NOTHING NEW HERE! Our leaders’ affiliations lead to some very serious questions about conflicts of interest

BY SIMONE J. SMITH

“Democracy means far more than the right to vote every five years. It means the right to participate in every aspect of national and community life. The people must believe that they can take part.”
Transformative Leader Michael Manley
Broadcast statement to Jamaican population on retirement from office
March 15, 1992

The 44th Canadian federal election (formally the 44th Canadian general election) is scheduled to take place on or before October 21^st, 2023, and once again Canadians; we are being put in a position to elect officials who are supposed to work for us. That’s a right, members of provincial and territorial governments are elected to single-represent constituencies (or “ridings”), which have different boundaries to those of federal Members of Parliament.

It is why we have been seeing bold moves by independent officials, starting new parties, and devising ways to get your vote. For this reason, I want to present you with some information that will take you away from the noise, and allow you to focus on certain actions that have been happening behind the scenes.

It seems that politics has turned into theatrics, especially in the last few years. I know that I am not the only one who is questioning if our current government structure is actually working for us.

Kyle Kemper (the half brother of Prime Minister Trudeau) actually presents this idea in his recently published, “CanaDAO: How We Return Power to the People.” Applying his knowledge of the DAO model, Kyle explains how literally everyone can benefit from utilizing a DAO system to engage as citizens and promote true democracy. According to Kyle, the DAO model can be used to revolutionize society, communities, projects, associations, parties or groups that have a shared purpose they want to create.

News recently broke about a “supply-and-confidence” agreement struck between the governing Liberals and the opposition (not really opposition) New Democrats that will affect the kind of legislation Canadians can expect to see pass through Parliament between now and 2025.

The leadership of the Liberals and the NDP have reached an agreement that would see the NDP support the Liberal government to keep it in power until 2025 in exchange for a commitment to act on key NDP priorities. The NDP have promised to back the Liberals in confidence votes, including the next four budgets. In return, the Liberals will follow through on some elements of national pharma care and dental care programs — programs that have long been promoted by the NDP.

According to the deal, the key policy areas are: climate change, health care spending, and reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, economic growth and efforts to make life more affordable.

To do this, the parties will need to establish a working relationship (something that we are going to examine) that governs how they communicate plans and voting intentions.

Sources say the agreement would also see the two parties collaborate on parliamentary committees, as well as some pieces of legislation, but does not involve the NDP joining cabinet.

There were mixed thoughts on this decision, and comments that I read on Twitter, and heard from community members brought an interesting thought to mind. Naturally, I decided to go down the rabbit hole and take a look at the origin of this new agreement. The opposition worked alongside the Liberals, who would have ever thought this would happen.

I have to admit, there is a little sarcasm in the last point I just made.

Readers, it is imperative that you take the time to become media literate; understand the complexities and the psychology of the media. When you turn on the news, they report news, usually scripts that are provided for them. What they don’t do is present information that will allow you to make connections, and draw conclusions, regardless of what that conclusion is.

Thinking critically often involves mapping out data and making it visual. When thinking critically, you analyse and weigh the data, information, and sources you have to support taking action. Doing so allows you to draw conclusions, and a good conclusion is based on sorting through the data, getting criticism from others, and drawing it out/depicting it in a way that others can understand. It is no longer a safe bet to just listen to the news. Even the most respected news stations can mislead you, whether they do it purposely or not.

For example, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), admitted to spreading disinformation on the Freedom Convoy. The network confessed in a statement that it shared incorrect information about the source of the donations to the protesters, and this isn’t the first time CBC has been caught disseminating false information.

Let’s go back to our leaders’ budding relationship.

In the 2019 election, the Trudeau Liberal Party secured 157 of the 338 seats in the Canadian Parliament, missing out on an outright majority. The Conservative Party emerged the second largest party with 121 seats, however, Bloc Quebecois (32 seats) and Singh’s New Democratic Party (24 seats) both showed willingness to ally with the Liberals. This looks like a healthy start to the Trudeau, Singh relationship.

Singh’s personal popularity failed to translate into seats in parliament as his party secured 24 seats, down 20 seats from its 2015 tally. However, the Liberals’ predicament puts Singh’s party in a strong negotiating position.

“Everything is on the table,” Jagmeet Singh, told reporters following the 2019 election results. “I’m hoping that Mr Trudeau respects the fact that there’s a minority government now, which means we’ve got to work together.”

Hmmmm!

I couldn’t stop there, I decided to dig a little deeper, and you know what they say, if you are looking for something, you are probably going to find it.

I came upon a website called Beyond the Narrative (https://www.beyondthenarrative.ca/canadian-federal-politician-members-of-the-world-economic-forum/). The initial intent of this page was to identify elected members of Canadian governments that were also members/participants in the World Economic Forum. They have continued their research, and more important connections have been found that I believe are important to include understanding the reach and connections of the WEF within Canada.

Let’s start with Federal Government Leadership: first name on the list. Our very own Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (https://www.weforum.org/people/justin-trudeau). The small write up on Justin Trudeau shares that he is Canada’s 23^rd Prime Minister. According to the World Economic Forum, Justin’s vision of Canada is a country where everyone has a real and fair chance to succeed. His experiences as a teacher, father, leader, and advocate for youth have shaped his dedication to Canadians – and his commitment to make Canada a place where everyone has the opportunities they need to thrive.

Guess who was next?

Aww! Of course it is NDP leader Jagmeet Singh (https://www.weforum.org/people/jagmeet-singh). The state that as Leader of Canada’s NDP, Jagmeet believes that how we pay for and deliver services to Canadians must work for everyone.

I also found Chrystia Freeland our current Deputy Prime Minister (https://www.weforum.org/press/2019/01/world-economic-forum-announces-new-trustees/) who has joined the Board of Trustees, which is the highest-level governance body of the World Economic Forum, the recognized International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation.

Another name that popped up was Maxime Bernier. They state in their post that they could not find evidence of his membership in the WEF, but that he did, in fact, attend a WEF Annual Meeting in 2008. Apparently some supporters of Bernier were upset that he was included on the page despite this clear involvement with the organization, and felt the information was “misleading.”

Premier Doug Ford, and Mayor John Tory were also named, but when I clicked on the link, nothing came up.

Organizations listed include: University of Toronto, TD Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan, Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board, Deloitte, and Astra Zeneca.

Surprisingly, there were no officials reported from: Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, or Prince Edward Island.

When some of Canada’s tops elected officials are deeply involved with global governance leaders and organizations, it raises very serious questions about conflicts of interest and it questions where their loyalties lie. What does this mean for the future of Canada?  What is certain, is that the long dismissed notion of a New World Order being nothing more than a crazy conspiracy theory, may not be that crazy.

Pay attention, think critically, and gather the information needed before you cast your ballot in 2023.