Ezra Levant’s “Ethical oil” is a bad joke.

I understand that a lot of people have problems buying so-called “conflict oil” from some Arab countries where they do crazy stuff like kill people for being gay or stone women to death for adultery.

The implication is that these countries’ governments take money for oil and use it for terrible things, so buying that terrorist oil is bad.

But Ezra Levant’s whole “ethical oil” campaign rubs me the wrong way. The concept is intuitive enough — Arab oil helps terrorists, and Canadian oil helps peace-keeping.

There is no way one can uphold the distinction with any seriousness when you actually stop to consider it. Why? It’s blatantly hypocritical!

Here in Canada, we sell a export a lot of oil. And what do we do with that money? Well, a lot of it goes to the Canadian government through taxation. The Canadian government funds the Canadian Armed Forces with taxation, which contributes to the occupation of Afghanistan through our NATO membership. “Hey, that’s peace-keeping, isn’t it?” you ask.

Well you know what? The government we are defending in Afghanistan, the government whose army we are helping to train and equip with weapons, thinks favorably of raping little boys and raping wives.

And don’t forget our wonderful contribution to NATO’s insane war on Libya, where civilians are routinely killed in bombings for absolutely no good reason at all.

Is this an “ethical” use for wealth produced by selling Canadian oil? Dear god, I hope not.

If Arab oil is “conflict oil,” then Canadian oil is “conflict oil” also. In both cases, oil is sold, money enters government coffers, and the government does terrible things with that money. There is only a difference is degree, but not in kind.