $4.5 billion pipeline at an ethanol plant in Casselton, in eastern North Dakota. The plant is one of 31 ethanol facilities across Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and the Dakotas, where emissions would be captured and piped to western North Dakota and buried deep underground.

The Summit project is one of at least two major CO2 pipelines planned for the Midwest. Navigator CO2 Ventures is planning a pipeline that will stretch over 1,200 miles (1,931 kilometers) through Iowa, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota and Illinois.

Similar CO2 pipeline plans are being considered elsewhere after the federal government increased tax credits, by 2026, to $50 for every metric ton of carbon dioxide a company sequesters. Ethanol producers are aiming to make the fuel more marketable along the West Coast and especially California which requires distributors in that state buy only ethanol with a low carbon emissions impact; companies that produce such ethanol can get a higher price.

The Summit pipeline system would extend 2,000 miles (3,219 kilometers) and could move up to 12 million metric tons of carbon dioxide a year, said Wade Boeshans, executive vice president of the Iowa-based pipeline developer. That’s equal to removing the annual carbon emissions of 2.6 million cars, he said.

Boeshans said the involvement of Hamm likely will help raise capital and boost the project's profile. Hamm’s company helped lead a renaissance in the U.S. oil industry through the use of horizontal drilling to free oil trapped in shale rock. Continental is the biggest producer and largest leaseholder in the Bakken shale formation, with more than 1 million acres (404,686 hectares) in North Dakota and Montana.

Hamm told The Associated Press that his company is looking at the pipeline project as more than an investment.

“We feel it's the right thing to do at the right time,” Hamm said. “Carbon capture and storage is going to be more and more important every day as we go forward in America.”

North Dakota is the nation’s No. 3 oil producer behind Texas and New Mexico.

Continental and Summit officials said there are no plans to inject carbon dioxide into old oil wells to boost production, a process that has been largely unsuccessful in North Dakota.

“That is not part of our business plan,” Boeshans said.

North Dakota’s underground rock formations are ideal for carbon storage, state Geologist Ed Murphy said.

The Trump administration in 2018 gave North Dakota the power to regulate underground wells used for long-term storage of waste carbon dioxide. North Dakota was the first state to be given such power, the Environmental Protection Agency said in announcing the move. The state has since invested heavily in carbon capture and sequestration technology.

Republican North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum praised the Summit pipeline and other proposed carbon storage projects in North Dakota, which are integral as part of the state’s plan to become carbon neutral by 2030.

Boeshans said the company in December began negotiating with landowners along the pipeline’s path for easements, though the company would not rule out the use eminent domain if agreements with landowners can’t be reached voluntarily.

“Overall, we’re making progress with voluntary easements,” he said.

The company has not filed permit applications in North Dakota for the pipeline, or for the estimated dozen underground wells needed for storage. The project could employ up to 17,000 people during construction, and lead to 500 permanent jobs when it’s expected to come online in mid-2024, Boeshans said.

SEC Chief Takes to Twitter to Issue New Warning on Greenwashing

Jesse Westbrook
Tue, March 1, 2022,



(Bloomberg) -- U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler is making it clear he’s skeptical the hundreds of investment funds that tout ESG credentials are as green or socially conscious as advertised.

On Tuesday, The Wall Street regulator posted a video on Twitter that highlights some of his top concerns. Gensler pointed out that there’s no industry consensus on what environmental, social and governance investing means. He questioned whether firms are adhering to a 1940 law that requires fund names to match what they invest in. And he noted that unlike many high-yield bond funds, ESG offerings don’t publish debt ratings that back up their labels.

“When I think about these questions, I’m reminded of walking down the aisle of a grocery store and seeing a product like fat-free milk,” Gensler said. “In that case, you can see objective figures, like grams of fat, which are detailed on a nutrition label. Investors should be able to drill down and see the ingredients underlying these funds.”

The video is Gensler’s latest attempt to clamp down on so-called greenwashing, in which money managers improperly market funds as ESG. He reiterated that the SEC is working on a rule that would force firms to disclose the criteria and underlying data they rely on in labeling funds ESG.

Environmental groups sue TotalEnergies over climate marketing claims

03/02/2022 

LONDON/PARIS (Reuters) - A group of environmental organisations has filed a lawsuit in France against the country's largest energy company TotalEnergies, accusing it of misleading consumers about its efforts to fight climate change.

The claim, which has been served on TotalEnergies and was to be filed before the Paris Judicial Court, concerns the company's "reinvention" marketing campaign. Claimants say the campaign broke European consumer law by suggesting TotalEnergies can reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 whilst still producing more fossil fuels.

Environmentalists have long complained about corporate "greenwashing" which they define as marketing or public relations campaigns that attempt to hide pollution or make a company's operations appear more environmentally friendly than they are.

TotalEnergies told Reuters it was implementing its strategy in a "concrete way", including through investments and reducing its greenhouse gas emissions, and was acting "in line with the objectives that the company has set itself... It is therefore wrong to claim that our strategy is 'greenwashing'."

Launched globally in May 2021, the adverts said TotalEnergies was committed to being "a major player in the energy transition" and was aiming for carbon neutrality by 2050.

The campaigners allege the company's plan to continue increasing production of fossil fuels such as oil and gas - key contributors to man-made global warming - was at odds with this.

A report from the International Energy Agency last year said no more new oil and gas fields should be developed from this year if the world is to have a chance of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average by 2050.

Claimants allege TotalEnergies was in breach of the European Unfair Consumer Practices Directive (UCPD), which bans misleading practices that can include promoting false or leaving out relevant information that impacts consumer decision-making.

The case, part of a growing field of legal challenges to corporate climate efforts, was brought by Greenpeace France, Friends of the Earth France and Notre Affaire à Tous and supported by environmental lawyers ClientEarth.

"We need to protect consumers from disinformation PR strategies that leave them trying to tell fact from fiction and delay the urgent climate action we need," Clara Gonzales, legal counsel at Greenpeace France, said in a statement.

TotalEnergies has previously said it expects its oil production to peak in the decade before declining, with an increase of around 3% per year by 2026 driven by the growth of liquefied natural gas (LNG), expected at 6% per year.

It plans to spend $13-15 billion a year between 2022-25 and will allocate half to developing new energies, mainly renewables and electricity, and the other 50% to natural gas.

More companies have been making climate pledges to appeal to consumers, and investors and climate activists are increasingly probing their actions to determine whether they can help meet the world's climate goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.

In the case of TotalEnergies, a leading investor group engaging with companies over climate transition plans has also flagged concern over its efforts https://www.climateaction100.org/company/total, including lack of a target to reduce emissions from the use of its products by consumers.

"We've seen a huge rush to adopt this language...even oil and gas companies which have a real challenge to get to net-zero," said Thomas Hale, a global public policy researcher at the University of Oxford and co-lead of the Net Zero Tracker Project.

"Companies who take on these targets are under additional scrutiny to see that they're really walking the walk."

(Reporting by Simon Jessop in London; Editing by David Gregorio)

By Simon Jessop, Gloria Dickie and Benjamin Mallet

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M 
Ericsson says U.S. DoJ deems investigation disclosure insufficient


Wed, March 2, 2022

STOCKHOLM, March 2 (Reuters) - Ericsson has been informed that disclosures it made to the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) about an internal investigation into conduct in Iraq were insufficient, the company said on Wednesday.

At this stage it is premature to predict the outcome of this matter, Ericsson said in a statement.

In 2019, Ericsson signed a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) with the DoJ, paid more than $1 billion to resolve a different series of probes into corruption, and agreed to cooperate with the department for ongoing investigations.

Last month the company disclosed that an internal investigation in 2019 had found serious breaches of its compliance rules in Iraq, including evidence of corruption-related misconduct and improper use of sales agents and consultants.

While the company did not comment on whether the DoJ was informed about the investigation, people familiar with the matter told Reuters that the DoJ was aware of the investigation.

The DoJ has now determined https://www.ericsson.com/en/press-releases/2022/3/update-on-deferred-prosecution-agreement that Ericsson breached the DPA by failing to make disclosures related to the investigation subsequent to signing the DPA on Dec. 6, 2019.

Ericsson said it was in communication with the DOJ regarding the facts and circumstances of the breach determination.

 (Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee, European Technology & Telecoms Correspondent, based in Stockholm; editing by Jason Neely)

The world could be on the brink of an energy crisis rivaling the 1970s, says IHS Markit's Yergin

Patti Domm 

Russia's Ukraine invasion could have set in motion an energy market disruption on the scale of major oil crises in the 1970s, according to Daniel Yergin, vice chairman of IHS Markit.

Sanctions by the U.S. and allies on Russia's financial system have disrupted sales of Russian oil, with banks and buyers wary of running afoul of the punitive measures.

"This could be the worst crisis since the Arab oil embargo and the Iranian revolution in the 1970s," said Yergin.

© Provided by CNBC A driver holds a fuel nozzle at a Shell gas station in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Friday, Feb. 25, 2022.

Russia's Ukraine invasion could have set in motion an energy market disruption on the scale of major oil crises in the 1970s, according to Daniel Yergin, vice chairman of IHS Markit.

Moscow is one of the world's largest oil exporters. Sanctions by the U.S. and allies on Russia's financial system have already set in motion a backlash against Russian crude from banks, buyers and shippers.

Yergin, also an author and energy market historian, said even though Russian energy was not sanctioned by the U.S. and other countries, there could be a large loss of Russian barrels from the market. The country exports about 7.5 million barrels a day of oil and refined products, he noted.

"This is going to be a really big disruption in terms of logistics, and people are going to be scrambling for barrels," Yergin said. "This is a supply crisis. It's a logistics crisis. It's a payment crisis, and this could well be on the scale of the 1970s."

He said strong communications between governments imposing the sanctions and the industry could head off a worst-case scenario. "Governments need to provide clarity," Yergin said.

He noted that members of NATO receive about half of Russia's exports. "Some share of that is going to be disrupted," Yergin said.

Wariness toward Russian oil

Yergin said there are "de facto" sanctions working to keep Russian oil from the market, even though energy was not specifically sanctioned. Buyers are wary of Russian oil because of pushback from banks, ports and shipping companies that do not want to run afoul of sanctions.

JPMorgan estimates that 66% of Russian oil is struggling to find buyers, and that crude prices could reach $185 by the end of the year if Russian oil remains disrupted.

"This could be the worst crisis since the Arab oil embargo and the Iranian revolution in the 1970s," Yergin said. Both events were major oil shocks in that decade.

In 1973, Middle Eastern oil producers cut off supply from the U.S. and other Western countries in retaliation for assisting Israel during the Arab-Israeli war that year. Oil was immediately in short supply, and Americans lined up at gas stations to buy skyrocketing gasoline. The other shock was the result of the 1978-1979 Iran revolution, which led to the overthrow of the Shah of Iran.

Oil majors, like BP and Exxon Mobil have said they are exiting Russian ventures. The price of Russia's Ural crude has fallen sharply, compared with the international benchmark Brent crude.

"What we haven't seen before is the big reputational issue as well, companies not wanting to do business with Russia," said Yergin. Oil companies are giving up major investments, where they may have spent years developing operations and employed hundreds of people in Russia.

"Vladimir Putin in a week has destroyed what he spent 22 years building, an economy that was basically integrated with the global economy. Now what's happened is Russia is unplugged from the global economy," he said.

An approaching disruption

Yergin said the disruption is coming when the market is already tightly supplied. OPEC+, an alliance between OPEC, Russia and others, decided Wednesday to continue their current production plans. They are returning about 400,000 barrels a day to the market each month until they reach their target in June.

Also adding to the pain for Russia's customers has been the spike in European natural gas prices. Europe is the biggest customer for both Russian oil and gas.

Oil prices were already rising when Russia rolled its tanks into Ukraine last Thursday. Brent was trading above $116 per barrel Thursday before backing off amid speculation that Iran may reach a deal to reenter its nuclear deal. That could bring 1 million barrels of Iranian oil back to the market.

Industry analysts say it is difficult to tell how much Russian oil will be affected. The White House said while there are no sanctions on energy, they are on the table.

IHS Markit hosts the annual CERAWeek energy conference in Houston next week. Executives from many energy companies, including Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Total, Occidental Petroleum and ConocoPhillips, will be speaking, and a major topic at the conference is expected to be how Russian barrels will be replaced.

"I think you're talking about losing 2 to 3 million barrels a day," said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital. Bank of America has estimated that for every million barrels lost from the market, the price of Brent could rise by $20 per barrel.

Kilduff said he expects Russian pipeline oil to continue to flow to China. Beijing said it will not join sanctions against Russia.

Analysts have said crude that is carried by ships is more likely to be wanting for buyers.

"This time we're cutting off the oil ourselves. It's a self-inflicted embargo," said Kilduff. "It's a buyers' strike this time, not suppliers acting out. ... If you can't finance it and you can't get it paid for there's no way the Russians are going to sell it."

Grain Markets Set for Supply Shock of a Lifetime, Economist Says

Elizabeth Elkin
Wed, March 2, 2022



(Bloomberg) -- Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could devastate global grain markets so deeply that it’s likely to be the biggest supply shock in living memory.

That’s according to Scott Irwin, an agricultural economist at the University of Illinois. Tens of millions of acres of grain production are at stake, he said Wednesday on Twitter.

“I am convinced it is going to be the biggest supply shock to global grain markets in my lifetime,” Irwin said.

The world “desperately” needs farmers to plant more acres in 2022, he said, but “basically nothing can be done in the short-run except to run up the price of grain high enough to ration demand.”

Ukraine and Russia together account for more than a quarter of the global trade in wheat, as well as a fifth of corn sales. Prices for those staple crops are soaring on concerns over supply disruptions at a time when global food prices had already reached record highs.

Even before Russia’s war with Ukraine, food inflation was already plaguing global consumers. Extreme weather has made it harder to grow crops, while a shortage of workers and higher shipping costs snarled supply chains. The world’s grain inventories are also very tight, so any prolonged disruptions to supplies from Russia or Ukraine has the potential to dislocate markets for years to come.

OLDE FASHIONED CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Chamath Palihapitiya Sued Over Insider Sale of Virgin Galactic Shares

Joel Rosenblatt
Wed, March 2, 2022,


(Bloomberg) -- Chamath Palihapitiya took advantage of his insider role as chairman of Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. to sell 10 million shares of the struggling space travel company for $315 million before he abruptly quit the board last month, a shareholder alleged in a lawsuit.

The complaint, filed on behalf of Virgin Galactic to seek damages from its directors and officers, also alleges that founder Richard Branson pocketed $301 million by dumping his shares while the stock price was “artificially inflated.”

Leaders of the company were well aware of defects in its spacecraft three years before they were publicly disclosed last year, according to the complaint filed in federal court in Brooklyn, New York.

Virgin Galactic has worked to commercialize space flight since 2004, receiving regulatory approval last year to fly customers into space. Its shares have been volatile as it has delayed the start of commercial flights due to an investigation and potentially defective parts.

Palihapitiya, a former Facebook Inc. executive who has raised billions via blank-check firms, earned a reputation as the “SPAC King” for his use of the investment tool to bring companies public. Virgin Galactic began trading in 2019 through a merger with Palihapitiya’s Social Capital Hedosophia.

While Virgin Galactic has promoted the flights of its Eve and Unity spacecraft as successes, they were in fact “rudimentary prototypes” lacking key engineering documentation, with some documentation containing design errors, according to the complaint. Branson and the company have capitalized on periods of good news, according to the lawsuit.

A Social Capital spokesperson declined to comment. Branson and Virgin Galactic didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment.

The complaint isn’t the first accusing Virgin Galactic executives of misleading investors.

Virgin Galactic has said it remains on track to begin carrying paying customers into space by the fourth quarter of this year. It has has a backlog of about 750 customers who have placed deposits for tickets priced at $450,000 for a 90-minute excursion to space.

(Updates with Social Capital spokesperson declining to comment.)

STATE PIRACY

Estonian cargo ship sinks off Ukrainian Black Sea port in Odessa

By REUTERS 

© (photo credit: REUTERS/STRINGER/FILE PHOTO) 

Russian Navy vessels are anchored in a bay of the Black Sea port of 

Sevastopol in Crimea May 8, 2014

An Estonian-owned cargo ship sank on Thursday off Ukraine's major Black Sea port of Odesa, hours after a Bangladeshi vessel was hit by a missile or bomb at another port, underlining the growing peril to merchant shipping following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Many shipping firms have suspended sailings to affected Black Sea ports and other terminals in Ukraine, with insurance premiums for voyages soaring in recent days. At least three commercial ships have been hit by projectiles since February 24.

Six crew members from the Marshall Islands-flagged and Estonian-owned Helt cargo ship were picked off by the Ukrainian Rescue Services, the Ukraine Maritime Administrator said.

Two crew members were in a life raft at sea while four others were previously unaccounted for, Igor Ilves, managing director of Tallinn-based manager Vista Shipping Agency, told Reuters.

"The vessel has finally sunk," he said. "Two of the crew are in a raft on the water and four others are missing. I don’t know where they are at the moment."

© Provided by The Jerusalem Post Russian Navy's diesel-electric submarine Rostov-on-Don sails in the Bosphorus, on its way to the Black Sea, in Istanbul, Turkey February 13, 2022. 

(credit: REUTERS/YORUK ISIK)

Ilves said the vessel might have struck a mine.

"It’s a big problem - nobody can help them. The Ukrainians cannot go to sea because it is under Russian control."

Ilves said the crew comprised four Ukrainian nationals, one Russian and one Belarusian.

NATO's Shipping Center warned on Wednesday that there was "a high risk of collateral damage on civilian shipping in the northwestern part of the Black Sea," which included mines.

"There are several open-source reports of civilian ships being hit directly or indirectly as a result of the acts of war in the northwestern Black Sea within Ukrainian territorial waters and adjacent international waters," NATO said.

"Civilian shipping is encouraged to exercise caution and be on high alert in the area."

This comes as Ukraine's Armed Forces accused the Russian Black Sea Fleet of using civilian vessels as human shields.

SMERT ASS

Analyst on Russian TV drinks to the 'death' of the stock market in front of stunned host

rcohen@insider.com (Rebecca Cohen)

© Provided by Business Insider 

Alexander Butmanov holds up soda on Russian TV. @tjournal on Twitter

An analyst on Russian TV drank to the death of the stock market, surprising the host.
Russia's stock market has taken a huge hit since the West imposed sanctions on Russia.
"Dear stock market, you were close to us, you were interesting. Rest in peace dear friend," he said.

An analyst on Russian TV drank to the "death" of the country's stock market in front of a shocked host.

Alexander Butmanov, a Russian economist, was asked by the host if exchange strategies today are outdated and if he wishes to stay in his profession.

"As a last resort, I will work as Santa Claus, like I did 25 years ago," he responded.

When the host pushed him on his response, Butmanov grabbed a bottle of soda and said, "Jokes aside, let's get this done quickly."

"I say hello to Sergey Usichenko who drank 12-13 years ago for the death of the stock market. Today I drink soda," he said holding up the bottle.

He concluded: "Dear stock market, you were close to us, you were interesting. Rest in peace dear friend."

The host, clearly stunned, then said "I won't comment on this flash mob because I don't want to believe it…" as her guest took a drink.

Russia's stock market has taken a massive hit and the ruble has hit an all-time low as the West ramps up sanctions against the country and its leader in the wake of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

BRINGING IT ON HOME

Meet the Russian oligarchs with investment ties to Western Canada not named in Ottawa's sanctions

Meghan Potkins 

© Provided by Financial Post Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich walks past the High Court in London on Nov. 16, 2011.

NATO governments have pledged to crack down on the dealings of Russian oligarchs and companies, but some controversial figures with significant investment ties to Western Canada have so far evaded sanctions from the Canadian government.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has said all Canadian financial institutions are prohibited from engaging in any transactions with the Russian Central Bank. And Canadian authorities have identified dozens of Russian individuals and entities for sanctions in recent days, freezing the assets of 58 targets and prohibiting all dealings with them.

But one of the most recognizable Russian elites to have been excluded from Canada’s sanction list is billionaire Roman Abramovich, best known outside his home country as the owner of Chelsea FC, one of the world’s most popular soccer teams.

Abramovich, who had come under intense political scrutiny in the U.K., said on March 2 that he will sell Chelsea and donate the proceeds to Ukraine, the Financial Times reported . The team is only his most visible asset in the West. Among other things, Abramovich is the largest shareholder in Evraz PLC, a steel manufacturing and mining business that has facilities in Regina, Calgary and Edmonton.

Evraz has provided the majority of the pipe to the Trans Mountain expansion (TMX) project, which will expand the movement of oil and refined products from the Edmonton area to a terminal on the Pacific Coast for export. Evraz’s agreement with original pipeline owner Kinder Morgan provided 250,000 metric tons of pipe to the project.

Alexander Abramov, Alexander Frolov, Evgeny Shvidler and Maxim Vorobyev — all wealthy Russians — are also among the top six shareholders in the U.K.-based company, according to Bloomberg. None of them appear on Canada’s sanctions list.

TMX was bought by the federal government in 2018, making Evraz’s exclusion from sanctions so far a sensitive issue for Trudeau’s government.

“The steel that was provided by Evraz for the TMX pipeline was fully delivered by the second quarter of 2021 when sanctions were not in place, and the war had not yet begun,” Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said this week at a press conference.

Abramovich isn’t the only billionaire with Canadian holdings to come under media scrutiny following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

© Thomas Frey/picture alliance via Getty Images files

Oligarch Igor Makarov.

A lesser known figure with investments in Canada’s oilpatch is billionaire Igor Makarov. The Turkmenistan-born businessman and former Russian cyclist owns a 19.5 per cent stake in Spartan Delta Corp, making him the largest shareholder for the Calgary-based natural gas producer.

The company said this week in a statement that Makarov’s stake, through Switzerland-based Areti Energy S.A., does not carry any controls or veto rights. “Spartan does not have any other relationship with Areti beyond its equity ownership in Spartan nor is any such relationship contemplated now or in the future,” the company said.

An American PR firm for Areti vigorously denied to the Financial Post that Makarov has any ties to Putin.

Makarov made his fortune as a natural gas supplier to former Soviet states, eventually expanding into exploration and processing in Russia during the mid ’90s and 2000s as the founder of a company headquartered in Moscow known as Itera — a precursor to Areti, according to the company’s website. Itera was acquired by Russian state-controlled oil company Rosneft in 2013.

Makarov was identified on a U.S. Treasury list of Russian oligarchs in 2018 — a list which critics have lambasted for apparently copying names from a Forbes’ list of world billionaires.

Makarov is not on Canada’s list of Russian oligarchs targeted for sanctions.

The federal government has had sanctions in place since 2014 when Russian forces invaded and annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine — more than 440 individuals and entities have been singled out since then.

Trudeau’s government has hinted that more could be on the way.

“We are looking carefully at the holdings of all Russian oligarchs and Russian companies inside Canada,” Freeland said March 1. “We’re reviewing them, and everything is on the table.”

Freeland added: “If we are truly determined to stand with Ukraine, if the stakes int he fight are as high as I believe them to be, we have to be honest with ourselves, I have to be honest with Canadians, that there could be some collateral damage to Canada.”

— With files from Bloomberg News

• Email: mpotkins@postmedia.com | Twitter: mpotkins

UNETHICAL UCP
Shandro appointment during investigation puts law society in a no-win situation: experts

A group of Alberta law professors say Tyler Shandro should have refused his appointment as justice minister while he is under investigation by the Law Society of Alberta, and Premier Jason Kenney’s cabinet shuffle puts the society in a difficult situation.

© Provided by Edmonton Journal Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro answers media questions about the Province's COVID-19 response outside the University of Alberta Hospital, in Edmonton Thursday July 29, 2021. Sandro was taking part in a press conference where the Province announced $1 million to explore a possible stand-alone Stollery Children's Hospital. Photo by David Bloom

Lisa Johnson 

Edmonton Journal 

Writing in the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Law blog this week, legal experts Shaun Fluker, Nigel Bankes and Martin Olszynski said a report prepared by retired Justice Adèle Kent into former justice minister Kaycee Madu leaves important questions unanswered, and the decision to replace Madu with Shandro demonstrates disrespect for the law society’s processes.

The report, released publicly on Friday, came after the law society determined allegations about Shandro’s behaviour while he was health minister warranted a disciplinary hearing, which is yet to be scheduled . Three complaints allege Shandro broke the society’s code of conduct, including that he used his former position as health minister to obtain personal cell phone numbers of health-care workers.

“Premier Kenney should not have put the law society, a statutory body, in this invidious position and, in the circumstances, Minister Shandro should have declined the appointment,” the professors wrote.

In an interview with Postmedia Tuesday, Fluker said sanctions could taint the relationship between the minister and the body in charge of regulating the legal profession in the province, but a decision not to sanction Shandro based on the evidence it hears could create the perception “that the whole process was influenced by the nature of the office.”

“The Law Society is really placed in, one might say, a no-win situation,” said Fluker. The society is an independent body, but does report to the minister, who appoints some public members to its governing board.

Fluker said it would have been reasonable for Sonya Savage, who is Alberta’s energy minister, to continue to serve as interim justice minister while the hearing plays out.

“There’s a lot riding on the perception of the public on the integrity of the law society and the legal profession. It’s hard to overstate what that amounts to,” said Fluker.

Kenney, speaking at an unrelated announcement Wednesday, dismissed the complaints against Shandro as politicized, saying the law society is an independent, self-governing regulatory body whose complaint process is not directed by government.

After a complaint is reviewed by the law society it can be dismissed or referred to a committee or public hearing.

Kenney said the society looks at all complaints, whether they are frivolous or not, pointing to a complaint filed against former NDP justice minister Kathleen Ganley which, unlike the complaints levelled against Shandro, did not warrant a hearing.

“I have every confidence in Minister Shandro, who I think objectively is one of the best qualified ministers of justice in Alberta history,” said Kenney.

NDP justice critic Irfan Sabir said in a Wednesday statement to Postmedia no cabinet ministers were involved in similar hearings during the NDP’s tenure. Sabir added Madu’s attempt to interfere in the administration of justice is a firing offence for any cabinet minister, and neither Madu nor Shandro have been held accountable for their behaviour by the UCP government.

“Public confidence in the rule of law has been damaged even further by the UCP rewarding Madu’s egregious behaviour with another seat in Alberta’s cabinet,” said Sabir.

The Kent report concludes that Madu tried to interfere in the administration of justice with a call to Edmonton’s police chief after receiving a distracted driving ticket in March last year, but he was unsuccessful, and his call created a reasonable perception of an interference with the administration of justice.

The blog post notes that Kenney, when announcing Madu would become minister of labour and immigration, failed to disclose Kent’s most “stinging rebuke,” namely that Madu attempted to interfere in the administration of justice.

“A person reading the premier’s statement could be forgiven for thinking that Ms. Kent had only delivered a mild rebuke to Minister Madu. Nothing could be further from the truth,” it said.

The law professors wrote they found it “extremely concerning” no one in leadership positions initiated an investigation into Madu until reports of the phone call were published by the CBC, and questioned whether Madu should be subject to disciplinary action under the law society’s code of conduct.

“If it’s considered to be behaviour that is inappropriate, and may bring the reputation of the profession into disrepute, then it seems to me that that’s clearly potential grounds for conduct investigation,” said Fluker.

lijohnson@postmedia.com
twitter.com/reportrix