NDP MP’s Bill on Fossil Fuel Promotion Ban Includes Imprisonment for ‘Misleading’ Advertisement

NDP Ethics critic Charlie Angus speaks during a news conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Dec. 16, 2020. Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

A New Democrat MP has introduced a private member’s bill that would ban “misleading or deceptive” advertisements for fossil fuels to help stop climate change, similar to how tobacco advertisements were banned in Canada. It also asks for fines and imprisonment for “misleading” advertisement.

“The oil and gas lobby continues to pump enormous sums into advertising campaigns to falsely claim the benefits of allowing even more burning of fossil fuels,” NDP MP Charlie Angus said during a press conference in Parliament on Feb. 6.

“That’s like [cigarette brand] Benson & Hedges telling you that they can help end lung cancer. This is because big oil has always relied on the big tobacco playbook of delay and disinformation.”

The NDP MP accused the fossil fuel industry of having spent billions of dollars over the course of 60 years to suppress the evidence of climate change, and then recently “shifting their propaganda with false claims of producing cleaner products, claiming they can be part of the climate solution.”

Mr. Angus’ Bill C-372, An Act respecting fossil fuel advertising, would prohibit anyone in Canada from promoting fossil fuels or the production of fossil fuels in ways that are “false, misleading or deceptive,” or that would create an “erroneous impression” about fossil fuels’ health or environmental impacts.

The ban would apply to suggestions that certain fossil fuels are less harmful than others; assertions that fossil fuels or their production would lead to positive outcomes relating to Canada’s economy, the environment, Canadians’ health, or reconciliation with indigenous peoples; and to terms, expressions, logos and symbols covered under the regulations.

“This legislation will make it illegal for Canada’s oil and gas giants to falsely identify themselves with the health and positive lifestyles of Canadians or with reconciliation of indigenous people, on whose lands the toxic contamination is highest,” Mr. Angus said.

Under the legislation, anyone who promoted fossil fuels in such a manner could face fines and imprisonment.

Similarities to Bill Banning Tobacco Ads

According to Mr. Angus, the bill took inspiration from the 1997 federal legislation that banned tobacco advertising due to threats to human health. Bill C-67, The Tobacco Act, which replaced the Tobacco Sales to Young Persons Act and the Tobacco Products Control Act, implemented new standards for tobacco products, regulated its access, and banned all advertising for tobacco products.

“To tackle this immense threat to human health, we need to use many of the strategies that finally took down big tobacco,” Mr. Angus said.

Health Canada has estimated that air pollution, including that which comes from human sources in North America, contributes to 15,300 premature deaths per year in Canada. The Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE), who support Mr. Angus’s bill, has cited research claiming that air pollution in Canada prematurely takes the lives of 34,000 Canadians each year.

Back in June 2022, CAPE wrote a letter to several federal ministers imploring them to limit the advertising of fossil fuels in Canada to address the public health crisis of poor air quality. They pointed out that France passed a climate bill banning the advertisements of all fossil fuels in 2022, and the city of Amsterdam in the Netherlands has done the same with fossil fuel, car, and aviation advertisements.

When asked if any other MPs had expressed support for the bill, Mr. Angus said CAPE was beginning to meet with politicians from all parties to discuss it. “I think it’s going to be really hard for MPs to say, after what they saw last summer, after we almost lost Kelowna, after we almost lost so many other communities, for an MP not to recognize the need to take action,” he said.