Updated Jan. 10, 2014

Canada's top spy watchdog is trying to ride out a controversy over lobbying for Enbridge (and at least one other company that's partnered with a Chinese-controlled firm to develop the tar sands in Alberta).

Chuck Strahl, a former Conservative cabinet minister and current chair of the Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC), popped up in the National Post on Wednesday to defend himself against allegations of a conflict of interest.

(Enbridge is waiting for a decision on its proposed Northern Gateway pipeline from the federal cabinet. It's also one of the energy companies that gets bi-annual classfied briefings from CSIS, which SIRC oversees, about security risks in the resources sector. This spy work includes spying on enviro groups for Big Oil.)

It's the same newspaper Strahl talked to in June 2012, when Prime Minister Stephen Harper appointed him to the chairmanship of SIRC.

Back then, Strahl, who was building his consultancy business after leaving electoral politics in May 2011, told the National Post he had developed a "double make-sure" system to avoid conflicts of interest. That included a vow that he "won't lobby" governments.

Fast-forward to today, and Strahl is using different lines in the National Post:

1. Set a favourable benchmark to be judged against.

Certainly I’m not lobbying governments like Arthur Porter was. I’m not representing a foreign government. He got into trouble because he was involved with other governments. He poisoned the well. That’s what I remember.

For those who have forgotten, Strahl replaced Porter, another Harper appointee. Things went sideways with Porter's appointment when the National Post revealed "his strange business dealings" in Sierra Leone, "which included a $200,000 payment he once wired to a notorious Montreal lobbyist and international consultant, a man with ties to arms dealing, African dictators and Russia."

Separate from his troubles with his "diplomatic" work in Sierra Leone, Porter, who was based in Montreal, then faced charges of fraud, breach of trust and money-laundering for allegedly pocketing a portion of $22.5 million from SNC-Lavalin for making sure the company was the successful bidder to build a $1.3-billion hospital in Montreal. (Porter is now sitting in a jail in Panama, where he's beenfighting Canada’s extradition request.)

2. Attack the source of the news (Vancouver Observer)

The newspaper is aggressively 'anti-pipeline,' and its story was influenced by 'an agenda.... This isn't about right and wrong. This is about pipeline politics, right?'

The problem for Strahl is that his dual role as Canada's top spywatcher and pipeline lobbyist has generated plenty of criticism from non-partisan corners. Maclean's political editor Paul Wells told CTV's Power Play that, "he's got to pick," saying you can't protect Canada's national interests while looking out for those of Enbridge. Robert Fife, Ottawa Bureau Chief for CTV News, said Strahl "should either resign from that position" at SIRC or stop working for Enbridge.

3. Use the federal Ethics Commissioner as cover

When Prime Minister Stephen Harper offered him his SIRC post in 2012, Mr. Strahl added, he met with Mary Dawon, Canada's Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner. She reviewed the situation and declared him conflict-free. He could legitimately serve as SIRC chairman while working for companies like Enbridge.

Mary Dawson, who doesn't see herself as a "watchdog" but rather as a councellor or advisor, conceded Parliament should toughen up the Conflict of Interest Act. Others are less charitable about the law and her office. Demoracy Watch, a citizen group that advocates democratic reform and government accountability, says 30 amendments need to be made to the law "to make corruption in federal politics illegal."

4. Plead for sympathy

I'm not independently wealthy.... I have to work.

Setting aside that Strahl himself acknowledges he has a "huge pension" from his time as an MP and cabinet minister, there's plenty of work out there that isn't so closely tied to federal government business. In other words, is it really wise to be on the federal payroll as a public office holder as Canada's top spy watchdog while lobbying for a company seeking approval for a pipeline from the same government?

We'll have to see if Strahl's colleagues on the SIRC board come up with similar explanations.

CBC News is reporting that two other members of the board of Canada's spy watchdog also have ties to Big Oil.

Denis Losier is a member of the board of director of Enbridge N.B., a wholly owned subsidiary of Enbridge Inc., Strahl's client and the company behind the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline. Yves Fortier used to sit on the board of TransCanada Pipelines, the company behind the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.

This is getting interesting.

First, the Vancouver Observer broke the news that former Conservative cabinet minister Chuck Strahl, chair of the Security Information Review Committee (SIRC) since June 2012, is Enbridge's newest pipeline lobbyist in British Columbia.

SIRC is Canada's spy watchdog overseeing the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), so Strahl has access to the country's classified security files.

That's why it may have been old news to him when the paper reported last November that CSIS spies on environment groups for Big Oil.

Now we know Strahl has been calling the federal Ethics Commissioner a lot in the past year.

As a federal cabinet minister up until May 2011, Strahl was required to abide by rules that restricted his activities in Ottawa during a two-year "cooling off" period under the Conflict of Interest Act.

Various requirements of him continue, but there "are no reporting obligations associated with the Act’s post-employment provisions," Jocelyne Brisebois, spokeswoman for the Office of federal Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson, wrote Tuesday to PressProgress.

It gets a bit trickier for Strahl, though. As a former cabinet minister, he's considered a former reporting public office holder. But as chair of the spy watchdog SIRC, he's also considered a current public office holder under the Conflict of Interest Act. There's a catch that works in Strahl's favour, though.

While the Executive Director and employees of the Security Information Review Committee (SIRC) are not subject to the Act, its Chair and members are Governor-in-Council appointees (GICs) and are considered public office holders under the Conflict of Interest Act but are not reporting public office holders, Brisebois wrote (her emphasis).

The rules for reporting public office holders are much stricter, including reporting and public disclosure provisions, as well as prohibitions against outside activities. There are no such requirements for public office holders, a distinction that works for part-timers like Strahl.

Here's the kicker, though:

We can confirm that Mr. Strahl contacted our Office within the past twelve months and can confirm that he has done so on a number of occasions, but will not be more specific with regard to dates or time periods, added Brisebois (our emphasis).

Ok, then.

By Tuesday evening, APTN National News filled in some of the blanks. Turns out Strahl is also registered as a lobbyist in Alberta for the Frog Lake Energy Resources Corp., a First Nations firm that has partnered with a Chinese-company to drill for oil. China comes up a lot in CSIS's world.

No wonder the Opposition and Canada's ethics watchdog aren't satisfied with the federal Ethics Commissioner's position that all is good with the triple (or more) duties taken on by Strahl (who vowed when he took on the spywatcher job that he wouldn't lobby governments as part of his "double make-sure" effort to shield himself and the public from conflicts of interest.)

"It should be common sense that someone on the federal payroll, like Mr. Strahl, shouldn’t lobby for a pipeline seeking federal government approval," NDP MP Nathan Cullen said Tuesday.

Calling the office of the federal Ethics Commissioner and the Commissioner of Lobbying "useless entities," Democracy Watch board member Duff Conacher added that he want a "full examination by Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson into whether [Strahl] used any information gained as a member of the Privy Council.

"There is a definite conflict. The fact that Strahl is on a federal committee and he is interacting with cabinet, all intertwined with a federal government agenda on pipelines, is wrong," Conacher told the Vancouver Courier, referring to the Enbridge contract.

The Ethics Commissioner's office said Tuesday that no investigation into Strahl's private-sector work has been launched.

Yet?

Dear Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq,

Your caucus colleague, Conservative MP Peter Braid, says extreme weather episodes in Canada are linked to man-made climate change.

Appearing on CBC's Power and Politics on Monday, the parliamentary secretary for infrastructure said so to Evan Solomon, who asked Braid whether your government believed climate change was real.

Braid went way further in his response. "We are seeing the effects, the impacts of climate change," Braid told Solomon.

"With climate change comes extreme weather events. We saw that through the floods in southern Alberta, we’re now seeing that with the ice storms in Kitchener-Waterloo and Toronto, with the extreme cold across the country."

In case you missed it, Minister, here's the 40-second clip. We're hoping this will help get rid of your doubts about climate change. 

//www.youtube.com/embed/oleKH63htt4?rel=0

Photo: Handout

Prime Minister Stephen Harper talked up the importance of First Nations consultations at a Vancouver Board of Trade event on Monday, part of his government's pipelines push.

Before watching Harper spin his yarn, consider these five points about Enbridge's proposed Northern Gateway project, now in the hands of Harper's cabinet after Enbridge received conditional approval last month from a National Energy Board Joint Review Panel.

• The Harper government ignored First Nations requests for a decision-making process that would respect their constitutionally-protected Title and Rights. Instead, the "approval with conditions stems from a fundamentally and fatally flawed process," explains the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs.

• Gerald Amos, chairman of the Friends of Wild Salmon Coalition of northwestern British Columbia, said the federal government made changes to regulatory rules during the review process that affected the outcome and put the final call in the hands of the cabinet. The government and processes "belong to the big oil companies, who have bought and paid for the changes that have been made very recently," Amos, a former chief of the Haisla Nation near Kitimat, where the tanker terminal for the project would be built, said last month.

• 71 First Nations are opposed to the project. The "Northern Gateway Project is being vehemently opposed by Indigenous Peoples who will not put their territories, waters and communities at risk. This is about the environmental integrity of the watersheds we all share and we are willing to go to any lengths to defend our watersheds. We are prepared to go to the wall against this project. We have no choice," Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, said after the conditional approval.
• A group of BC First Nations asked the United Nations special rapporteur on the right of indigenous people to investigate Enbridge's exploratory work permits.
• First Nations are preparing to launch a court challenge if the Harper government gives the Enbridge pipeline the go-ahead.

Now, watch Harper spin:

//www.youtube.com/embed/Na7utUeovqw?rel=0