Toronto's Green Beanery Cafe and Wholesaler is politically complicated

I’m currently looking for replacement parts for my old Bodum burr grinder; this led me to Toronto’s Green Beanery. I had heard previously that the owner of Green Beanery was some kind of Internet mogul, so I went Wikipedia hunting. Coffee is always politically problematic

Not quite an Internet mogul, but very complicated indeed. Turns out, Green Beanery is a non-profit organization, that supposedly supports small coffee farmers. So far, so good. But, all of the profit goes to Energy Probe, an environmental NGO—still good. The founder of Green Beanery is Lawrence Solomon, a co-founder of Energy Probe. This is where things get complicated. Lawrence Solomon is a global warming denier, opposed to the expansion of Canadian nuclear power, in favour of transit privatization (especially the TTC), and calls for a “reform” of foreign aid. Energy Probe board members include Margret Wente, Andrew Coyne, and Clifford Orwin, all staunch pro-market, neo-conservatives (Wikipedia even going as far to call Orwin as a Straussian!). Energy Probe is described as being “ecocapitalist” and was adopted by Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario under Mike Harris.

While we’re at it, Ducks Unlimited saves wetlands so hunters can blast more ducks. Complicated indeed.