On June 8, 2012, writer and researcher Vivian Krause alleged a conspiracy between American financial interests and Canadian environmental groups. She said the collusion was meant to ensure Canadian energy resources would remain destined for American markets rather than exported to meet the growing demand in China.
Mike Duffy, then a Harper-appointed Senator and prominent character in fundraiser videos for the Conservative Party of Canada, was not a regular member of the finance committee but was present to hear Krause's testimony. His day planner — now popularly known as the "Duffy diaries" — has a note on June 6, 2012 that reads "MD fills in for Doug Finley @ National Finance, Vivian Krause."
Krause, a self-described North Vancouver independent researcher and “B.C. girl at heart,” is named 11 times in Duffy’s diary between February and December of 2012, 12 in all.
Reached by phone on Saturday, Krause said she had lunch with Duffy in Ottawa, and that she spoke to him again in the lobby of a hotel. Krause said she had just testified to a Senate committee, and that Duffy had questions about the research she had done. She strongly objected to suggestions that she had been in communication with the federal government beyond her visits to Ottawa to testify about environmental charities. She said she did this as part of her duty as a good citizen.
The document, admitted as evidence before the court in Duffy’s trial, states Duffy met with Krause after teleconferencing with ex-Sun News personality Ezra Levant and exchanging email under the heading "re: Vivian Krause." Levant, reached on Sunday, said he did not recall details of his conversation with Duffy, but that the call was not substantive. He also said he could not find emails that mentioned both "Duffy" and "Krause."
"Vivian Krause appears before Commons Energy Committee," says an entry in Duffy's journal on February 9, 2012. On that day Krause testified before the Standing Committee on Natural Resources that U.S. foundations were donating money to Canadian environmental charities. Right after Krause’s testimony, Duffy's diary reads: "Lunch - Vivian Krause."
On March 20, two entries state:
"1:30 p.m. - 1:35 p.m. Parking - Vivian Krause"
"Update from Viv Krause at Holiday Inn Cooper St. + Call NB Telegraph Journal on energy issues + Chris Morris on Senate Reform"
On March 22, an article runs in The New Brunswick Telegraph, quoting Krause questioning where U.S. funding to Canadian environmental organizations was going. The article is now offline in the Telegraph, but is referenced in the Financial Post.
The diary also mentions a meeting with "Kory," presumably then-Sun News executive and current Conservative Party staff member, Kory Teneycke.
In the same time frame, Krause received significant funding from the oil, gas and mining industries and has admitted 90 per cent of her income in 2012, 2013 and 2014 was drawn from speaking fees and honorariums funded by energy industry giants.
Krause said the "90 per cent" comment was out of context, because she had "zero" income aside from her speaking arrangements. She said she stopped regularly updating her blog because she had cancer, and with stitches in her mouth, she was not able to work. Krause said she earned money by working part-time as a piano teacher, among other things. She said her two most recent speaking gigs were not paid.
Krause’s work has received traction in the National Post, Financial Post and on social media. Her website, Fairquestions.org, had also become a favourite resource of the now-defunct Sun News Network.
Krause said she has "no coordination with Ezra Levant or Sun News," and said she found his website "distasteful" and "baseless." She said she disagreed with Levant's notion that charities were "puppets" of foreign companies, and said she was inaccurately quoted by Levant in The Winnipeg Press.
Assertions made by Krause have sparked audits of environmental charities by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), a fact she has included in her resume. All complaints filed with the CRA were done by a group called Ethical Oil through their legal team.
At the same time, on Ezra Levant's now defunct program The Source, he echoed Krause's talking points and added allegations of environmental charities receiving money for political special interests.
Meanwhile, Ethical Oil authored the Our Decision campaign to advocate the approval of the Northern Gateway pipeline and energy trade with the Asian market. Ethical Oil was incorporated by Edmonton law firm McLennan Ross, a company which represents a self-reported 63 per cent of the the major players in the oil sands industry. Levant's personal lawyer, Thomas Ross, is a partner at McLennan Ross.
Levant said his activism on environmental charities was not related to Mike Duffy.
Krause's research has been cited as the inspiration for articles from Conservative party caucus members Peter Kent, Vic Toews and Joe Oliver. Oliver echoed the conspiracy accusation when he wrote on his website that British Columbia based environmental activists funded by foreign special interests “threaten to hijack our regulatory system to achieve their radical ideological agenda."
Asked if she had met with Joe Oliver, she said she met him very briefly once after a Board of Trade talk, but that she did not have any discussion with him about his writings and that she had no ties to the federal Conservative Party.
Peter Kent also spoke of claims of alleged money-laundering amongst environmental charities and then-Finance Minister Jim Flaherty used the stories to justify audits of Tides Canada and other associations. Vic Toews included environmental action groups on a list of groups linked to extremism and a possible source of terror attacks in Canada.
According to prominent Vancouver business leader and Observer contributor Sandy Garossino, Krause’s accusations leave out the fact that "the majority of the $425 million that U.S. foundations donated to Canada in the last 15 years went toward habitat conservation in the Great Bear Rainforest and Boreal Forest Initiatives projects,” which was then a partnership with the Harper government. References to this have now removed from both Krause and the Conservative Party’s websites.
Krause criticized the Vancouver Observer for not calling her prior to publishing this story (one of the phone numbers listed online was not in service), and said she disagreed with the way she was being linked to the Conservative Party's attack on charities. She said her research was being "misused" by people like Ezra Levant, and that he could not be trusted with the facts.
She said she paid her own air fare to go to Ottawa, and did not claim any expenses for reimbursement. Krause stressed that she had no ties to any organization or any political party.
Original Article
Source: vancouverobserver.com/
Author: Danny Kresnyak Jenny Uechi
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