The public relations battle over Canada’s oilsands has reached new heights with the Harper government setting its sights on an unlikely foe: Chiquita bananas.

Several high-profile government MPs, including Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Public Works Minister Rona Ambrose, have urged Canadians not to buy bananas distributed by Chiquita Brands International after the Ohio-based company said it would avoid using fuel for its trucks derived from Alberta’s oilsands.

And now the pro-oilsands group EhticalOil.org is taking the fight to the airwaves with the launch of a new radio ad this week urging consumers to stop buying bananas or premade salads from Chiquita, a company the group calls a “foreign bully.”

“The Chiquita banana company says it’s boycotting oil from Canada’s oilsands. Apparently they like oil from OPEC dictatorships better,” an announcer’s voice says over orchestra music. “While they boycott Canada’s oilsands, you can boycott them. Don’t buy Chiquita bananas or Fresh Express salads at your grocery store.”

The 30-second ad also reminds listeners that the company was fined $25 million in 2007 after it admitted to paying a Colombian militia that had been deemed a terrorist organization by the U.S. government for protection in a farming area rife with civil unrest.

“We want to send a strong message to Chiquita that Canadians are proud of their oil industry,” said EthicalOil.org spokeswoman Kathryn Marshall. “If companies want to start targeting oil producing nations, why don’t they go after Saudi Arabia, Nigeria or Venezuela? ... This is just pure and simple greenwashing. If Chiquita really cared about human rights and the environment, they would go after the real offenders.”

EthicalOil.org was originally a blog highlighting arguments for oil produced from Canada’s tarsands. The blog was started by Alykhan Velshi, former communications director for Kenney who now works in a planning capacity for the Prime Minister’s Office.

Chiquita spokesman Ed Loyd characterized the campaign to boycott his company’s products as “misinformation.” He told the Star on Monday that his company is by no means boycotting Canadian oil, but merely asking transportation carriers to use fuel from sources that have a lower carbon footprint than the oil sands.

“That does not exclude Canadian fuel. There is a significant amount of Canadian fuel that does not have any oilsands in it,” he said.

Todd Paglia, executive director of ForestEthics, the environmental group with which Chiquita is partnering in its efforts to avoid oilsands fuel, says Canada is not a world leader for sustainable or “ethical” oil, but has opportunities to become one.

“Canada is a democratic country with a stable government and an informed citizenry and if we can’t change what is happening in the tarsands, then there is little hope that other places can curb the worst abuses in the oil industry,” he said. “At some point, either the whole world is wrong or it’s time for Canada to start changing what is happening in the tarsands.”

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers has written a letter to Chiquita and ForestEthics asking them to reveal the information on which the fuel boycott is based.

“We’re one of the most transparent industries in the world, and I think the very fact that we are so transparent makes us a target,” said Travis Davies, an association spokesperson. “We are asking Chiquita to explain how they got to the decision and reveal what they were basing it on to see if indeed they had the best information available.”

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Read more about: