Eco-extortionists meet strong resistance from one of their victims

Peter Foster: At last, a Canadian corporate hero

 Two weeks ago, Todd Paglia, executive director of U.S.-based radical environmental organization ForestEthics, sent a letter of warning to Richard Garneau, CEO of Montreal-based Resolute Forest Products.

In his reply Mr. Garneau told Paglia and his ENGO, ForestEthics [quite a name for an extortionist!], to shove off, saying among many other things:

"... The fact is, Mr. Paglia, we both know that ForestEthics has been campaigning against Resolute for years – even while you have pretended to be an abiding member of the CBFA. Your most recent letter, which follows your letter of December 5, 2014, with its inaccurate allegations and threats and intimidation, is not new; it is merely a continuation of the bully tactics you have used with us from the start. ...

... I am struggling to understand precisely what kind of protection you believe the CBFA has granted us under these circumstances. ForestEthics has been in violation of both the spirit and letter of the CBFA for years. Perhaps I should have called you out sooner ..."

Rare courage:

... Rarely if ever has a corporate executive dared to call an ENGO shakedown what it is. Richard Garneau is thus almost unique among executives. In a corporate world dripping with bogus “business ethics,” Garneau, a quiet and modest man who lives the Boreal, has demonstrated some true moral backbone, refusing to bow to what he sees as lies and intimidation.

Media complicity or cowardice or both?

You’d think that the Canadian media – given to celebration of local exceptionality in any way, shape or form – would be keen to report on Garneau. But he is exceptional in an area where the media almost never dares to tread, either because it is part of the radical environmental crusade itself, or because it too is scared.

All posts on Resolute Forest Products' battles with the radical ENGOs.