MP gets death threats over greenwashing bill

[Oscar]

MP gets death threats over greenwashing bill

[ https://www.nationalobserver.com/2024/0 ... shing-bill ]

By Marc Fawcett-Atkinson | News | March 6th 2024 - LISTEN TO ARTICLE

MP Charlie Angus has been "inundated" with death threats, swearing and homophobic slurs over his proposal to curb greenwashing by the fossil fuel industry.

Last month, the NDP’s natural resources critic tabled a private member’s bill that would ban misleading ads by the fossil fuel industry that market the industry as a solution to climate change. The calls to Angus’s constituency office began to pour in almost immediately after the bill was tabled, especially when the Conservative Party of Canada launched an online petition attacking the bill.

The petition claims that, if passed, the law would "criminalize the promotion of fossil fuels and prescribe jail time for Canadians who speak positively about the oil and gas industry."

That is false. The proposed law only targets fossil fuel companies running misleading ads about the climate or health impacts of fossil fuels, would not directly impact individuals and wouldn't send anyone to jail. The bill is modelled on existing 1997 laws regulating tobacco industry advertising to protect Canadians' health.

But Angus said a "rage machine" of people — mostly white males — who believe the Conservatives' "absolutely false" claims about the proposed bill has "debased public conversation" and is "putting people at risk."

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