{"id":2225,"date":"2014-11-30T08:16:50","date_gmt":"2014-11-30T13:16:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=2225"},"modified":"2014-11-30T08:16:50","modified_gmt":"2014-11-30T13:16:50","slug":"closing-the-gate-after-the-horse-left-the-barn-transcanada-fires-edelman-environmental-defence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=2225","title":{"rendered":"Closing the gate after the horse left the barn: TransCanada fires Edelman | &#8211; Environmental Defence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/environmentaldefence.ca\/blog\/closing-gate-after-horse-left-barn-transcanada-fires-edelman\">Closing the gate after the horse left the barn: TransCanada fires Edelman | &#8211; Environmental Defence<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0px 0px 10px 0px;\">Yesterday, TransCanada fired its PR firm &#8211; Edelman, two weeks after Edelman\u2019s\u00a0strategy document for TransCanada\u2019s Energy East pipeline \u00a0was leaked to the public.\u00a0That document revealed TransCanada\u2019s plan to play dirty to quash opposition to its risky pipeline plan.<\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0px 0px 10px 0px;\">The backlash against the strategy has been huge in recent weeks, with\u00a0<a class=\"ext\" style=\"color: #111111; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2014\/nov\/18\/revealed-keystone-companys-pr-blitz-to-safeguard-its-backup-plan\" target=\"_blank\">widespread<\/a><a class=\"ext\" style=\"color: #111111; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.thestar.com\/news\/world\/2014\/11\/18\/transcanada_pressuring_opponents_of_energy_east_pipeline_documents_show.html\" target=\"_blank\">media<\/a>\u00a0<a class=\"ext\" style=\"color: #111111; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/11\/18\/business\/pr-firm-urges-transcanada-to-target-opponents-of-its-energy-east-pipeline.html\" target=\"_blank\">coverage<\/a>\u00a0on both sides of the border.<\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0px 0px 10px 0px;\">TransCanada\u2019s attempt at damage control comes too late. The company is\u00a0trying to close the gate long after the horse has left the barn.<\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0px 0px 10px 0px;\">The leaked strategy document recommended that TransCanada use seemingly unaffiliated third parties to attack citizens groups and groups like Environmental Defence who are opposed to the risky pipeline. The company has admitted to trying to dig up dirt on citizens groups to try to unearth information it could give to third parties to attack them with. The strategy also suggested creating fake \u2018astroturf\u2019 grassroots groups to give the project the appearance of public support \u2013 a tactic that Edelman used in the U.S. on behalf of cigarette companies to try to discredit the well established links between tobacco and cancer.<\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0px 0px 10px 0px;\">As you can imagine, the leaked document\u00a0hasn\u2019t\u00a0helped TransCanada earn public trust.\u00a0In fact, the public backlash has been overwhelming. You can\u2019t blame Canadians for asking questions like:<\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0px 0px 10px 0px;\">&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Closing the gate after the horse left the barn: TransCanada fires Edelman | &#8211; Environmental Defence. Yesterday, TransCanada fired its PR firm &#8211; Edelman, two weeks after Edelman\u2019s\u00a0strategy document for TransCanada\u2019s Energy East pipeline \u00a0was leaked to the public.\u00a0That document revealed TransCanada\u2019s plan to play dirty to quash opposition to its risky pipeline plan. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[103,1349,1514,1513,655,1350],"class_list":["post-2225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-canada","tag-edelman","tag-energy-east-pipeline","tag-environmental-defence","tag-propaganda","tag-transcanada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2225"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2226,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2225\/revisions\/2226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}