Canadian bill would send people to prison for saying anything favorable about oil, gas or coal

A bill introduced in the Canadian House of Commons would ban making statements that might promote the use of fossil fuels. 

Charlie Angus, a member of the Canadian Parliament and the New Democratic Party, said in a statement that the bill would “make illegal false advertising by the oil and gas industry.” 

“The big tobacco moment has arrived. We know that big oil has done years of disinformation and interference and false claims about the damage it is doing to the planet, but it is also killing people,” Angus said. 

The preamble of the bill blames multiple examples of bad weather on the fossil fuel industry and compares its products, which are the basis of over 80% of the world’s primary energy and thousands of everyday consumer goods, to the use of tobacco. 

According to the National Post, the bill so broadly defines “false advertising” that it could apply to any statement favorable to the oil and gas industry, including an “I Love Canadian Oil and Gas” bumper sticker. The bill would also criminalize statements of fact, such as suggesting that natural gas has fewer emissions than coal.

The bill would impose fines as high as $500,000 or two years in prison for anyone saying anything nice about the coal, oil and gas industry. 

While Angus argues that fossil fuels are killing people, in the time the globe has been exponentially increasing its use of fossil fuels, life expectancy has doubled. 

The bill, the Post notes, has almost no chance of passing since it’s a private member’s bill and Angus is a member of a party with only 25 seats in the House of Commons.