Through a so-called "public safety escrow account", Canada's biggest energy company, Enbridge, has payed somewhere in the neighbourhood of $2.4 million to law enforcement agencies in Minnesota, ostensibly to reimburse police for any help provided in 'protecting' the construction of the new Line 3 oil pipeline through the state.

While Enbridge claims that there is nothing untoward about the arrangement, others have been sounding the alarm that this sort of arrangement between public and private entities is unethical, and may serve to incentivize the use of violence against demonstrators.

And so it begs the question: what exactly is Enbridge paying for?

GUEST: Hilary Beaumont, investigative journalist

Read Hilary's coverage HERE

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