The CBC participates in the slander of the oilsands

Last Tuesday, CBC’s The National broadcast a report about an anti-oilsands propaganda campaign in London, England. Reporter Susan Ormiston visited what she called a “bold new photo exhibit” portraying the oilsands in a deliberately unflattering light.

She showed visitors moaning about how awful Canada is, and sound-bites from the photographer and activists who organized the exhibit. That’s a lot of critics — six, including the moaners — so it’s easy to understand why Ormiston had just 19 seconds in her more than three-minute segment to quote someone with a pro-Canada point of view.

One of the critics the CBC interviewed was Colin Baines. Baines works for The Co-operative Bank, whose entire brand is based on being morally superior.

As an ethical firm, Baines told the CBC: “We will not invest our customers’ money in unconventional fossil fuels such as the tarsands. Something like 98% of our customers, an overwhelming majority, don’t want us to touch this stuff.”

Ormiston noted that The Co-op Bank is funding an Aboriginal lawsuit to shut down the oilsands.

So far, so boring — the CBC bashing Alberta isn’t exactly new, and finding snobby Europeans to criticize Canada, whether it’s the seal hunt or oilsands, isn’t hard either.

But there’s one thing about Baines’ claim: It’s not true.

Oh, it’s true that Baines and his bank disparage the oilsands. It’s true they’re funding a lawsuit that, if successful, could throw tens of thousands of Canadians out of work — including a disproportionate number of Aboriginals. But what’s not entirely true is Baines’ claim his company doesn’t invest in the oilsands.

The truth is an arm of Baines’ company, Co-operative Financial Services, owns tens of millions of dollars of oilsands shares. They love it. They can’t get enough of it. They just forgot to mention it at their bold new exhibit.

Take one of Co-op Financial’s investment funds, called U.S. Growth Trust.

Their July 2010 term sheet shows the fund’s second-largest holding is ExxonMobil. Exxon and its affiliate, Imperial Oil, are amongst the biggest oilsands operators, with plans for future growth, too. In that one fund alone, The Co-op owns $5.7 million in Exxon shares.

Well, how about their European Growth Trust? Surely there’s no oilsands there. Wrong. According to their August, 2010 report, the mighty oil company, Total SA, is one of their top five holdings. Total is big into oilsands. Baines’ company has more than $16 million of those shares.

Even their flagship Sustainable Leaders Trust just can’t quit Alberta. Their second-largest holding, $21 million shares in Smiths Group PLC, boasts of its contracts in the oilsands. In a press release last year, Smiths talks about its contracts in the “first of three planned oilsands mining project expansions.”

How many tofu-eating, Prius-driving, Green-voting Brits who put their savings into Co-op Financial’s ethical investments know this? It’s possible to find out — you have to dig up Co-op Financial’s filings and go through the list of companies. Exxon was easy to spot, but unless you read the annual report of something called Smiths, there’s just no way to know the full extent of The Co-op’s oilsands ownership.

I have previously asked The Co-op Bank how they can denounce the oilsands so noisily while Co-Op Financial — two companies under the same umbrella of the Co-operative Group — actually own tens of millions of dollars worth of shares so quietly.

They told me the only ban they have on oilsands is banking services — like doing payroll cheques for Exxon. The nickel and dime stuff. Their enormous investment arm — $29 billion in holdings — is free to invest in oilsands.

But that’s not what Baines told the CBC.

“We will not invest our customers’ money in unconventional fossil fuels such as the tar sands,” Baines said, speaking as the bank spokesman.

His comments seem to be misleading. And the CBC bought it, without even checking.

Whether or not British investors might feel misled is up to them, the U.K.’s Financial Services Authority and their Advertising Standards Authority.

Sounds like a lot of folks have been suckered. But that’s not our problem.

Our problem is the CBC takes $1 billion from taxpayers every year to give us environmentalist propaganda without balance — or even basic fact-checking.