Environment and Climate Change Canada illegally withholding documents requested 8.5 years ago

Nearly a decade ago, Rebel News requested information about the carbon footprint created by the massive delegation Canada sent to the United Nations 2015 Paris Climate Conference. Now, eight and a half years later, Environment and Climate Change Canada is still failing to turn over the data.

The Ministry of Carbon Taxes and Climate Doom headed by Steven Guilbeault has confirmed the department has stopped working on an access filing by Rebel News into the carbon footprint of officials and bureaucrats to attend the United Nations Paris Climate Conference in 2015. 

The access to information request was first submitted on January 5, 2016. 

The 2015 Paris climate meeting gave birth to the Paris Accord, which spawned the current Trudeau carbon tax crushing Canadians as a key driver of inflation on everything from food to fuel to electricity and home heating.

The agreement, signed onto by former chief climate scold, Catherine McKenna, put the burden of reducing CO2 emissions on developed countries while giving China a pass to emit C02 unrestricted as a developing nation, although the Communist country is the world's second largest economy.

That year, Canada sent an enormous delegation to Paris to preen to the world that the newly elected Justin Trudeau was not going to be another “climate criminal” like former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper. According to Carbon Brief, Canada deployed 382 activists and politicos to Paris.

That's a lot of carbon emissions expended to send people to across the ocean on a jet to tell me to keep my SUV parked in an effort to save the planet. But just how many carbon emissions exactly? 

Rebel News asked that question over eight and a half years ago; we wanted to know the carbon footprint of the insanely large Canadian delegation that attended the 2015 UN Paris Climate Conference. We can do this thanks to your donations to an access filings fund at RebelInvestigates.com

And in clear violation of information laws, the Environment and Climate Change Canada has not turned the information over, not worked on the file, and now wants to abandon it and give Rebel News a few bucks to go away.

After following up on overdue requests for information into the federal government, Rebel News received this correspondence from the department: 

Thank you for reaching out to us regarding A-2015-01499. Your request is active but unfortunately as mentioned previously the analyst assigned is no longer with the department and this file has become a backlog file.

Due to the age of this request we would like to confirm if you are still interested in proceeding or if you would like to replace it with a new request (free of charge). If you wish to open a new request, please make note of A-2015-01499 so we know to waive the fee.

The ministry took a 60-day extension on February 3, 2016, which meant the response was legally due in April 2016. And then the ministry ignored the filing for close to a decade. 

Eight and a half years and seven climate change conferences since — the eighth just a month away — and the bureaucrats hope we'll just take an ATIP credit and go away.

Not a chance.

Rebel News is refiling until we have the data. Apparently, the only carbon footprint these people care about is yours. But we care about theirs, because they made us care.

Sheila Gunn Reid

Chief Reporter

Sheila Gunn Reid is the Alberta Bureau Chief for Rebel News and host of the weekly The Gunn Show with Sheila Gunn Reid. She's a mother of three, conservative activist, and the author of best-selling books including Stop Notley.

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