Federal Court of Appeal rules against Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. Ugh, I’m sorry to be so cynical but this “victory” feels like when the Canucks go up by 3 goals in the second period. You just know they’re gonna find a way to blow it somehow.

Now that we officially own this pipeline, it’s just a massive public works project that doesn’t need approval and will get built anyway. The real winner is Kinder Morgan, whose shareholders approved the sale just hours after this court ruling. Multi-million dollar bonuses and hearty pats on the back all around.

They know we just bought a $550 million dollar pipeline for $4.5 billion based on the possibility of expansion, which just sort of became null and void:

But here’s the kicker: The purchase agreement with Kinder Morgan includes a “failure to close” clause allowing the government to pull out of the deal, subject to a penalty of up to $10 million. Kinder Morgan could still sue the government, but given the material change to the assets the company is trying to sell, the government might have a strong defence.

That’s assuming this government had a backbone. Instead they doubled down on the myth of jobs and the economy. And as Dock Currie reminds us, Notley announcing “she is pulling Alberta out of the national climate plan because it was ‘always conditional on the approval of Trans Mountain.’ Thus confirming that the approval on the Federal level was never a good-faith process, but rather the result of a shady backroom giveaway to Notley from Trudeau in 2015. The hits just keep on coming”: After Federal Court quashes Trans Mountain, Rachel Notley pulls out of national climate plan.

One more: Notley and Trudeau: no one to blame but themselves.

Amazing, a split right just in time for the 2019 election: Political right faces rift after Bernier quits Conservative Party. “I am now convinced that what we will get if Andrew Scheer becomes prime minister is just a more moderate version of the disastrous Trudeau government.” Yeah, that’s the thing about neoliberalism. It’s almost impossible to tell one party beholden to corporate interests apart from another. For example, witness the current hagiography of war criminal George W. Bush at work.

Related event: The Rise of Populism: How We Can Stem the Tide.

ACAB of the day: Former VPD detective given 20 months in prison for sexual assault.

Happy Labour Day: Worker killed at WCB building hit by garage door. “A horribly ironic expression of the precarious workforce in the age of austerity. A worker is killed at the Workers’ Compensation Building in Edmonton. At the very location that is supposedly devoted to the well being of injured workers, the building maintenance has been contracted out and a vulnerable worker loses his life.” – John Clarke