Mining’s old guard needs strong medicine
A new report details subpar investor returns in the mining industry over the last decade, particularly big cap diversified companies which have not adapted to new realities.
EthicalOil.org ran commercials about the treatment of women in Saudi Arabia on the Oprah Winfrey Network late August and has now been dragged in front of Canada’s advertising authorities by the Kingdom, handing the controversial website a PR victory just as it was beginning to look as if its message was being drowned out by Hollywood celebs protesting oil sands pipelines.
The Financial Post reports the group was so outraged by the Saudis’ “intimidation tactics” it started running the commercials again this week on the Sun News Network and was planning to run them on CTV, until the network backed out after advising that it would wait until the legal dispute is settled.
Alykhan Velshi, executive director of EthicalOil.org, said in a statement posted on its website: “This is a brazen act of domestic political interference by a foreign dictatorship that neither understands nor respects the rights of women or freedom of speech.”
EthicalOil said on September 6, 2011, Telecaster Services from the Television Bureau of Canada, the advertising review and clearance service funded by Canada’s private broadcasters, notified EthicalOil.org that it had received a cease and desist letter from lawyers for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia demanding that approval for EthicalOil.org’s ad be withdrawn. Telecaster Services had approved the ethical oil spot on August 18, 2011 and the ad subsequently ran and completed its run of schedule on the Oprah Winfrey Network (Canada).
The cease and desist letter was sent by Norton Rose, a global law firm with Canadian offices. Norton Rose attorney Rahool Agarwal has confirmed his representation of Saudi Arabia to EthicalOil.org’s legal counsel. Despite repeated requests Norton Rose has refused to provide ethicaloil.org’s legal counsel with the material sent to the Telecaster on behalf of the Saudi dictatorship.
MINING.com argued in August EthicalOil.org’s crude message may backfire saying its simplistic message focuses attention on some of the glaring gaps in the arguments, the shocking news images splashed on screen seem entirely inappropriate in a discussion about such a vital industry and the callow depiction of itself as fighting for “boy-scout Canadians” against a foreign-backed green lobby rings more than a little false.
Comments
TheEngineer
US State Department? The same one that insisted Iraq had WMDs and the same one that calls theirs WMDs but ours Special-Weapons? That state department? No doubt, less than perfect angels over there, but what really happens? Women with free speech over here have labelled me dispicable for being in the mining industry which according to them is destroying the planet – maybe there is a reason they restrain what is said. Maybe lies, BS, manipulations, and deceipt is frowned upon in that establishment. Do they have a perfect solution? Not likely. Do they have oil we are best served to consume 1st to leave ours for later? Some of us graduated from kindergarten. Yep, lets put blind faith in a State Department that will publish the above when they also spend $billions protecting that Monarchy, while spewing nonsense about some kind of democracy that must be forced down every elses throats, at the same time doing $trillions in business with Communist China. Yeah, lets just believe everything they say.