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Premier Jason Kenney’s opponents just proved his point.

The day after the public inquiry into anti-oilsands funding went public, Amnesty International sent a personal letter to Kenney blasting the probe as an attack on “human rights defenders — particularly Indigenous, women, and environmental human rights defenders — exposing them to intimidation and threats, including threats of violence.”

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Something like this was bound to happen; I’d even warned in a column that a formal inquiry with full court powers would invite allegations of abuse.

But this attack? It’s absurd. And it proves Kenney’s point that there is no restraint in the opposition to the oil and gas industry.

That being obvious, the UCP theory goes, there’s nothing to be gained by caving or cowering before these people. The only option is to fight back. That’s why he established the inquiry in the first place.

Much as many Albertans prefer compromise and conciliation, it gets harder to disagree with Kenney’s tough strategy in the face of such wild, nonsensical charges.