Oil-stained loonies circulating

Got an oil stain on your loonie? No worries, the slick peels off.

Starting last week, loonies featuring an oil-covered duck sticker -- and the website notankers.ca -- started circulating across the country as part of a campaign against oil tankers off B. C.'s northern coast.

"It speaks to the issue of oil and money in Canada," said Charles Campbell, communications director for the Dogwood Initiative. "There is something subversive about doing this to our money, but we're quite happy to go to the edge of what's permissible."

According to Section 456 of the Criminal Code, anyone "who defaces a current coin . . . is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction."
Campbell said since the decal doesn't actually damage the loonie when it's removed, he doesn't believe they're breaking the law.

"There's actually no case law on the books, nobody's ever been prosecuted for defacing currency. And we figured this would be a very bad place for them to start when there's no actual damage to the money," he laughs.

The Dogwood Initiative, a Victoria-based environmental group, launched the campaign by sending 200,000 removable vinyl decals to its supporters.

Though it's only been a week, the campaign is already bringing more people to its notankers.ca website, which was designed to bring attention to a proposed pipeline project by Calgary-based company Enbridge Inc.

The proposed project would involve a pipeline carrying oil recovered from Alberta's oilsands from Edmonton to Kitimat in northern B. C. From there, barrels of oil would be loaded onto tankers for transport to Asian markets.

The Dogwood Initiative is campaigning the federal government to legislate a ban on tanker traffic off B. C.'s northern coast due to the risk of oil spills.

Currently, there is much confusion on whether there is any such legislation, with some politicians saying a 1972 moratorium exists -- and others denying it.
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