Canadian CEOs say new anti-greenwashing legislation has had the unintended effect of dissuading companies from taking climate action

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www.cbc.ca/radio/anti-greenwashing-green-hushin…

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In other words: "If we can't lie to people about our environmental efforts then we're not even going to try to lie."

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OP edited

I'm not a Canadian citizen. I studied in Quebec before moving back to my country. I love Canada and I follow Canadian politics very closely.

Justin Trudeau has done some disappointing things. Bill C-59 is not one of them.

In fact, I believe Bill C-59 is perhaps the single greatest bill adopted under Justin Trudeau.

This bill gives enormous new powers to the Competition Bureau:

https://competition-bureau.canada.ca/en/how-we-foster-competition/education-and-outreach/guide-june-2024-amendments-competition-act

https://theconversation.com/canadas-competition-laws-just-changed-heres-what-you-need-to-know-220020

This bill also allows the Competition Bureau to punish companies that knowingly lie about their environmental record:

https://ccli.ubc.ca/bill-c-59-anti-greenwashing/

https://www.torys.com/our-latest-thinking/publications/2024/06/competition-act-amendments-require-companies-to-back-up-environmental-claims

Here is a funny thing that happened. A few hours before Bill C-59 was set to pass, some oil companies started deleting content from their websites:

Pathways Alliance, a coalition of Canadian tar sands producers aiming to build a massive carbon capture project in Alberta, scrubbed their website of its content June 19.

In its place is a notice indicating the organization “removed content from our website, social media and other public communications” and that they had done so in response to anticipated changes coming with Bill C-59.

https://www.desmog.com/2024/06/20/pathways-alliance-website-scrubbed-ahead-of-new-greenwashing-law/

It's just outrageous to see Danielle Smith and these CEOs whine like that about Bill-C59.

If you don't break the law by knowingly lying, you have nothing to fear.

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This is not intended to disparage you, OP.

Fuck every CEO, and every fucking lie that comes out of their stupid shit dripping mouths.

If a CEO complains about something, I immediately think that I will probably support that thing.

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But... If they're green washing, they weren't doing shit anyway.

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See, they're hoping everyone is too dumb to realise that.

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Yeah, it's clear why they're unhappy about it. What's the point of pretending to take action if you can't then lie about what a great job you did?

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I can understand why this would deter companies from advertising their environmental initiatives, but it kinda sad (though entirely expected) that it turns out they were only doing for the good PR. Guess this means we need to start introducing some environmental legislation with teeth.

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b-b-b-but the economyyyyyyyyyyyy

-some corporate shill probably

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Not just for good PR - they are also using creative accounting to claim "green" initiatives (and the incentives/tax reductions that come with them) without actually doing anything beneficial to the environment. Fucking leeches...

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If we're no longer allowed to lie and cheat, then we won't play.

Next step would be to tax the ever living shit out of companies that don't want to save the planet.

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Is that the low-emissions one that bad actors keep pretending is a "production cap", despite oil production currently being higher then ever?

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Comments in Canada@lemmy.ca

You'll notice their utter silence about the core of greenwashing, which is how much they were spending on the ad campaigns versus on the actual programs. It seems like they're just mad they can't cheat anymore.

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"Removing our ability to lie about our environmental destruction reduces our incentive to pretend we give a fuck."

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