VANCOUVER—An 8,000-page pile of documents released by the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association on Monday showed how Canada’s public institutions have been eroded by foreign-owned oil companies, says the author of a book on the industry’s influence in government.

Kevin Taft, a former three-term Alberta MLA and author of Oil’s Deep State, said the public should be concerned about evidence in the “Protest Papers” that related to the BC Civil Liberties Association’s complaint that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) was spying on conservation groups.

“This is one more step in the troubling capture of Canadian democracy by foreign-owned oil companies,” Taft said. “I think Canadians need to be very careful that we are being monitored and tracked and influenced by our own government agencies on behalf of foreign-owned oil companies when we’re really just trying to exercise our democratic rights.”

He said CSIS and the RCMP should be monitoring how companies like Shell, Chevron, Imperial Oil and China National Offshore Oil Corporation are interacting with Canadian politicians and democratic institutions. China National, he noted, is owned by the Chinese government.

In 2014, the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) filed a complaint with the CSIS watchdog, the Security Intelligence Review Committee, alleging it overstepped legal boundaries by spying on conservation and community groups opposed to the now-defunct Northern Gateway Pipeline in northern B.C.

It was filed on behalf of the Dogwood Initiative, ForestEthics, Sierra Club, Leadnow and Idle No More, groups that help organize citizens to write letters, join marches or lobby elected officials to protect the environment.

In response, the Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC) delved into the actions of CSIS and found no wrongdoing, but the BCCLA argued the hearings highlighted the cosy relationship between law enforcement, energy regulators and petroleum companies.

The documents from those closed-door hearings were sealed until the Federal Court ruled the BCCLA could release 19 volumes of testimony.

The heavily redacted documents showed CSIS staffers, whose names were blacked out, explaining how the agency shared “classified information” with petroleum companies at briefings in Ottawa.

The BCCLA contends the documents prove authorities were also sharing the information they collected about environmental groups with oil companies, a charge dismissed by SIRC report author Yves Fortier in his findings.

But one witness for CSIS listed simply as “Robert” said part of the mandate of CSIS is to brief entities “beyond government” if there are threats to critical infrastructure or threats of “mutual interest” are a concern.

The groups named in the complaint insist they do not take part in any illegal activities, and in her testimony during the hearing, Celine Trojand of the Dogwood Initiative said the organization would never consider tactics such as vandalism or violence.

Despite Fortier ruling that there was no wrongdoing, the substance of the report is a problem for Taft. He said years of oil industry outreach seems to have penetrated Canada’s law enforcement agencies in order to advance its interests at the expense of Canada’s.

“Canadians need to understand the oil industry is meeting and lobbying every agency of any interest right across Canada constantly,” he said. “They wine and dine, they give splashy presentations. This is an extraordinary, sophisticated political campaign that’s gone on for decades.”

Meanwhile anti-oil groups are directly in the Alberta government’s crosshairs after Premier Jason Kenney announced a plan in June for a $30-million “war room” to counter what he said is misinformation being spread by opponents of oil and gas development, and in July said the provincial government will spend an additional $2.5 million on a public inquiry into what he called a foreign-funded defamation campaign against the oil and gas industry by environment groups.

The BCCLA’s document release comes in the wake of the federal government’s approval of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion and its purchase from Texas-based Kinder Morgan for $4.5 billion last May. Anti-pipeline protesters have vowed to stop the expansion and have expressed concern the government could be conducting surveillance on them.

Last month Kevin Walby, an associate professor in the department of criminal justice at the University of Winnipeg, warned that information-sharing between police and oil companies could result in a breach of democratic rights for those seen as potential “eco-terrorists” by pipeline proponents.

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For example, Walby told Star Calgary, photos of a protester might be snapped by private security agents and given to police, raising the person’s profile with officers. They could be used to identify and pull the same person out of a crowd at a demonstration even if they haven’t broken the law.

Marc Eliesen, who was the former head of three provincial power companies in B.C., Manitoba and Ontario as well as a deputy minister of energy in Ontario and Manitoba, said the documents underline a familiar theme of government prioritizing the private interests of petroleum companies over the public’s interest.

“This is yet but another example in which the institutions that we’ve relied upon in the past to protect the public interest are being constantly eroded because of a takeover by corporate interests.”

Eliesen said most people he knows in the anti-oil movement are retired professionals concerned about climate change, calling it “utterly appalling” to see the CSIS, the National Energy Board, RCMP and oil companies “colluding” against them.

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Natural Resources Canada would not comment on the papers because the BCCLA is still challenging SIRC’s ruling no laws were broken by CSIS and the RCMP in their surveillance of the environmental groups.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, which represents large and small oil companies in Canada, wouldn’t comment on allegations the industry has captured public institutions because the BCCLA papers don’t name them specifically.

Association spokesperson Tonya Zelinsky said the association has registered as a third party, meaning it doesn’t have a political affiliation, for this fall’s federal election and will be conducting “regulated activities.” According to Elections Canada this could include making calls to voters to pursue its agenda.

Taft, meanwhile, urged protesters to not be deterred by what was revealed in the documents.

“The people of Canada need to keep using the court system, they need to be involved politically, they need to continue doing the things they’re being tracked for,” he said. “Democracy only functions if people make it function.”

With a file from Brennan Doherty

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