To the Editor,
I just read an opinion piece by Charlie Angus, longtime MP for part of Northern Ontario in the Tyee, that was first printed in Today Policy Magazine. He was commenting on the results of an Abacus Data poll which he and I find disturbing.
According to the poll, 44 per cent of Canadians believe a secret group of elites is controlling elections, recessions, and wars. Observations of reality suggest a very public group of elites, including billionaires and corporations, strongly influences the policies of two of our major political parties and seems to influence the decision makers of his party. Their control of most of the private media biases how information is presented and what information is presented. Their organizational resources were demonstrated in the Freedom Convoy and many other events, as they work to undermine democracy. Their influence on government action is visible in the federal government failing to properly investigate the people and companies named in the Panama Papers, along with many other actions or inaction. The most recent is pushing ahead with Trans Mountain, even though it was known to be an economic loser several years ago and was confirmed as such by the parliamentary budget office.
The elite working to defend democracy are the public servants serving various elections bodies such as Elections Canada, doing their best to ensure all eligible Canadians are able to vote and regulating election related advertising.
The other disturbing question found 13 per cent of Canadians believe Bill Gates is using microchips in vaccines to control people and 21 per cent are unsure if he can or not. Dean Koontz wrote a series of suspense novels, including The Forbidden Door published in 2018, about a secret organization that developed a serum containing special nano molecules that could get control of the brains of people. It is pure fantasy. Microchips do nothing except read and transmit radio signals. Several corporations are using microchips implanted in their employees to give them access through doors, computers, and other devices, and to track their movements. For a microchip to be able to control someone, they would have to be wired into one or more places in the brain that researchers have not yet found, if such a place exists. The microchip would also have to be larger than could be administered through the fine needles used for vaccinations.
These results indicate that the people determined to undermine democracy are using what Facebook has learned about influencing people with their algorithms to use social media and their control over major parts of private media to influence and control people. A dramatic example is their control over many of the participants in the Freedom Convoy.
The last scary item in the poll was that 37 per cent of Canadians are inclined to believe the “white replacement theory” – the theory that the same elites have a program to replace white people with people of colour in North America and Europe. No program was needed. White people as the dominant race for the last 200 years because of their weapons and viciousness became the most wealthy. Middle and upper middle income people had a choice between children and lifestyle, and many chose lifestyle once birth control was readily available. If they are not having children, we need workers at all levels from somewhere else. No scheme was needed to create our current trend of becoming a very mixed population. And there is no harm in our increasing diversity.
People who care about democracy, about our equality as citizens, need to be aware of how conspiracies are being used to make people afraid of imaginary threats instead of working with others on the real threats of climate change, pollution, the widening wealth gap, and economic changes. We also need to learn how to connect with people caught by their belief in these conspiracies.
Jim Kenney
East Hawkesbury
