Police and Big Oil

Police and Big Oil

Postby Oscar » Tue Sep 01, 2020 11:11 am

Police and Big Oil

[ https://canadians.org/analysis/troublin ... 0d8fa36d48 ]

THE TROUBLING FINANCIAL CONNECTIONS BETWEEN BIG OIL AND POLICE

Dylan Penner August 27, 2020 ***NOTE - numerous LINKS in original article***

Big Oil is financing police foundations in Canada to the tune of at least $7.9 million, the bulk of which appears to be directed to police foundations in Alberta. According to Martin Lukacs and Tim Groves writing for the Tyee, some of these corporate funds have been funnelled to purchase militarized equipment for police forces. These initial findings highlight the need for far more public scrutiny of this practice.

The timing of this dubious financial practice also comes as communities across the country, led by Indigenous and Black communities, are demanding scrutiny of police budgets. The deaths of George Floyd, Regis Korchinski-Paquet, and so many more has sparked a new chapter in the Black Lives Matter movement with a wave of protests against police violence in Canada, the U.S. and around the world.

Critics are also increasingly questioning governments’ use of police to stop or hinder peaceful protest, to repress Indigenous land defenders, and to inflict violence on Black and other racialized people and communities. Recent examples have documented corporations, including those associated with Big Oil, calling on police to enforce their court-ordered injunctions, which they do – sometimes violently.

The ability of corporations to influence police action, trampling our rights to protest and dissent is troubling. Even more troubling is the financial link we have uncovered between police agencies and these powerful corporations.

Across the country, police departments receive funds from private police foundations, which enables private companies to give money to police forces through these foundations.

The book Corporatizing Canada: Making Business out of Public Service [ https://btlbooks.com/book/corporatizing ... 1598979680 ] describes the role of police foundations as a way for police departments to circumvent laws and police department rules that prevent them from directly receiving private sponsorships. “The private dimension allows much information about foundation activities to remain obscured under its ‘shell’ as well as for the foundation to act as a go-between for private donors and public police.”

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Oscar
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