Unpublished Opinions

Franke James

Vancouver, British Columbia

About the author

Franke James, is the artist and author of Banned on the Hill and the winner of the PEN Canada / Ken Filkow Prize and the BCCLA 2014 Liberty Award for Excellence in the Arts. Franke’s experience fighting government censorship is being used to teach grade school students about government censorship. She is contributing a chapter to a new anthology entitled “Access to Information and Social Justice” by Kevin Walby, University of Winnipeg and Jamie Brownlee from Carleton University. Corporate Knights named her as one of the Top 100 Eco-Influencers on Twitter.

Have your say!

What can "Anybody" tell Obama about Keystone XL

January 3, 2014

Get involved in Franke James' letter writing campaign to President Obama about the Keystone XL pipeline by filling out the auto-letter form below her illustrated letter. Once complete, publish it on UnpublishedOttawa.com and share it with your friends, colleagues and community!

1_DearObama_anybody 2_BigDecision 3_CitizensStandUp 4_Scary_DirePredictions 5_ExtremeWeather2012 6_Rabbit_TooLate 7_CarbonPlan 8_CanadaRootsPolluters 9_CO2Toaster_top 9_CO2Toaster_bottom 10_Obama_NSA1 13_ColossalFossil 14_PointFingers 15_RisingCarbonCanada 16_USAtargets 17_TripleKXL David Suzuki said there is a systematic attack on science and democracy taking place in Canada, and the Harper government isn’t even trying to hide it. But scientists cannot and will not be silenced, not when we are facing an irreversible climate catastrophe like the tar sands

Silencing Scientists "There was trouble of this kind here in the George W. Bush years, when scientists were asked to toe the party line on climate policy and endangered species. But nothing came close to what is being done in Canada... This is more than an attack on academic freedom. It is an attempt to guarantee public ignorance. It is also designed to make sure that nothing gets in the way of the northern resource rush — the feverish effort to mine the earth and the ocean with little regard for environmental consequences. The Harper policy seems designed to make sure that the tar sands project proceeds quietly, with no surprises, no bad news, no alarms from government scientists. To all the other kinds of pollution the tar sands will yield, we must now add another: the degradation of vital streams of research and information." New York Times Editorial by Verlyn Klinkenborg

"If the Keystone XL is built, the State Department says it could spill more than 100 times."

"U.S. consumers are not likely to see any reduction in pump prices; after all, the whole reason for building the Keystone XL is to raise the price that producers get paid." 24/7 Wall Street

"Oil-sands developers are counting on Keystone XL to lift heavy crude prices by connecting them to the world's largest refining market in the Gulf Coast as they double production by 2025." Pipeline rejection could set precedent

But if you approve the Keystone XL saying it does not 'exacerbate carbon pollution' then…

Visual Essay Credits

“What could Anybody tell President Obama about the Keystone XL?” © 2013 Franke James; All writing, photography and illustration by Franke James (with exceptions and details here). Photos of the bus shelters in Washington, DC by Logan Mock-Bunting. Special thanks to my Indiegogo 'Banned on the Hill' supporters, the NRDC, Sierra Club and National Wildlife for their support of my Oh No Canada!art show in Washington, DC.

Key Sources

Dirty truth screen: "Canada is the Dirty Old Man" Bus shelter poster by Franke James. Guardian UK Dirty Old Man quote. Photo of shelter and people by Logan Mock-Bunting. Oh No Canada! art show in Washington, DC. Statistic: Producing Tar Sands Oil is up to 350% dirtier than conventional oil. FAIL: How the Keystone XL Tar Sands PipeLine Flunks the Climate Test Page 6: "extracting and upgrading oil from tar sands can be as much as 4.5 times more greenhouse-gas-intensive than oil from other conventional north american crude sources." Stockman, Lorne. “Petroleum coke: The Coal Hiding in the tar sands.” Oil Change International. January 2013. Page 3: "It is a well established fact that full exploitation of the tar sands is a grave threat to the climate. Emissions from tar sands extraction and upgrading are between 3.2 and 4.5 times higher than the equivalent emissions from conventional oil produced in north america." Copyright 2013 Franke James. All rights reserved.

Oh No Canada! show in Washington, D.C.

See the Oh No Canada! show in Washington, D.C. which ran from October to December 2013 thanks to Indiegogo 'Banned on the Hill' supporters, the NRDC, Sierra Club and National Wildlife.

Click individual image to enlarge