A woman protests outside Talisman Energy's annual general meeting

8/9/2019 A woman protests outside Talisman Energy's annual general meeting

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A oma protests outsde alsma Eergy’s aual geeral meetg Calgary o May 1, 2001. alsma le Suda 2003, but the compay stll aces a cvl lasut fled the US by the Presbytera Church o Suda ad a group o Sudaese dvduals.



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W WhEN OAwA CiizEn reporter Kelly Patterson eardabout new evidence being presented in te lawsuit againstalisman Energy in te US District Court o New York, seset to work. Se got on te pone. Se researced. For severaldays, se investigated te latest capter in a long story aboutalisman’s controversial involvement in Sudan.

Te Cte publised er story on October 22, 2005,almost tree years to te day aer alisman CEO Jim Buckeeannounced is company would be ending its stay in te war-torn country, aving been attacked rom all sides or its pres-ence tere. From 1998 to 2003, te company was a 25 per centstakeolder in te Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC), a consortium tat included Cina’s and Malaysia’snational oil companies. alisman sold its oldings to a subsid-iary o India’s national oil company in 2003.

Patterson’s story ocused on a slew o previously condentialdocuments tat ad recently been made public. Te lawsuitad been led in te New York court on November 8, 2001, by te Presbyterian Curc o Sudan and a group o Sudanese cit-izens and reugees. Te suit names alisman and te Sudanesegovernment as co-deendants, alleging tey collaborated “in abrutal etnic cleansing campaign against a civilian population”

to enance teir “ability to explore and extract oil rom areaso soutern Sudan.”

It continues: “Te armed campaign, wic… as resulted inmassive civilian displacement, te burning o villages, curces

and crops, and te extrajudicial killing and enslavement o inno-cent civilians, is possible only troug Deendants’ collaborationand te Government’s use o equipment and inrastructure, sucas veicles, elicopters, aircra, roads and airelds, owned, car-tered, constructed and/or maintained by alisman.”

alisman denies te allegations, calling tem “baseless” and“demonstrably alse.” In court papers, alisman as argued: “Itis not sucient to sow tat alisman Energy sometimes pro- vided services to te Government o Sudan, and tat it knew orsould ave known in some general way tat te Governmento Sudan was abusive o uman rigts…. As a matter o act,alisman Energy never rendered any assistance to te Govern-ment o Sudan. GNPOC, not alisman Energy, ad acilitiesin Sudan.”

hE SUDANESE CIVIL WAR—ougt between te ArabMuslim nort and te mostly Cristian and animist sout—as raged on and o since te mid-1950s. Tere was a iatus inte war rom 1972 until 1983, but peace agreements collapsedand gting broke out again and continued until anoterpeace agreement was signed in 2005. Between 1983 and 2005,an estimated two million people were killed and over our mil-lion displaced.

Te war was oen portrayed as noting more tan a reli-

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big oil on trial:

the story nobody’s

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By jeremy klaszus




gious and cultural confict between Muslims and Cristians,but uman rigts groups say it was more about resources tanreligion. Soutern Sudan is “one o te most underdevelopedregions in te entire world,” according to a 2003 human RigtsWatc report, even toug it sits on vast amounts o oil.

It was into tis mess tat alisman walked. Groups suc asAmnesty International and human Rigts Watc ound tat oilrevenues—including tose tat came rom alisman—directly uelled te war. Wen te GNPOC pipeline started operatingin 1999, oil money poured into Sudanese government coers.Oil accounted or just over 7 per cent o total governmentrevenue in 1999. In 2000, te rst ull year o production orGNPOC, tat number was up to 43 per cent. And as te rev-enues increased, so did military spending.

human rigts groups also ound tat civilians were beingkilled and driven rom teir omes near oil concessions.Canada’s own 1999 act-nding mission to Sudan ound tesame tings. “…[]wo tings are certain,” says te govern-ment-commissioned harker Report, released in 2000 by a

delegation led by special envoy Jon harker. “First, te gun-sips and Antonovs [Russian cargo planes used as bombers by te military] wic ave attacked villages sout o te riversfew to teir targets rom te heglig airstrip in te alismanconcession. Second, it is a prominent perception o souternSudanese tat alisman, ‘te Canadian oil rm,’ is in active col-

laboration wit te GOS [Government o Sudan], economi-cally, politically and militarily.”

Te 300-plus pages Patterson obtained or te Ottaa Cte ad been submitted by te plaintis as part o a ailed motion toelevate teir suit to a class action. Te documents include inter-nal company memos and e-mails. Among tem is a responseto te harker Report written in 2000 by Mark Reading, alis-man’s security adviser at te time, wo described te Sudanesemilitary’s use o te heglig aireld, wic GNPOC ad paid toimprove. “Tis bombing most certainly appened… te air-strip was denitely used during tis period to conduct waragainst te Sout, o tat tere can be no doubt,” e wrote.

Te company’s response points out tat te Sudanese gov-ernment, not alisman, owned te heglig aireld. Furter-more, it asserts, “tere is no indication in any o te documentsor testimony tat during te brie period tat Antonov bomb-ers used te government airstrip at heglig, te Antonovs werebeing deployed against cvla populatos.” alisman arguestat te planes were used against rebel groups, wic is “con-duct not violative o international law.”

In some o te e-mails made public, company employees vividly describe wat was appening on te ground in Sudan.“I watced one o teir [military] gunsips reuel at our com-

pany uel tanks today,” says an e-mail dated November 2, 1999rom alisman employee Larry O’Sullivan. “I ave watc [sic]soldiers going to te battle be transported in our companytrucks… Nobody can tell me tat tis oil is not buying moremilitary power.”

o any reporter wort te notebook tey write in, tese doc-uments ad news value. Te Alberta press, owever, ignoredtem completely, even toug Patterson’s story was read-ily available to te Edmoto Joural and Calgary Herald orrepublication, since te Cte, te Herald and te Joural areall part o te CanWest Global cain.

“I tink tere were some problems wit [te story],” saysCarles Frank, te Herald’s business editor. “Tere were somelegal issues wit it. I tink te decision ere was tat we weren’totally comortable wit tat story, so we didn’t run it.”

Te Cte, owever, was comortable enoug to publis it,even aer alisman pressured tem to ll te space wit some-ting else. “alisman as a lobbyist wo repeatedly poned teCte,” says Patterson. “he poned bot te business edi-

tor and te editor-in-cie, trying to convince tem tat wesouldn’t run te story.”

As or legal issues, Patterson and te Cte ad teir lawyerexamine te piece beore it it newsstands and te CanWestwire. “We went above and beyond to ensure te company’spoint o view was well represented,” se says. “Our lawyerscombed over te copy very careully.”

alisman responded swily. David Mann, te company’ssenior manager o corporate and investor communicationswrote a rebuttal, wic te Cte publised. Mann castisedte newspaper or printing “a very select number o excerptswitout proper context.” he denounced te allegations as “out-

rageous and implausible” and explained tat alisman wasbeing sued under an arcane law put to “imaginative” use.

thE SUI IS BEING hEARD under te US Alien ortClaims Act (ACA), a once-obscure law created in 1789 aspart o te Judiciary Act to extend court jurisdiction to non-US citizens wo violated international law. It’s not clear wyexactly te law was written, but legal scolars suspect teACA applied mostly to pirates in te late 18t century. In1980, an American judge blew a couple centuries wort o dusto te law wen te relatives o a Paraguay man wo was kid-napped and tortured by a police ocer successully sued teoender. Since te late 1990s, te law as been used against USand non-US companies.

Te plaintis’ lawyers in te alisman case ave alreadynegotiated settlements in prominent cases under te ACA.Bot Stepen Winston and Carey D’Avino were counsel insuits led by holocaust victims against Swiss and German

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banks and oter companies or laundering money on beal

o te Nazis and or supporting Nazi slave labour. Settlementswere reaced and te victims were compensated.

“Fortunately or us, uman rigts law as progressed to apoint… were even governments aren’t allowed to do anytingtey want to teir own civilians,” says D’Avino. “And since asovereign is not allowed to commit certain crimes like geno-cide, war crimes and crimes against umanity, certainly noprivate entity is entitled to be absolved rom participation oraiding and abetting in tose crimes.”

D’Avino says tat i te alisman suit goes to trial, “tis casewill set landmark precedents wit respect to corporate responsi-bility or genocide, war crimes and crimes against umanity.”

alisman as tried several ways to get te suit trown out.Te company as twice argued in court tat corporations,unlike states, are incapable o violating international law. Dis-trict Judge Allen Scwartz dismissed tat argument as illogicaland “anacronistic” in Marc o 2003.

Anoter argument te company as repeatedly put or-ward is tat it souldn’t be tried in US courts, but in Sudanor Canada. “We are a Canadian company, we were operatingin Sudan, and te plaintis ave decided to pursue tis in aUS court,” says Mann. “But it’s a big, complicated world tatwe live in. Our view is tat courts in Canada are competent toaddress or ear any similar claims.”

Wen alisman argued tis in New York, Scwartz noted

tat an Alberta court would most likely apply “te law o teplace were te activity occurred”—in tis case, Sudaneseshara law. “Under Sudanese law, plaintis as non-Muslimswould enjoy greatly reduced rigts,” Scwartz wrote in islandmark opinion dated Marc 19, 2003, tree days beore edied o a eart attack. he concluded tat New York was temost appropriate orum or te suit.

“Te case is particularly signicant because tere’s no equiv-alent to te ACA in Canada,” says Craig Forcese, a law proes-sor at te University o Ottawa. “Te prospect o ever actually litigating a alisman-like case in Canada is teoretically pos-sible, but tere isn’t an easy way o doing it. It would be tougand expensive and would require all sorts o new precedent.”

Furtermore, te plaintis ave pointed out—and te judgesave backed tem up—tat alisman is jurisdictionally pres-ent in te US. alisman owns Fortuna Inc. and Rigel PetroleumInc., two American subsidiary companies. Fortuna is one o New York State’s largest gas producers. In an August 27, 2004,opinion, District Judge Denise Cote, wo took over te caseaer Scwartz died, noted tat Fortuna is a “mere department”o alisman, wit te same board o directors and no employ-ees o its own. alisman itsel also trades on te New York Stock Excange and as a sizable amount o American investment.

“I you’re accessing capital in a US market, ten I don’t see

Solders rom the rebel Suda People’s Lberato Army (SPLA) stad guard over captured eapos. alsma’s acltes ad employees ere protected rom the SPLA ad other rebel groups through a securty agreemet th the Sudaese mltary.

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wy it’s not air tat you sould be subject to te jurisdiction o courts witin New York,” says Forcese.

A trial in te alisman case is tentatively set or January 2007. Until ten, Judge Cote as ordered bot parties not to try te case in te media—an order tat Mann says rustrates tecompany. “Tis is te conundrum we ace,” e explains. “Somemedia outlets eel inclined to report on te story even tougit’s beore te courts and te judge as said really, se’d liketo ave a cance to review te inormation beore te mediaassess te merits o te case.”

But alisman as noting to worry about in Alberta, werete story simply doesn’t get covered in te mainstream press,even toug te media are as ree to report on tis as tey areon any oter lawsuit. Investigative reporters at te Cte andoroto Star ave written several stories on te case over te lastyear, but te last time a Calgary Herald journalist reported onit was in 2003—unless you include a 145-word business brie publised in te Herald’s “Drill Bits” section in August 2004.Since ten, tere as been only a sprinkling o wire stories bur-

ied inside te paper’s business section—and even wire copy istreated as suspect at te Herald .

“Obviously we ave to rely on news services or te cover-age, and tey may or may not be interested and tey may avespecic agendas in te coverage,” says Frank. “I tink tat incertain places, tere are organizations and individuals wo are

interested in making big oil companies look bad. So tat cancolour ow you report tings.” Frank describes te plaintis—te Presbyterian Curc o Sudan and a group of Sudanese citi-zens and refugees—as a “small special interest group.”

In a 2002 column, Frank complained about te “gaggle o international do-gooders” opposing alisman. he condemnedteir “tired, infammatory retoric wic, unortunately, as away o garnering te attention o some o te less discerningmembers o te local and national media.”

Later tat year, wen alisman announced it was selling itsSudan oldings, Frank lamented te company’s departure inte Herald , praising te corporation as “one o te world’s mostsocially responsible oil companies.”

Frank says it’s dicult to cover te case airly. “alisman,because tey’re involved in a court case, can’t really commenton it. So I don’t eel tat tey’ve ad a cance to rebut te[allegations].”

Mann says it’s is job to ensure balance in coverage o tecase. “Our undamental responsibility to sareolders, alis-man employees and te public at large is to make sure tat it’sclearly stated in any coverage o te lawsuit tat rst o all, weaven’t been tried and convicted, and tat we ave consistently and will continue to consistently deny tese allegations.”

iIN MA R C h 2 0 0 2 , Edmonton 630 ChED reporter ByronCristoper got is ands on a copy o te plaintis’ amendedcomplaint. Despite te act tat no one else in Edmonton wasreporting on it, Cristoper knew it was big.

“how can tis not be news?” asks Cristoper, a veteranreporter wo covered te Nicaraguan civil war in te early1980s. “I was socked wen I read te court documents, teallegations, and te act tat it ad not been covered ere. Wata big story.”

Cristoper discovered rst-and one reason wy te casemay ave been kept out o eadlines and o airwaves. he learnedtat te plaintis’ lawyers claimed to ave a May 7, 1999, memorom te Sudanese petroleum security oce tat said mili-

tary orces would conduct “cleaning-up operations” in villagesnear te alisman concessions at te request o “te Canadiancompany.” Government orces attacked te area two days later,wiping out villages and killing civilians. Te harker delegationound tat “roads built by te oil companies enabled [military veicles] to reac teir destinations more easily tan beore.”

Cristoper says tat wen e contacted alisman or com-ment on te government memo, company spokesperson andormer Calgary Herald reporter Barry Nelson asked or tespelling o is name and ChED’s address. A letter rom Nelsonarrived at te station a ew days later stating “te allegationtat alisman ‘ordered etnic cleansing in Sudan’ is entirely

alse and deamatory and alisman will vigorously deend itselrom tis malicious attack.”

Te letter ad te desired eect—sort o. Te station initiallybalked at running te story. (ChED would later broadcast sev-eral reports on te case.) Cristoper, owever, was not so eas-ily dissuaded. Wen ChED esitated, e sent te story to teonline alternative newsmagazine rabble.ca, wic publised iton Marc 19, 2002. It would be our more days beore te newsappeared in te Calgary Herald in te orm o an AssociatedPress wire story. Te Edmoto Joural didn’t touc it at all.

“Te end result is tat it’s a lawsuit ew people know about,”says Cristoper. “Tey know more about a lawsuit involvingtwo movie actors or some damn ting tan tey do tis.”

Cristoper was nervous about taking te story to anoternews source, but decided it was more important tan is or isemployer’s interests. “You’re always araid,” e says. “But youave to be onest wit readers. Tey ave to know wat ap-pened tere…

“I’ve been asked beore wy I went over te station’s ead ontis story, and te answer I always give people is tat a report-er’s rst loyalty is to te audience or te readersip. I’ve beenquestioned about tat at sta meetings. Tey ask, ‘Wat’s yourloyalty to te company?’ And I say, ‘Wat do you mean? I avenone. I’m a reporter. My loyalty is to te audience.’ ”

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WhILE SILENCE NOW SURROUNDS te alisman suit,

Alberta’s media aven’t always been tis quiet about te com-pany’s Sudan venture. Like te Herald , te Calgary Su asrun only a andul o stories on te New York lawsuit, but tepaper did send a columnist to Sudan tree times rom 1997 to1999. Linda Slobodian initially went to report on slavery, butwen alisman moved into te country in 1998, se ollowedtat story. Se came back rom er 1999 trip wit a damningaccount o te company’s presence. In 2000, Slobodian wrotein te Su tat because o alisman, “our glorious maple lea,wic stands or reedom, compassion and justice, is stained.”

her sarply written, vivid reports o te carnage wreaked by military bombing in te sout seem uncaracteristic o a pub-lication known more or its scantily clad Sunsine Girls tanits investigative reporting. Slobodian ad gone were journal-ists weren’t supposed to go—into a no-fy zone in te NubaMountains in te sout. Te government ad blocked any kindo relie to te region, and Slobodian wanted to get te realstory o ow te Nuba people were being aected.

Slobodian ound tat te Antonov bombings ad causedimmense suering. “In tis one case, we ad just got tereand [te military] ad just trown a bomb onto kids wo goto scool outside under trees,” says Slobodian, wo is nowa senior reporter at te Herald . “Tere were a bunc o kidskilled. I interviewed two little ones—one little 8-year-old girl,

and a 12-year-old boy. Eac o tem ad ad an arm blown o.

Tis is wat people in Sudan were living wit every day.”In a 2000 internal alisman report made public in te New

York court last year, ormer company security adviser Mark Reading described wat an Antonov attack is like. “Tesebombing runs are extremely terriying to te people on teground because tey can ear wat is trying to kill tem butcannot see it,” Reading wrote.

“A lot o locals reer to tis as ‘wispering deat.’ Tis cer-tainly is not precision bombing, and as we know, it leads tomany accidents. Scools, ospitals and a wole manner o tar-gets ave been requently it.”

Describing te situation in Sudan was no small callenge orreporters and uman rigts observers. Te Canadian harkerdelegation eard credible reports tat wen alisman brougta group o nancial analysts and journalists to te heglig air-eld in November o 1999, military use o te airstrip wastemporarily stopped. Te harker delegation itsel received tesame special treatment wen it visited a mont later.

“We learned tat, I tink it was just te day beore, tey admoved te Antonovs and te gunsips o tat airstrip,” saysGeorgette Gagnon, a member o te harker delegation andte deputy director or human Rigts Watc’s Arica division.“Tey moved tem somewere else so tat wen we got tere,you didn’t see anyting.”

Durg alsma’s teure Suda, CEO Jm Buckee aced may questos about the compay’s actvtes. He cosstetlydeed ay rogdog. alsma says the allegatos made agast the compay the ne York court are baseless.

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Documents made public in te New York court sow alis-man even considered building a separate aireld or te Suda-nese military, as company employees and management wereclearly uncomortable wit wat tey saw at heglig.

A statement by Ian aylor, alisman’s ormer ead o com-munity relations in Sudan, says te new aireld was to be “outo te sigt o journalists and oter unsympatetic visitorsto te oil concession area, tus allowing te Sudan military to continue to expand aerial attacks against civilians witoutte knowledge o te general public or international media.”Beore e died o a eart attack in 2004, aylor wrote to isbroter: “I am aunted by nigtmares o wat I ave witnessedin Sudan…. I ear constantly bot or te Sudanese people I’velived and worked wit as well as or my own soul.” In te end,te company decided not to build te new aireld.

Wen journalists nally got access beyond te company-guided tour, alisman’s version o events on te ground wasound severely wanting. In December o 1999, Buckee wasquoted in te Herald as saying tat te company adn’t seen

any evidence o orced displacement: “We ave diligently investigated tese allegations and ound tem to ave no basisin act.” But in a story publised in te Te Globe ad Mal latertat mont, reporter Stepanie Nolen described cild slavery were alisman said tere was none, displaced people werealisman said no one ad been displaced, and an absence o

scools or wells were alisman claimed to ave sponsoredcommunity development.

Te harker delegation would later discover tat te inves-tigation cited by Buckee ad produced no ormal report. Fur-termore, te person alisman assigned to investigate tedisplacement ad never even been to Pariang, a region weremuc o it ad occurred. “I interviewed tat investigator,” saysGagnon. “he never went tere, e never talked to victims orwitnesses or anyting. So you can imagine wat te investiga-tion was like.”

WhILE JOURNALISS WERE BLINKERED in Sudan, teCanadian government’s role in te alisman story went largely untold in Alberta. It remains untold. Lloyd Axworty, tente minister o oreign aairs, sent te harker delegation toSudan in 1999 to discover wat was actually appening on teground. But as human Rigts Watc as pointed out, by allow-ing alisman to stay in Sudan, Canada ailed to ollow up onte damning ndings o its own report.

More recently, te Canadian government as tried to get tealisman suit trown out o te New York court. alisman’s2005 Corporate Responsibility Report says te US Departmento Justice led a statement o interest in te New York court

“expressing te US government’s view tat te lawsuit inter-eres wit US/Canada relations.”

Wat te report doesn’t say is tat Wasington led te state-ment at Ottawa’s—and ultimately alisman’s—request. In Julyo 2005, oroto Star scribe Rick Westead reported tat alis-man sent a letter to ten prime minister Paul Martin’s seniororeign policy adviser asking te government to intervene onte company’s beal. Westead obtained te letter trougAccess to Inormation.

Te Canadian embassy dutiully complied wit alisman’srequest by sending two diplomatic notes to te US Departmento State in 2004 and 2005. Te second note, dated January 142005, protested te policy ramications o US courts exercis-ing jurisdiction over a Canadian company. Te note says tealisman suit “creates a ‘cilling eect’ on Canadian rmsengaging in Sudan.”

Upon receiving te second note, Wasington led its state-ment o interest inorming te court tat te case rustratesCanadian oreign policy. “Canada’s judiciary is equipped to

consider claims suc as tose raised ere,” it read. But teplaintis pointed out tat Canada’s legal system isn’t at all su-ciently equipped, and tat te Canadian government adconsistently “stood mute” on alisman’s involvement in SudanDistrict Judge Cote empatically rejected alisman’s, Ottawa’sand Wasington’s arguments, pointing out tat te court adalready decided “Canadian courts are not able to entertain civilsuits or violations” o international law.

Proessor Forcese calls te Canadian government’s position“utterly unpersuasive.”

“Te Canadian government is deeply ypocritical on severallevels,” e says. “Tey’re ypocritical on te specics o te al-

isman case were, by its own admission in terms o te harkerreport rom 2000, te Canadian government said tis was abad ting tat was going on, did noting, and now tere’s someeort to old alisman to account and tey’re actively resistingit. It’s quite disturbing.”

Like most elements o tis story, te diplomatic notes werementioned only in passing in te Alberta press. Te newspapersran wire stories tat cited te work o a reporter in oronto.

As te alisman case draws closer to its tentative trial dateo January 2007, it remains to be seen weter te Albertamedia’s silence will be broken. At te Herald , Frank says send-ing a reporter to New York to cover te trial wouldn’t be outo te question. “We like to view ourselves as reporting on teindustry in its entirety, so certainly it would be on te table,”e says. “I tink it’s an interesting story, and I tink people arealways looking or te story beind te story.”

But i te story beind te story is going to be told in Alberta,news organizations will ave to stop sweeping it under te rugand start actually reporting on it. “It’s a matter o public inter-est,” says Forcese. “And as a matter o public interest, it deservescomment in te media. It’s exactly te sort o issue tat needsto be discussed.”#

Jeremy Klasus s the cotrbutg edtor at Alberta Views.

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A woman protests outside Talisman Energy's annual general meeting

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Transcript of A woman protests outside Talisman Energy's annual general meeting