Alberta Land Rights update

Alberta’s Minister of Energy, Mel Knight, says he has no interest in following or responding to Wilson’s campaign. (Ref: Edmonton Journal, “St. Albert land rights lawyer spreading information, controversy” by Keith Gerein published August 13th)

Knight made these comments “because he believes he was treated unfairly when he tried to get involved in debates last year. After appearing at one forum hosted by Joe Anglin — some of his responses appeared in a YouTube video that was edited in a way to make him look foolish. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iju6CU8bug). He calls it “an amateurish political stunt.”

For the record, Knight did not appear at a forum hosted by Joe Anglin. He crashed the meeting, uninvited along with the Minister of Transportation, Luke Ouellette, and both refused to comment on Bill-50. Factually speaking, the video editing did not make either minister look foolish. The video editing only combined multiple video sources. If Knight or Ouellette looked foolish in the video, they did that on their own accord without the aid of any video editing technology! In many of the attendees’ opinion, the best “foolish” looking moments were never caught on film. Had we only known the minister was planning on attending we would have been better prepared.

As for allegations of an amateurish political stunt, nothing is more amateurish than the passage of Bill-50. The preposterous idea that the sitting cabinet ministers know more about electricity transmission than the Industrial Consumers Association is more than amateurish – it’s dangerous! Overall electricity bills are at risk of doubling and tripling and this government is blind to the arithmetic. Industrial consumers are telling the government that this will cause job losses in the province, and ministers such as Mel Knight are deaf to the warnings.

Mr. Wilson raises serious issues that affect every Albertan. Knight should not avoid responding to Wilson’s analysis of Bill-50 because of some unrelated event. Mel Knight’s refusal to respond is not amateurish. It is immature and irresponsible!

Joe Anglin

Rimbey AB
(403) 843-3279