Seems like another fundraiser and voter database for the CPC, like the Convoy provided. Grifting like Republicans.
Most intriguing is your digging into larger behind the scenes organizers like the Kennedy Jr foundation.
Ever think this nutbar world is being fomented by Big Oil to resist/delay decarbonization (target Trudeau, Biden)? It's all so similar to Big Tobacco's playbook vs anti-smoking legislation.
I would be happy to have every politician's connections to the WEF and whatsisname Schwab, on the record. Along with any connections to any foreign government support, not just China. Make "WEF" and "Schwab" part of the list, fine.
While we're at it, why not their connections to major industries, their investments? Might have saved us from a minister sabotaging cheaper pharma.
It was asked in the House if Commons, shut down by the Speaker and never revisited by the Conservatives. Makes me think that the conservative MP wasn’t supposed to ask the question in the first place. Seems like all parties are keeping it hush-hush.
This is important work. I just posted links to my followers on both FaceBook and Mastodon. The out-and-out bullshit coming out of that loathsome Pierre Poilievre needs to be counter-acted. I thought I'd never be even more disgusted with a Conservative than the Prime-Minister-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named, but low and behold---.
Excellent work like always Justin!! Thank you. Just a note, why am I not able to upgrade my subscription? I'm getting a sever not found message when I click “upgrade to paid”
I checked their online support and followed the steps, still was not able to do it, it won't open your publication page, neither from Safari on my phone nor Chrom on my laptop. I've created a support ticket and sent them a screenshot. I'll let you know what they will say.
I understand your revulsion of Ms. Anderson's views. That some Canadian groups were part of the sponsorship of her tour doesn't mean she endorses every crazy idea or every one of the wingnuts that are members. That's guilt by association. She has enough on her own record. I think that the voters or the CPC should deal with the three lunchers and it is fine that it was reported. But it is a nothingburger, perhaps to redirect from the CCP meddling?
On Refugees (I think she was talking about immigrants). I believe it is fair to expect a clear plan for immigration that balances our needs with our capacity to support new entrants. To read into what she said as
On Transgender people: Again, you read into what she said (in your quote) that she hates trans people. Confirmation Bias? Possibly based on other of her statements, but not this one.
On red pilling the masses. Have you ever listened to any politician asked any direct question? Catherine McKenna bragged about snowing the public. Her advice reads to me that "all you can do is give people the facts (or what you want to believe are the facts) and let them decide. If they are open you may have a discussion otherwise, there is no point in continuing the argument. What you call hiding your true intentions and stringing people along I call Politics 101.
On Climate change -- ok she's just nuts, but she can still say and believe whatever she wants.
Perhaps if instead of the world's top 1% dramatically increasing their wealth during Covid which overwhelmingly had a more deleterious effect on the less well-off and who have profited mightily from exploiting relatively low cost energy, the pain and gains were more equitable, conspiracy theories wouldn't spread so easily. It is ridiculous to say that the Davos set don't have more influence in lawmaking than the rest of us.
On Vaccines
Well, we were told it would protect 88-90% in preventing infections, then the story did change to fewer hospitalizations and deaths. OK, we were learning but when the expectation was set that it would prevent infection and didn't, people decided not to believe anything the authorities said. And our government did use coercion, ridicule and ostracism.
On democracy.
I fear we are becoming less democratic. I look at the internet bills, the EA, the lack of disclosure on SNC, We, the Chinese scientists in Winnipeg, the uselessness of the ATIA, the ruling on most matters by PMO and the diminution of the role of our MPs.
Her criticism of the pharmaceutical companies should be that they took publicly funded mrna breakthroughs and were paid by among other the US government billions to develop a vaccine and were guaranteed purchases with great profit margin and with accelerated trials and now have the balls to inflate their prices while preventing others from producing the vaccine.
You state:
Bull. Shit.
If there’s one thing I can’t stand in politics, is disingenuousness. If you believe something, say it. Do not treat the public as idiots to be tricked and prodded into supporting you. Don’t play dumb.
So we have Ahmed Hussen Laith Marouf affair, Marco Mendicino, who insisted that law enforcement requested enactment of the Emergencies Act, Bill Blair and Brenda Lucki who assured Canadians that there was no interference into an RCMP investigation, Harjitt Sajan denies info on the sex scandal at DND. And Trudeau, well, where to begin?
Anyway, I think we've both spent much too long on this Anderson shitbird but I think you should get back to important issues and shine a light on our domestic idiots :)
Well I went looking for the immigration issue and all I can see is 2 paragraphs under the heading "refugees". First, absolutely for myself and hopefully increasingly for others, the immigration issue is split off separately and has no relation to so-called "social conservatism". So for me personally I am pro-vaccine mandates, pro-masks, pro-gender equality, pro-choice on abortion, pro-globalization on WEF, etc. The problem is with the immigration -- there just isn't anything there that is cause for condemnation.
First, specialists in immigration always split out refugees separately from regular immigration (this actually dates back in Canada to the original Singh decision). We prefer to solve problems at the source country level, through intervention, rather than having the refugee migration (e.g. Obama should have intervened in Syria). Merkel's decision was a serious mistake, and what led to the creation of the AfD in the first place. The CURRENT position of the EU is not that different from what you have Anderson saying above: see from just 2 days ago: "EU States Call For Stronger Borders, Migrant Return Deals", EURACTIV.com, with AFP, February 25, 2023: "The overall tone on migration has hardened in Europe since 2015-2016, when it took in over a million asylum-seekers, most of them Syrians fleeing the war in their country"; see also "Italy Approves Clampdown on Migrant Rescue Ships, Fines Charity", EURACTIV.com with Reuters, Feb 23, 2023.
As for Islam and Islamophobia, I believe the remarks she was quoted on referred to gender equality issues. IF this was being used as a pretext for supporting some sort of "Christianity" ("our religion is the true religion"), then fine, we can call that out (see, eg. Hungary and Orban referring to "Christianity" as an excuse). But much of these comments, such as hers, about Islam and some of their cultural behavior, can be approached from the perspective of the withering-away and decline of ALL religion and a more rationalist and analytical approach to culture, combined with the more modern gender-equality trend, that I support. See, for example, the welcome news from the last 2 weeks: "Sixty-four Percent Say Abortion Should Be Legal in All or Most Cases: Poll", The Hill, February 24, 2023; "Americans’ Dissatisfaction With US Abortion Policies Hits All-Time High -- Public Sentiment Largely Supported Increased Access To Abortion", The Hill, February 10, 2023.
“Pro-globalization on WEF”. It is good to hear that people are aware of their plans and are in agreement as opposed to the assumption that most people do not know about it; that it is some nefarious organization and people “need to be educated as to why it is bad.” Too many time people try to force their value systems on others, where it is not welcome.
There are all sorts of assertions that are unsupported. Given the name of the Substack (i.e. shameless) its obvious this isn't impartial journalism (if that even still exists today) its an opinion column. Which is fine, as long as the reader is aware of what they are buying.
I think my readers are clever enough to know when I'm expressing an opinion and when I'm laying out factual information — which, by the way, I make pretty easy to double-check and verify. So sorry to not meet your standards.
No. I was asking for a specific example that I could check, not a general statement mentioned again. Again, can you give me a specific example where Ling is telling a fib?
I just saw on Twitter that Anderson was hosted in Calgary by the Petroleum Club. And Tamara Lich was there, of course.
Lich is a protege of Jay Hill, former MP (Reform-CPC-Maverick). He's a Western separatist, veteran conservative politician who trained Lich, a fitness instructor from Medicine Hat, political neophyte. She wears pro-oil&gas tshirts -- nothing subtle about her oilpatch cred. Hill's wife has been a lobbyist for Petroleum Assoc for years.
Since the Comvoy, this German politician has been slamming Trudeau, mocking Build Back Better, policies, WEF, etc.
Is she another tool of Big Oil to fight decarbonization?
If people distrust science of vaccines, then they likely also distrust science of climate change.
Is this a purpose built disinformation strategy by oligarchs and Conservatives to "protect" AB oilpatch?
Justin...I await your article with anticipation. And I appreciate the response! And honestly I hope you are 100% correct...as the majority of my friends and family have taken the mRNA jabs...if I’m honest most with no ill affects...similarly I know of only one person in my circle who died in hospital with (or of?) Covid. The problem for me was all the ridiculous bribery and coercion and illogical behaviour surrounding the rollout of the vaccines...set my spidey senses tingling!! However, I’m open to the possibility that I’m in an echo chamber of grifters/liars/charlatans OR just sincere but misguided people.
Like you said, I’m sure it’s the case that we would agree on many things...but i don’t think you’ll find many of us ‘misogynist racist far right anti-vaxxers”-HT Justin Trudeau- who will ever be on board with mandatory medical treatment...too much for me thanks.
No need to answer this now...your thoughts on reduced birth rates...fake news? Or just consequences of lockdowns? Or?
Justin. Honest question. How can we ever come together as a society and humanity when the rift is so deep? Personally I will never take this vax. I basically agree with just about everything christine says. I cannot imagine how people like yourself and others who think what happened the last three years is a reasonable way to live and behave. The fact that I was prohibited from any kind of normal life unless I took an injection,(experimental or not) and almost everyone just went along with it is staggering to me. And yet you write with the absolute identical conviction of the rightness of your views as we do of ours. Fascinating conundrum for these ‘interesting times’.
I really appreciate the question, and appreciate you reading. Sorry for the delay in replying — I'm actually on deadline right now, penning a report that's trying to answer that very question. But let me try and offer a few disjointed thoughts:
With the benefit of hindsight, we imposed too many restrictions on unvaccinated people. The science, as of early 2021, told us that unvaccinated people were not just risking their own health, but increasingly the likelihood of transmission to others. The, frankly, coercive nature of the policies the state enacted and we (the media and the public) broadly supported were justified by the science. It's the same principle as to why many places either require, or *very* stringently encourage, vaccines for students. That science changed when the Omicron variant came around. The case for mandatory vaccination remained strong for individuals' personal health but got substantially weaker in a broader community sense. We (the state, the media) should have been more direct about that. But sometimes you only really know what you knew after the fact, y'know?
All that being said, I know you disagree with the premises underlying all of that. You don't trust the science that says vaccines are safe. You don't trust the results of the investigations that have found that zero (or very, very, very close to zero) people died from the mRNA vaccines. On that front, I suspect we'll be at an impasse. I'll send you meta-analysises and thr results of major population-wide studies that back up what I'm saying, and you'll send me selective reviews and studies that, you'll argue, refute them.
I don't take these points on matters of faith, I believe them because I've seen the evidence, and people much smarter than me have backed up those points.
But, I suspect you feel the exact same way. And maybe that's fine. I suspect if we talked about anything else, we'd find ourselves agreeing on plenty of points. Whereas questions around the vaccine have become calcified, I think most of us remain open and curious about many, many other topics.
So how do we move past this? I think we have to put the pandemic behind us and focus on what's happening now. There will be a time to litigate the successes and mistakes of the pandemic, and hopefully we can all have confidence in wherever that lands. Otherwise, I think we need to find some places for humility and agreement on other files.
Great piece of writing. Very informative. Thanks for writing it.
Great work.
Hilarious, scary, mostly sad.
Seems like another fundraiser and voter database for the CPC, like the Convoy provided. Grifting like Republicans.
Most intriguing is your digging into larger behind the scenes organizers like the Kennedy Jr foundation.
Ever think this nutbar world is being fomented by Big Oil to resist/delay decarbonization (target Trudeau, Biden)? It's all so similar to Big Tobacco's playbook vs anti-smoking legislation.
I would be happy to have every politician's connections to the WEF and whatsisname Schwab, on the record. Along with any connections to any foreign government support, not just China. Make "WEF" and "Schwab" part of the list, fine.
While we're at it, why not their connections to major industries, their investments? Might have saved us from a minister sabotaging cheaper pharma.
It was asked in the House if Commons, shut down by the Speaker and never revisited by the Conservatives. Makes me think that the conservative MP wasn’t supposed to ask the question in the first place. Seems like all parties are keeping it hush-hush.
This is important work. I just posted links to my followers on both FaceBook and Mastodon. The out-and-out bullshit coming out of that loathsome Pierre Poilievre needs to be counter-acted. I thought I'd never be even more disgusted with a Conservative than the Prime-Minister-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named, but low and behold---.
‘When they came for the National Socialists…’ I mean WTAF?
Thank you for this, Justin, and for all your work and writing about all of this insanity.
My election signs will read, “I am completely ignorant of world politics and think science is bunk! Vote for me!”
"That is a bold statement from a German far-right politician."" I beg your pardon, I put beverage through my nose...
Excellent work like always Justin!! Thank you. Just a note, why am I not able to upgrade my subscription? I'm getting a sever not found message when I click “upgrade to paid”
My *guess* is that it's a firewall or ad blocker on your end. But please shoot me an email and we'll figure it out!
I see. I'm not sure but ill try again. I've tried from the app it said the same thing. I'll try again.
If it keeps failing, please follow up in an email! I can get Substack's folks involved.
I checked their online support and followed the steps, still was not able to do it, it won't open your publication page, neither from Safari on my phone nor Chrom on my laptop. I've created a support ticket and sent them a screenshot. I'll let you know what they will say.
I don’t like this writer or his beliefs at all.
Me either!
Another self-loather? I haven't seen you at any of the meetings.....
He was wearing a ball cap and sunglasses. Anyone like that?
I understand your revulsion of Ms. Anderson's views. That some Canadian groups were part of the sponsorship of her tour doesn't mean she endorses every crazy idea or every one of the wingnuts that are members. That's guilt by association. She has enough on her own record. I think that the voters or the CPC should deal with the three lunchers and it is fine that it was reported. But it is a nothingburger, perhaps to redirect from the CCP meddling?
On Refugees (I think she was talking about immigrants). I believe it is fair to expect a clear plan for immigration that balances our needs with our capacity to support new entrants. To read into what she said as
On Transgender people: Again, you read into what she said (in your quote) that she hates trans people. Confirmation Bias? Possibly based on other of her statements, but not this one.
On red pilling the masses. Have you ever listened to any politician asked any direct question? Catherine McKenna bragged about snowing the public. Her advice reads to me that "all you can do is give people the facts (or what you want to believe are the facts) and let them decide. If they are open you may have a discussion otherwise, there is no point in continuing the argument. What you call hiding your true intentions and stringing people along I call Politics 101.
On Climate change -- ok she's just nuts, but she can still say and believe whatever she wants.
Perhaps if instead of the world's top 1% dramatically increasing their wealth during Covid which overwhelmingly had a more deleterious effect on the less well-off and who have profited mightily from exploiting relatively low cost energy, the pain and gains were more equitable, conspiracy theories wouldn't spread so easily. It is ridiculous to say that the Davos set don't have more influence in lawmaking than the rest of us.
On Vaccines
Well, we were told it would protect 88-90% in preventing infections, then the story did change to fewer hospitalizations and deaths. OK, we were learning but when the expectation was set that it would prevent infection and didn't, people decided not to believe anything the authorities said. And our government did use coercion, ridicule and ostracism.
On democracy.
I fear we are becoming less democratic. I look at the internet bills, the EA, the lack of disclosure on SNC, We, the Chinese scientists in Winnipeg, the uselessness of the ATIA, the ruling on most matters by PMO and the diminution of the role of our MPs.
Her criticism of the pharmaceutical companies should be that they took publicly funded mrna breakthroughs and were paid by among other the US government billions to develop a vaccine and were guaranteed purchases with great profit margin and with accelerated trials and now have the balls to inflate their prices while preventing others from producing the vaccine.
You state:
Bull. Shit.
If there’s one thing I can’t stand in politics, is disingenuousness. If you believe something, say it. Do not treat the public as idiots to be tricked and prodded into supporting you. Don’t play dumb.
So we have Ahmed Hussen Laith Marouf affair, Marco Mendicino, who insisted that law enforcement requested enactment of the Emergencies Act, Bill Blair and Brenda Lucki who assured Canadians that there was no interference into an RCMP investigation, Harjitt Sajan denies info on the sex scandal at DND. And Trudeau, well, where to begin?
Anyway, I think we've both spent much too long on this Anderson shitbird but I think you should get back to important issues and shine a light on our domestic idiots :)
Well I went looking for the immigration issue and all I can see is 2 paragraphs under the heading "refugees". First, absolutely for myself and hopefully increasingly for others, the immigration issue is split off separately and has no relation to so-called "social conservatism". So for me personally I am pro-vaccine mandates, pro-masks, pro-gender equality, pro-choice on abortion, pro-globalization on WEF, etc. The problem is with the immigration -- there just isn't anything there that is cause for condemnation.
First, specialists in immigration always split out refugees separately from regular immigration (this actually dates back in Canada to the original Singh decision). We prefer to solve problems at the source country level, through intervention, rather than having the refugee migration (e.g. Obama should have intervened in Syria). Merkel's decision was a serious mistake, and what led to the creation of the AfD in the first place. The CURRENT position of the EU is not that different from what you have Anderson saying above: see from just 2 days ago: "EU States Call For Stronger Borders, Migrant Return Deals", EURACTIV.com, with AFP, February 25, 2023: "The overall tone on migration has hardened in Europe since 2015-2016, when it took in over a million asylum-seekers, most of them Syrians fleeing the war in their country"; see also "Italy Approves Clampdown on Migrant Rescue Ships, Fines Charity", EURACTIV.com with Reuters, Feb 23, 2023.
As for Islam and Islamophobia, I believe the remarks she was quoted on referred to gender equality issues. IF this was being used as a pretext for supporting some sort of "Christianity" ("our religion is the true religion"), then fine, we can call that out (see, eg. Hungary and Orban referring to "Christianity" as an excuse). But much of these comments, such as hers, about Islam and some of their cultural behavior, can be approached from the perspective of the withering-away and decline of ALL religion and a more rationalist and analytical approach to culture, combined with the more modern gender-equality trend, that I support. See, for example, the welcome news from the last 2 weeks: "Sixty-four Percent Say Abortion Should Be Legal in All or Most Cases: Poll", The Hill, February 24, 2023; "Americans’ Dissatisfaction With US Abortion Policies Hits All-Time High -- Public Sentiment Largely Supported Increased Access To Abortion", The Hill, February 10, 2023.
“Pro-globalization on WEF”. It is good to hear that people are aware of their plans and are in agreement as opposed to the assumption that most people do not know about it; that it is some nefarious organization and people “need to be educated as to why it is bad.” Too many time people try to force their value systems on others, where it is not welcome.
Is this supposed to be objective journalism? Or are you simply an opinion writer?
Are you suggesting that the facts that Ling cites aren't true? If so, what's your evidence?
There are all sorts of assertions that are unsupported. Given the name of the Substack (i.e. shameless) its obvious this isn't impartial journalism (if that even still exists today) its an opinion column. Which is fine, as long as the reader is aware of what they are buying.
I think my readers are clever enough to know when I'm expressing an opinion and when I'm laying out factual information — which, by the way, I make pretty easy to double-check and verify. So sorry to not meet your standards.
No. I was asking for a specific example that I could check, not a general statement mentioned again. Again, can you give me a specific example where Ling is telling a fib?
I just saw on Twitter that Anderson was hosted in Calgary by the Petroleum Club. And Tamara Lich was there, of course.
Lich is a protege of Jay Hill, former MP (Reform-CPC-Maverick). He's a Western separatist, veteran conservative politician who trained Lich, a fitness instructor from Medicine Hat, political neophyte. She wears pro-oil&gas tshirts -- nothing subtle about her oilpatch cred. Hill's wife has been a lobbyist for Petroleum Assoc for years.
Since the Comvoy, this German politician has been slamming Trudeau, mocking Build Back Better, policies, WEF, etc.
Is she another tool of Big Oil to fight decarbonization?
If people distrust science of vaccines, then they likely also distrust science of climate change.
Is this a purpose built disinformation strategy by oligarchs and Conservatives to "protect" AB oilpatch?
Lots of Kennedy stuff here, if you haven't already come across it: https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/tag/robert-f-kennedy-jr/
Justin...I await your article with anticipation. And I appreciate the response! And honestly I hope you are 100% correct...as the majority of my friends and family have taken the mRNA jabs...if I’m honest most with no ill affects...similarly I know of only one person in my circle who died in hospital with (or of?) Covid. The problem for me was all the ridiculous bribery and coercion and illogical behaviour surrounding the rollout of the vaccines...set my spidey senses tingling!! However, I’m open to the possibility that I’m in an echo chamber of grifters/liars/charlatans OR just sincere but misguided people.
Like you said, I’m sure it’s the case that we would agree on many things...but i don’t think you’ll find many of us ‘misogynist racist far right anti-vaxxers”-HT Justin Trudeau- who will ever be on board with mandatory medical treatment...too much for me thanks.
No need to answer this now...your thoughts on reduced birth rates...fake news? Or just consequences of lockdowns? Or?
Justin. Honest question. How can we ever come together as a society and humanity when the rift is so deep? Personally I will never take this vax. I basically agree with just about everything christine says. I cannot imagine how people like yourself and others who think what happened the last three years is a reasonable way to live and behave. The fact that I was prohibited from any kind of normal life unless I took an injection,(experimental or not) and almost everyone just went along with it is staggering to me. And yet you write with the absolute identical conviction of the rightness of your views as we do of ours. Fascinating conundrum for these ‘interesting times’.
I really appreciate the question, and appreciate you reading. Sorry for the delay in replying — I'm actually on deadline right now, penning a report that's trying to answer that very question. But let me try and offer a few disjointed thoughts:
With the benefit of hindsight, we imposed too many restrictions on unvaccinated people. The science, as of early 2021, told us that unvaccinated people were not just risking their own health, but increasingly the likelihood of transmission to others. The, frankly, coercive nature of the policies the state enacted and we (the media and the public) broadly supported were justified by the science. It's the same principle as to why many places either require, or *very* stringently encourage, vaccines for students. That science changed when the Omicron variant came around. The case for mandatory vaccination remained strong for individuals' personal health but got substantially weaker in a broader community sense. We (the state, the media) should have been more direct about that. But sometimes you only really know what you knew after the fact, y'know?
All that being said, I know you disagree with the premises underlying all of that. You don't trust the science that says vaccines are safe. You don't trust the results of the investigations that have found that zero (or very, very, very close to zero) people died from the mRNA vaccines. On that front, I suspect we'll be at an impasse. I'll send you meta-analysises and thr results of major population-wide studies that back up what I'm saying, and you'll send me selective reviews and studies that, you'll argue, refute them.
I don't take these points on matters of faith, I believe them because I've seen the evidence, and people much smarter than me have backed up those points.
But, I suspect you feel the exact same way. And maybe that's fine. I suspect if we talked about anything else, we'd find ourselves agreeing on plenty of points. Whereas questions around the vaccine have become calcified, I think most of us remain open and curious about many, many other topics.
So how do we move past this? I think we have to put the pandemic behind us and focus on what's happening now. There will be a time to litigate the successes and mistakes of the pandemic, and hopefully we can all have confidence in wherever that lands. Otherwise, I think we need to find some places for humility and agreement on other files.
But I'd be curious to hear your thoughts.